BookSense.com On the Move...

Posted Wednesday, Nov 9, 2005

Here is the latest news and an update on improvements to BookSense.com.

BookSense.com participants in the following regions can now add their respective Regional Holiday Catalogs to their store sites: the Midwest Booksellers Association; the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association; the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association; and the Southeast Booksellers Association.

New BookSense.com Features:

1. Changes in Store Administration. Two simple but helpful changes to store administration tools: The events are now listed from newest to oldest, rather than the other way around; and on the "Edit Book List" page BookSense.com participants can now search for books from the top as well as the bottom of the page. Both changes are the direct result of bookseller suggestions.

2. Special Order Language to Change. Also at the request of booksellers, BookSense.com is changing the inventory status from "Special Order" to "Special Order: Subject to Availability." This change should be in effect late this week or early next week.

3. New Search and New Templates. The BookSense.com tech team's major project for the next three months is a complete overhaul of the search engine. The new search will not only be faster and put less strain on the system, but will also use criteria such as sales data, book format, pub date, etc. to sort the order of search results. When this is implemented -- it's targeted for January -- BookSense.com participants will see much more relevant search results.
New Employees. James Hull is the new BookSense.com customer service coordinator. Hull is a recent graduate of SUNY Purchase. "Hull has been undergoing baptism by fire and has held up well under the barrage of new information and new tasks we've thrown his way," noted Len Vlahos, BookSense.com director. "We're delighted to have James aboard."

BookSense.com is also pleased to announce that AnnMarie Caruso joined its team earlier this year as a part-time Java Programmer. Caruso is pursuing a Masters degree in computer science at Pace University while she works part-time at BookSense.com.

System Health and Stability. BookSense.com continues to improve and fine-tune the overall speed, efficiency, and performance of its systems. BookSense.com has successfully upgraded its database and operating systems, and has also successfully upgraded its application server.

Ricky Leung, the BookSense.com tech lead, along with the tech staff -- David Brown (systems administrator), Geetha Krishnasammy (java programmmer), Caruso (java programmer), and the team at Objective Consulting Inc. -- are responsible for keeping BookSense.com humming.
BookSense.com Users Council. The BookSense.com Users Council (BUC) -- a group of volunteer booksellers -- met during the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Trade Show. The purpose of the BUC is to provide the BookSense.com staff with advice and feedback, to help set the future direction of the program. The five-hour discussion was both positive and productive, providing staff with excellent feedback. The BUC felt strongly that staff should be striving to make BookSense.com websites flexible enough to more accurately reflect the ethos of each individual brick and mortar store. The BUC also felt strongly that BookSense.com was spending its resources wisely by focusing development efforts on improving the search. The next BUC meeting will be scheduled for some time next spring.
HarperCollins Title for Online Sales Only! HarperCollins has announced the publication of a 42-page monograph by Jim Collins, author of the very successful business title Good to Great. At the author's request, the monograph, titled Good to Great and the Social Sectors, is to be made available only through online outlets. The title has been added to the BookSense.com database, and can be featured on users' sites in the same manner that they would feature any other content. The ISBN is 0977326403, the price is $11.95, and the on-sale date is November 15.

BookSense.com is asking that BookSense.com participants honor Mr. Collins' (and HarperCollins') request and sell the title through their websites only, and not physically in their stores. BookSense.com's wholesaler partners will have the title available to drop-ship to participants' customers, and HarperCollins will have the title available to order through its Golden Title supply chain management system, which ensures that all orders will be manually reviewed. The author is requesting that this title be sold only online as he sees it as a monograph and not a book, and as such, "would like to minimize confusion in the channel." If sales are successful through the online channel, Collins pledged to review options for selling through other channels.

Questions about this can be directed through your HarperCollins sales rep, or BookSense.com participants can write to Jeannette Zwart, vice president of field sales for HarperCollins.