MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
February 26 – March 5, 2009 Edition
ABA to Launch
Indies Choice
Book Awards TARRYTOWN, NY/Authorlink News/02/19/09– This spring, the American Booksellers Association will launch a new awards program — the Indies Choice Book Awards. Winners will be selected by indie booksellers in seven categories highlighting the type of books that indie booksellers champion best. The Indies Choice Book Awards, which supersede the Book Sense Book of the Year Awards, reflect the spirit of ABA member booksellers in the IndieBound movement and their dedication to handselling unique, thought-provoking, engaging fiction and nonfiction, children’s and YA titles. Finalists, to be selected by an all-bookseller jury, will be put to a vote by ABA member booksellers in the coming weeks.
The categories for this year’s inaugural Indies Choice Book Awards are Best Indie Buzz Book (fiction), Best Conversation Starter (nonfiction), Best Author Discovery (debut), Best Read-Aloud Book, Best YA Buzz Book, Most Engaging Author, and the Read-Aloud Hall of Fame. Finalists in the first five categories will selected by an all-bookseller jury from titles appearing on the 2008 Indie Next Lists, which launched last July, and on the Book Sense Picks Lists from the first half of the year. Finalists for the Most Engaging Author Award will be chosen from among authors who are not only engaging at in-store appearances, but who also have a strong sense ofthe importance of independent booksellers to their communities at large. There is no restriction on publication date for nominees for induction into the Read-Aloud Hall of Fame, which will recognize up to three great backlist titles this year.
Jury members selecting the 2009 finalists to be presented to all ABA member booksellers for a vote in the coming weeks are Carla Jimenez of Inkwood Books in Tampa, Florida; Mitch Kaplan of South Florida and the Cayman Island’s Books & Books; Arsen Kashkashian of Colorado’s Boulder Book Store; Valerie Koehler of Houston’s Blue Willow Bookshop; Collette Morgan of Minneapolis’ Wild Rumpus; and Matt Norcross of McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petosky, Michigan. The jury is chaired by ABA Board member Cathy Langer of Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, Colorado.
The 2009 Indies Choice Book Award winners will be honored in May at BookExpo America. An announcement of the finalists will be made in the coming weeks. All booksellers at ABA member stores will be eligible to vote.
The American Booksellers Association, founded in 1900, is a not-for-profit trade organization devoted to meeting the needs of its core members — independently owned bookstores with storefront locations — through education, information dissemination, business products and services, and advocacy. ABA exists to protect and promote the interests of independent retail book businesses, as well as to protect the First Amendment rights of every American. The association actively supports free speech, literacy, and programs that support local and independent retail shops. A board of nine booksellers, representing thousands of members, governs the Association. ABA is headquartered in Tarrytown, New York.
