Marketing

Displays and party kits for the BACARDI Mixers & Book Sense Book Club Sweepstakes, which runs from July 14 - September 30, are still available. Participating Book Sense bookstores that would like to receive additional kits and stores wishing to join the promotion should send requests to Jill Perlstein, ABA director of marketing, at jill@bookweb.org.

August may hold the slow-moving, humidity-filled "dog days" of summer, but the August white box offers fast-paced reading along with some great point-of-purchase sales aids guaranteed to step-up the pace in preparation for all of those new fall titles. Here are some of the highlights. Galleys, ARCs, and finished books:

Booksellers should make note and inform staff that Coca-Cola, The New York Times, General Mills, and Bausch & Lomb Book Cash checks are still in circulation. The Book Cash promotion, a nationwide program coordinated by the Properties Group, is driving traffic into stores and raising national awareness of Book Sense. There are three Coca-Cola Book Cash certificates:

Here, Laura Hansen, owner/manager of Bookin' It in Little Falls, Minnesota, muses on her bookstore's Good Living Cookbook Club, which started five years ago. As Hansen goes on to describe, the club is more than a book club -- it's a mix of good cook books, good friends, great food, with a dash of wine and rhubarb muffins thrown in for good taste.

The number of national and local magazines, newspapers, industry publications, and Web sites featuring Book Sense Bestseller Lists continues to grow each month. Regional Book Sense Bestseller lists recently began appearing in three more newspapers. The New England Bestseller list is now featured in Brunswick, Maine's The Times Record and Nantucket, Massachusetts' Nantucket Independent. And the Southeast Book Sense Bestseller List is being carried by the Seven Lakes Times in Moore County, North Carolina.

Booksellers participating in the Book Sense Make Some Magic With Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix sweepstakes display contest must send photos by Thursday, July 31, to be eligible to win a $2,000 credit from Scholastic, Inc.

Bacardi Mixers Book Club displays and party kits are still available. Participating Book Sense bookstores that would like to receive additional kits and stores wishing to join the promotion should send requests to Jill Perlstein, ABA director of marketing, at jill@bookweb.org. Materials supplied by Bacardi include a point-of-sale entry box with tear-pads, a poster, and a BACARDI Mixers Book Club party kit, which can be used for individual store events and includes glasses, coasters, drink charms, free BACARDI Mixers, and more.

Public radio listeners are among the heaviest book buyers (according to a recent analysis by Mediamark Research), so when notable public radio personality Susan Stamberg hosts a segment devoted to bookseller picks for summer reading, stores can expect a significant response. Stamberg, who serves as a National Public Radio (NPR) special correspondent, periodically devotes segments on news programs to brief interviews with independent booksellers around the country.

The July white box lands on your doorsteps with the crackle and boom of Independen(ts) Day fireworks -- a dazzling and colorful array of offerings from Book Sense Publisher Partners including: Galleys, ARC's, and Finished Books

The two-page downloadable PDF file of Book Sense 76 shelf-talkers available at www.bookweb.org/read/2833 has been updated to include shelf-talkers for six of the top ten titles on the July/August Book Sense 76. The PDF file also includes two blank shelf-talkers that booksellers can use for their own quotes or for quotes clipped straight from the Book Sense 76.