Shelf Awareness

Last updated

Shelf Awareness
EditorJohn Mutter
Categories Book reviews, trade publications
FrequencyDaily/Twice weekly
PublisherJenn Risko
First issue2005
CompanyShelf Awareness
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Website

Shelf Awareness is an American publishing company that produces two electronic publications/newsletters focused on bookselling, books and book reviews.

Contents

Overview

With offices in Seattle, Washington, and Montclair, New Jersey, Shelf Awareness publishes an e-newsletter for the book industry and an e-newsletter for general readers.

Shelf Awareness Pro is a daily trade magazine for booksellers, publishers, librarians, and literary agents with a circulation of 39,000. [1] Shelf Awareness for Readers is a twice-weekly (Tuesdays and Fridays) book review publication for consumers with a circulation of 399,000. [2] Approximately 130 independent bookstores send out a version of Shelf Awareness for Readers to their customers. [3]

History

The company was founded by editor/journalist John Mutter (editor-in-chief) [4] and Jenn Risko (publisher) [5] in 2005 to produce a trade magazine for booksellers. [6]

The circulation of Shelf Awareness Pro (also called Shelf Awareness for the Book Trade) is more than 39,000 [1] industry professionals and is considered an essential trade publication for booksellers, publishers, librarians, and literary agents. [7] [8] The publication reports on independent bookstores, including openings, expansions, moves, staffing and closures; bookselling; publishing industry news, such as new titles, staffing, imprints, etc.; e-books and e-publication; authors; awards; media coverage of books and authors; and other features. [9] Shelf Awareness Pro is often cited and/or sourced by other publications covering books and bookselling. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

In 2011, Shelf Awareness launched a consumer book review version called Shelf Awareness for Readers. [16] [17] The company hired Marilyn Dahl as the review editor [18] and Jennifer Brown as the children's literature editor. [19] The consumer version, called Shelf Awareness for Readers (also known as Shelf Awareness: Enlightenment for Readers), has an approximate circulation of 399,000 readers. [2] Key features include book reviews, author interviews, contests, and book-related news.

A version of Shelf Awareness for Readers is also sent out by approximately 130 independent bookstores to their customers. [3] The "Bookstore Edition" includes the bookstore's events and the ability for readers to buy books reviewed directly from the store, as well as the bookstore's logo and other branding.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barnes & Noble</span> American bookseller and retailer

Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U.S. states.

The American Booksellers Association (ABA) is a non-profit trade association founded in 1900 that promotes independent bookstores in the United States. ABA's core members are key participants in their communities' local economy and culture, and to assist them ABA creates relevant programs; provides education, information, business products, and services; and engages in public policy and industry advocacy. The Association actively supports and defends free speech and the First Amendment rights of all Americans, without contradiction of equity and inclusion, through the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. A volunteer board of 10 booksellers governs the Association. ABA is headquartered in White Plains, New York.

<i>Publishers Weekly</i> American weekly trade news magazine

Publishers Weekly (PW) is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of Book Publishing and Bookselling". With 51 issues a year, the emphasis today is on book reviews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bookselling</span> Business of selling and dealing with books

Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of libraries in c.300 BC stimulated the energies of the Athenian booksellers.

<i>Books+Publishing</i> Australian trade magazine

Books+Publishing is a news outlet reporting on the Australian book industry. Published as a website with daily newsletters and a print magazine, the outlet produces industry news about publishing, bookselling, libraries, rights sales, literary awards and literary festivals, as well as author interviews and pre-publication reviews of Australian and New Zealand books.

Bookish.com is a content discovery and ecommerce website, which launched in February 2013, devoted to books. The site allows users to browse an extensive database of books and authors, add books to user-created digital "shelves", get custom book recommendations, read editorial content and purchase physical books, ebooks, and audiobooks.

