Barnes & Noble is trying again with a program to put some selection and promotional muscle around a particular title (remember Barnes & Noble Recommends?). The new initiative adopts the moniker of the moment, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, and the first selection is Meg Wolitzer‘s highly-touted THE FEMALE PERSUASION, publishing April 3. BN’s exclusive edition will include an essay by the author and a reading group guide.
The first of their “seasonal” in-store book club nights is scheduled for May 2, at 6 PM local time at stores nationwide. Attendees will receive “one free regular, tall, hot or iced coffee and one free cookie from the cafe.” Director of merchandising Liz Harwell says in the release, that “customers have let us know that they would love to participate in an official Barnes & Noble Book Club.”
Separately, the next state to get its first Amazon Books store is Colorado: They are working on a location in the Park Meadows Center in Lone Tree, CO, south of Denver. The company is looking for a store manager and the Colorado is store is among four listed “coming soon” locations. Colorado will be the eleventh state (if you count DC) to have an Amazon Books outlet once the new store (and others planned for DC and Texas) opens. It’s the seventeenth announced Amazon Books location. (An unconfirmed report from early February had Amazon looking at a separate Denver location, in Cherry Creek North, for another possible Amazon Books location.)
Awards
Michael Connelly will be given the Crime Writers’ Association’s Diamond Dagger award, given for “sustained excellence” to authors “who have made a significant contribution to the genre.”
People
Michelle Montague has joined Holiday House in the newly created position of director, trade marketing. She was most recently executive director, marketing & publicity for adult at Abrams Books.