BTW News Briefs

NECBA Publishes Kids’ Spring List & Reviews

The New England Children’s Booksellers Advisory Council has published its Interactive Spring Top Ten List, which is offered as a fully annotated widget with code to grab for any website, and Full Spring Reviews online.

NECBA chair Kenny Brechner of Devaney, Doak & Garrett Booksellers in Farmington, Maine, told BTW, “There is also a nifty new Spring Top Ten Poster.”

The NECBA lists, which are published bi-annually, identify new, high-quality middle-grade and young-adult fiction books.

BA Opposes Amazon Acquisition of U.K. Online Bookseller

The Booksellers Association of the United Kingdom and Ireland (BA) has announced that it will formally oppose Amazon.com’s plans to buy the U.K. online bookseller The Book Depository on the grounds that Amazon already has a “de facto monopoly,” reported The Bookseller. The merger is currently being investigated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). In the past, the OFT has referred bookselling mergers to the Competition Commission, which ultimately allowed them. The U.K.’s Publishers Association is also considering opposing the merger.

“We in the book trade need to be ever-mindful of the fact that high street retailers cannot survive as showrooms for Internet retailers indefinitely,” said BA CEO Tim Godfray. “We urge anyone with an interest in this matter to make their views known to the OFT.”

Philip Downer, former CEO of Borders U.K., said the deal was “a consolidation of power.” As reported by The Bookseller, he said: “The Book Depository has a global reach whereas Amazon operates in certain territories. Taking out the competition is a very strong reason to do it.”

SIBA Announces 2011 Book Award Winners

On July 4, the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance announced the winners of its 2011 SIBA Book Awards. 

2011 SIBA Award Winners:

• Children’s Winner: Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine (Puffin Books)
• Cooking Winner: Southern My Way: Simple Recipes, Fresh Flavors by Gena Knox (Gena Knox Media)
• Fiction Winner: Burning Bright by Ron Rash (Ecco Press)
• Nonfiction Winner:  The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family by Jim Minick (Thomas Dunne Books)
• Poetry Winner: A House of Branches by Janisse Ray (Wind Publications)
• Young Adult Winner: Countdown by Deborah Wiles (Scholastic)

Romance Writers of America Present RITA Awards

Last week’s Romance Writers of America annual conference featured the presentation of the RITA® Awards for best romance of 2010 in 12 categories and the Golden Heart® Awards for best manuscript.

The list of this year’s RITA winners includes:

• Regency Historical Romance: The Mischief of the Mistletoe, by Lauren Willig (Dutton)
• Historical Romance: His at Night, by Sherry Thomas (Bantam)
• Inspirational Romance: In Harm’s Way, by Irene Hannon (Baker Publishing, Revell)
• Contemporary Single Title Romance: Simply Irresistible, by Jill Shalvis (Forever: Grand Central)

The full list of RITA and Golden Heart winners is available at rwa.org.