The Indies Choice Book Award is an American literary award that was inaugurated at BookExpo America 2000. The American Booksellers Association (ABA) rededicated the award in recognition of a new era in bookselling, as well as the important role the Book Sense Picks List has played for independent booksellers in discovering and spreading the word about books of quality to all stores, and readers, nationwide. Throughout the year, Book Sense independent booksellers from across the country nominate for inclusion in the monthly Book Sense Picks the books that they most enjoyed hand-selling to their customers. The books on each list represent a combined national and local staff pick selection of booksellers' favorites from more than 1,200 independent bookstores with Book Sense.

The Bookseller is a British magazine reporting news on the publishing industry. Philip Jones is editor-in-chief of the weekly print edition of the magazine and the website. The magazine is home to the Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, a humorous award given annually to the book with the oddest title. The award is organised by The Bookseller's diarist, Horace Bent, and had been administered in recent years by the former deputy editor, Joel Rickett, and former charts editor, Philip Stone. We Love This Book is its quarterly sister consumer website and email newsletter.

The Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA) is an international trade association of independent used and rare booksellers who sell online. IOBA is dedicated to ethical business practices that promote customer confidence. The organization offers members scholarships for continuing education, a mentorship program, resources for booksellers, and a virtual community for discussions on all aspects of the bookselling profession. With a diverse international membership of over 350 booksellers, IOBA members created and follow standards for ethical and safe bookselling online. Members must provide clear and accurate descriptions and prompt shipping with fair return policies.

Book was an American bi-monthly popular literary magazine founded in 1998 by Mark Gleason and Jerome Kramer and published by West Egg Communications. Described by its editor as "the Rolling Stone—not the Billboard—of the book industry", MediaBistro.com said it was "also the Us Weekly of the industry, offering up juicy tidbits of what passes for gossip in this relatively respectable trade", noting for prospective writers that it was aimed at "enthusiastic leisure readers". The New York Times said Book "profiles authors and their works in much the way that People magazine reports on celebrities".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eighth Day Books</span>

Eighth Day Books is an independent bookstore founded in 1988 and located in Wichita, Kansas. It is known for its books that are classics of their genres, or else modern or contemporary works linked to the intellectual, artistic, and religious traditions of the East and West.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OR Books</span> American publisher

OR Books is a New York City-based independent publishing house founded by John Oakes and Colin Robinson in 2009. The company sells digital and print-on-demand books directly to the customer and focuses on creative promotion through traditional media and the Internet. On its site, OR Books states that it "embraces progressive change in politics, culture and the way we do business."

Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize is an literary award given by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA). It was first awarded in 1999. Nominated books must be southern in nature or by a southern author, have been published the previous year, and have been nominated by a SIBA-member bookstore or one of their customers. Voting categories include fiction, Nonfiction, poetry, cooking and children's literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Play Books</span> Digital distribution service for ebooks

Google Play Books, formerly Google eBooks, is an ebook digital distribution service operated by Google, part of its Google Play product line. Users can purchase and download ebooks and audiobooks from Google Play, which offers over five million titles, with Google claiming it to be the "largest ebooks collection in the world". Books can be read on a dedicated Books section on the Google Play website, through the use of a mobile app available for Android and iOS, through the use of select e-readers that offer support for Adobe Digital Editions, through a web browser and reading via Google Home. Users may also upload up to 2,000 ebooks in the PDF or EPUB file formats. Google Play Books is available in 75 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Book trade in the United Kingdom</span> People and business in the trade of books in Britain

The book trade in the United Kingdom has its roots as far back as the 14th century, however the emergence of internet booksellers such as Amazon partnered with the introduction of the e-Book has drastically altered the scope of the industry. Book retailers such as the Borders Group have failed to adjust to these changes, thus there has been a steep decline in the number of operating traditional and independent bookshops. However, still heavily influential on the trade globally, British publishers such as Penguin Books and Pearson remain dominant players within the industry and continue to publish titles globally.

