Announcing Plans for a 'Best Reading Group Books of All Time' 76
By Carl Lennertz
One of the many ideas and suggestions that came out of BookExpo America, now that the 76 is well-established as a marketing tool for mostly new books, is to extend its reach to backlist, and to do so first by creating a "Best Reading Group Books of All Time 76."
We agree! Doing more for all backlist, and for reading groups, has been on our wish list since day one, but we had to get this little thing off the ground with the publicity and sales impact of new books first. Now, we think we can create some great resources for you and get some publicity by getting more into backlist. We’ve tried to work some in, especially in the form of some rediscoveries, but now we can really branch out big time.
Reading groups, as you know, are still a major factor, and a Best Reading Group Books of All Time 76 sure sounds like a useful, fun, and even controversial undertaking! Even better, it’ll be easier for you to do than the regular 76. Yes, you can essentially vote for the best ones, and not send in a blurb. After the Reading Group 76 is chosen, I’ll issue a call for blurbs. A different tack, and, no, I’m not going to change the regular 76 process, but backlist selecting is much more conducive to a voting process.
A ballot, you say? No, we'd rather not pre-select in any way. We think that if you and your fellow booksellers -- and especially your reading group coordinator, if you have one -- should just send me your list of your 15 favorite reading group sure bets of all-time -- not ranked, just listed -- we'll tally the votes and see what we get. And the category split is up to you -- fiction versus nonfiction. Your call.
Deadline: by July 1. And we hope to have this printed and to you by the fall, and it obviously has a good, long shelf life… like a few years at least, if not longer! And… once the vote is tallied and the 76 flier produced, we’ll have reading group guides for all 76 available for your easy access at BookSense.com!
Thank you.
Carl
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