BTW News Briefs

NECBA Spring Galley Review Project Online

The New England Children's Booksellers' Advisory Council (NECBA) has announced that its 2009 Spring Review Project is now online. NECBA Chair Kenny Brechner of Devaney, Doak & Garrett Booksellers (DDG Booksellers) noted that "new for this year NECBA'S Spring Top Ten List is now an interactive web page." The images link to the book on Indiebound.org, which gives consumers the choice of ordering online from an independent bookstore, finding a bricks-and-mortar store near them, and adding the title to their wish lists.

The full Spring Galley Review Project is available online in PDF form.

Carol Seajay Named New NCIBA Administrator

Hut Landon, executive director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, this week announced that Carol Seajay has been hired as the next NCIBA administrator. She will replace Joyce Ripp.

A former bookseller (Old Wives Tales Bookshop), Seajay is also known to many in the book industry as the publisher for more than 20 years of Feminist Bookstore News and for her Books to Watch Out For online newsletter.

Seajay, who is currently being trained by Ripp, will begin working part-time on a regular basis for NCIBA the week of July 27.

Magic Tree Bookstore Pairs With Library to Create YA Cafe

Oak Park, Illinois' Magic Tree Bookstore has joined with the Oak Park Public Library to create The YA Caf, a pairing of young adult authors with live rock bands in a series of concerts that fuse fiction and music.

Stephanie Kuehnert

The YA Cafe will premiere on Saturday, July 25, with author James Kennedy (The Order of Odd-Fish, Delacorte Books for Young Readers) and the local band Brilliant Pebbles. Also on tap, in August, are author, feminist music journalist, and bass player Jessica Hopper (The Girls' Guide to Rocking: How to Start a Band, Book Gigs, and Get Rolling to Rock Stardom, Workman), who will also bring her band to perform, and Forest Park author Stephanie Kuehnert, whose new book, Ballads of Suburbia (MTV Books), features the local area and a heroine from Oak Park.

The programs, which are free, will be held at the library.

S&S to Handle Kaplan Sales Worldwide

This week, Simon & Schuster and Kaplan Publishing announced that S&S will handle worldwide sales for all lines of books published by Kaplan, effective immediately.

S&S has been the distributor of Kaplan trade and test prep titles since January 2007; however, the new agreement expands the relationship to include the sales arm of S&S's Sales and Distribution Division. The companies said that they were expanding their relationship "to further raise the visibility of Kaplan's growing line of test preparation, trade, and professional titles."