BTW News Briefs

Marketing Association Files Amicus in Support of Amazon E-Fairness Challenge

This week, the Performance Marketing Association announced that it had filed an amicus brief in support of the Amazon.com and Overstock.com challenge to New York State's e-fairness provision, as reported by Online Media Daily. The Performance Marketing Alliance, a not-for-profit trade association for the performance marketing industry, joined Amazon and Overstock in asking a New York Appellate Court to overturn the state's e-fairness provision, which was signed into law on April 15, 2008, by Gov. David Paterson.

The provision requires out-of-state retailers with nexus in the state -- via a warehouse, office, sales agent, or online affiliate -- to comply with New York State sales tax laws and to collect and remit sales tax on sales to state residents. Soon after, both Amazon.com and Overstock.com challenged the provision in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan. However, in a significant victory for the state's bricks-and-mortar retailers, in January 2009, a judge dismissed the lawsuit filed by Amazon.com. A similar lawsuit by Overstock was also dismissed. Both Overstock.com and Amazon.com then filed notices of appeal.

Inspired by a Children's Book? Roaring Brook Press Wants to Know

To celebrate the publication of Everything I Need to Know I Learned From a Children's Book (October, ISBN: 9781596433953), Roaring Brook Press is inviting booksellers to share which children's book changed the way they see the world.

Select respondents to the survey will be interviewed by the book's editor, Anita Silvey, for an article to appear in an upcoming edition of BTW.

Glenn Goldman Booksellers Scholarship Deadline Extended

The Southern California Independent Booksellers Association has extended the application deadline for the Glenn Goldman Booksellers Scholarship (GGBSF) to September 15.

Two scholarships will be awarded this year: one scholarship will be for SCIBA's Authors Feast & Trade Show, on October 24, 2009, and the second will be for ABA's Winter Institute in San Jose, February 3 - 5, 2010. The GGBS committee will review all applications and announce the recipients by October 1, 2009. Full details are available on the SCIBA website.

Man Booker Unveils 2009 Shortlist

The shortlist for the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction was announced on Tuesday, September 8.

The shortlist includes: The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt; Summertime by J.M. Coetzee; The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds; Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel; The Glass Room by Simon Mawer; and The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.

The winner will be announced on Tuesday, October 6.

GLIBA Announces Book Award Winners

The Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association (GLIBA) has announced its 2009 Book Award winners:

• Fiction: The Great Perhaps by Joe Meno (Norton)
• General: The Foie Gras Wars by Mark Caro (S&S)
• Children's Chapter Book: The Blind Faith Hotel by Pamela Todd (S&S)
• Children's Picture Book: That Book Woman by Heather Henson, David Small (illus.) (S&S)
• Voice of the Heartland (presented to a person or company in the book industry for a lifetime contribution to regional books): Becky Anderson, Anderson's Bookshops, Naperville, Illinois

The awards will be presented at a luncheon on Friday, October 2, during the GLIBA Fall Trade Show in Cleveland, Ohio. Winners will receive $500 and an award designed and produced by Pewabic Pottery, a historic maker of art tiles, ceramics, and glazes, based in Detroit. Winning titles are also featured in the association's holiday catalog, From Our Shelves to Yours: Books for Giving.