<i>BookBrowse</i>

BookBrowse is an online magazine and website that provides book reviews, author interviews, book previews, and reading guides. The magazine is independent of publishers and does not sell books that it reviews. The site offers both free and premium content that is available by subscription.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Left Bank Books (St. Louis)</span>

Left Bank Books is an independent bookstore located at 399 N. Euclid Street in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. It is the oldest, independently operated bookstore in St. Louis. It was founded by students in 1969 as a leftist collective to sell underground, counter-cultural, feminist, and anti-establishment books, newspapers, and magazines—-the first to do so in the St. Louis region. It was the first bookstore with its name in the United States, and the first exhibiting gallery for children's book illustrator Mary Engelbreit. Left Bank Books sponsors reading groups, book signings, author appearances, and community literary activities. In 2015 the Washington Post named it one of the best bookstores in the United States and in 2017 Real Simple magazine has called Left Bank Books the best bookstore in the state of Missouri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of bookselling</span>

The selling of books dates back to ancient times. The founding of libraries in c.300 BC stimulated the energies of the Athenian booksellers. In Rome, toward the end of the republic, it became the fashion to have a library, and Roman booksellers carried on a flourishing trade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unabridged Bookstore</span>

Unabridged Bookstore is an independent bookstore started in 1980 by Edward Devereux. Unabridged Bookstore opened on November 1, 1980, with two business partners and $18,000. Unabridged Bookstore is known for its dedicated and knowledgeable staff. Hand-written, personal recommendations from employees line the shelves.

Carol Seajay is an American activist and former bookseller. She cofounded the Old Wives Tales bookstore in San Francisco as well as the Feminist Bookstore News, which she edited and published for more than 20 years before ceasing publication in 2000.

References

  1. 1 2 "Shelf Awareness Pro". shelf-awareness.com. Retrieved July 7, 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Shelf Awareness for Readers". shelf-awareness.com. Retrieved July 7, 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Shelf Awareness Bookstore Edition". shelf-awareness.com. Retrieved July 7, 2014.
  4. "BookTV Panel Discussion on Independent Bookselling". C-SPAN BookTV. May 18, 2013. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  5. "BookTV 2010 Year in Books". C-SPAN BookTV. December 29, 2010. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
  6. Frank, Meagan. "Risko & Mutter Key to Shelf Awareness". Books Make A Difference. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  7. Stein, Garth (May 1, 2009). "Fast Cities 2009". Fast Company. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  8. Rose, M.J. (May 22, 2013). "11 Lessons Authors Should Learn". Huffington Post Books. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  9. "BookTV 2010 Fall Book Preview". C-SPAN BookTV. July 29, 2010. Retrieved July 17, 2013.
  10. Minzesheimer, Bob (July 15, 2013). "Orders soar for novel written by Rowling under pseudonym". USA Today. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
  11. Driscoll, Molly (June 5, 2013). "Is Amazon asking independent bookstores to sell Kindles?". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  12. Driscoll, Molly (May 14, 2013). "Microsoft buying Barnes & Noble's Nook Media?". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  13. Driscoll, Molly (March 29, 2013). "Amazon acquires literary social media website Goodreads". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  14. "Amazon's Treatment of Workers Investigated in Germany". Huffington Post Books. February 20, 2013. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  15. Teitelbaum, Ilana (April 25, 2013). "Written in Blood: The Son by Phillip Meyer". Huffington Post Books. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  16. Higgins, Jim (June 20, 2011). "Shelf Awareness for Readers a welcome addition to email inboxes". Journal Sentinel. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  17. Schinsky, Rebecca Joines (June 17, 2011). "Want Book news? Meet Shelf Awareness". The Book Lady's Blog. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  18. Easton, Valerie (February 21, 2013). "Book City: Why reading for a living is like herding cats". Crosscut. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  19. Kephart, Beth (February 22, 2012). "PP Appreciation: Jennifer Brown, Children's Book Crusader". Publishing Perspectives. Retrieved June 17, 2013.