State by State Contest Deadline Extended

HarperCollins has extended the deadline for booksellers and librarians who wish to submit entries for regional versions of Ecco's State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America (edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey). The new deadline is March 1.

Carl Lennertz, HarperCollins' vice president of independent retailing, encourages booksellers to send essays of around 2,500 words about any state or parts of larger states. Submissions must be in Word format sent via e-mail only. Harper will pick the best essays and publish all-bookseller/librarian regional versions in paperback. A percentage of the proceeds from sales of the books will be donated to the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE).

As booksellers will see in State by State, "some authors once lived in the state they wrote about, or do now, but some were sent to the state for a first, fresh look," explained Lennertz. "I don't think you have time for the latter, but really, anything goes." He stressed, however, "these are not about bookstore life; you're Jane or John Citizen on this, but of course, working in the book life as part of the piece would be more than fine."