News - Vendors

The ABA/Book Sense Lounge, Room 1E 07-08 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, will offer a respite from the BookExpo America show floor for weary booksellers. In addition to being a place where they can kick back, relax, and check e-mail, the lounge will offer booksellers information about ABA/Book Sense products and services and a place to meet with ABA staff and with representatives of ABA's affinity programs. A welcome addition to the light refreshments offered in the lounge this year will be select teas from Republic of Tea.

The approximately 1,000 ABA member booksellers staying at the Park Central Times Square Hotel, the "Hotel ABA -- New York City," will enjoy a host of complimentary benefits that have been designed to make their BookExpo America experience easier and more enjoyable.

Beginning with the June Red and White boxes, all Book Sense mailings are being outsourced to Transport Specialties International, Inc. (TSI), a dedicated mailing house in New Jersey. Book Sense Publisher Partners that plan to include materials in either of the June mailings should not ship them to ABA's Tarrytown address. All materials for June and for subsequent mailings should be shipped to: Transport Specialties International, Inc. 9 Joanna Court East Brunswick, New Jersey 08816-2108

MPBA Announces Regional Book Award Winners The Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association (MPBA) recently announced its 2005 Regional Book Award Winners. The purpose of the Regional Book Awards is to honor outstanding books that are set in the MPBA region, which includes Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Texas, Montana, Kansas, Arizona, Nebraska, and South Dakota. The winners were:

On January 13, Scholastic, Inc., the publisher of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, posted on its Web site for retailers and distributors www.scholastic.com/custsupport/booksellers/harrypotter.htm, the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Agreement, which all retailers must sign and return by April 1 to qualify for pre-publication delivery. Scholastic also announced that the order deadline for delivery of the title before the July 16 on-sale date is May 6.

On January 10, Holtzbrinck Publishers trade book companies announced that beginning in November 2005 all trade book shipments from its Gordonsville, Virginia, VHPS warehouse will be shipped free freight. "Our customers have been asking for this, and our volume has reached a point where it is now possible to make this change," said Alison Lazarus, president, sales division, for Holtzbrinck. "We believe it will help us remain competitive and allow us to have more consistent marketplace distribution for our titles."

To help booksellers make the most of the July 16, 2005, publication of J.K.

When Brian Sweet of Trail's End Bookstore in Winthrop, Washington, wanted to refresh his store's offering of greeting cards, he took his quest for new suppliers to the newly redesigned Idea Exchange on the ABA Web site, www.BookWeb.org.

In the 19 months since Rubin Venture Consulting rolled out its online software product, Above the Treeline -- a tool meant to help bookstores improve finances by controlling inventory costs and increasing staffing efficiency -- the number of bookstores using the software has grown from four to over 50.