Speak Up! Now's the Time to Nominate Your Favorite Titles for the Book Sense Book of the Year

Resolve to start the New Year right by nominating the books you most enjoyed handselling and recommending to your customers in 2002 for the Book Sense Book of the Year Awards (BSBY). The 2003 BSBY Nomination Ballot is now available to all ABA member bookstores. (Stores do not have to be Book Sense participating stores to nominate titles.)

Booksellers will be nominating titles in the categories of Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Children's Literature, Illustrated Children's, Rediscovery, and -- new this year -- Paperback Book of the Year. The Paperback category is open to both fiction and nonfiction titles and is designed to focus attention on a particularly strong category for independent booksellers, and to honor some titles that were not among the finalists last year.

The nomination ballot includes titles that have been drawn from the top Book Sense 76 picks of 2002. In addition, stores can nominate write-in titles in each category. Only books published in the preceding year are eligible -- except in the case of the Rediscovery category, where all children’s and adult books are eligible. Previous finalists for the BSBY Award and the American Booksellers Book of the Year Award are not eligible.

Every current ABA-member bookstore is entitled to nominate five books in each category. The nomination period extends from January 9, 2003, to February 13, 2003. Booksellers can nominate titles online or download the nomination ballot to mail or to fax back to ABA by clicking here.

A nomination form is also being distributed in the January white box (sent to Book Sense stores only). Nomination forms returned via mail must be postmarked no later than February 7. The deadline for online ballots and for voting via fax is February 13.

The top five vote-getters in each category will be announced by March 20, 2003. All current ABA member bookstores will then have the opportunity to vote on these short lists for the winning titles. Publishers will be notified by ABA of the short lists.

The winning titles in each category will be announced at the Celebration of Bookselling at this year's BookExpo America on Friday, May 30. The remaining four finalists in each category will be awarded the title of Book Sense Honor Book. Nominated authors and illustrators will be invited to attend the Award ceremonies and the 76 Lunch, also to be held on Friday, May 30, at BEA.