It pays to be a new bookseller -- literally. Farrar, Straus &Giroux has announced the three winners of its first annual New Bookseller Awards, which not gives recipients a citation and a $3000 cash prize. The winners also received $500 toward travel to BookExpo America in Los Angeles, where they were honored at the April 30 "Celebration of Books" luncheon.
Jane Glaser of Harry Schwartz Bookshop, Mequon, Wis.; Janet K hne of Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, Ohio; and Molly Olson of Merritt Bookstore, Millbrook, N.Y. were chosen from a pool of 37 nominees for the new award.
Glaser works 25 hours a week at Harry Schwartz Bookshop, where she coordinates more than 50 community reading groups, as well as eight in-store discussion groups. K hne has worked for five years at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, where she excels at handselling. According to director of book purchasing Jen Haller's nomination letter, "To her, the job of a bookseller is to pair a book with a book lover, to be their research library and their matchmaker. It is all about matching a book with a person and I have not seen anyone that can do this better than Janet K hne." Olson has held the title of director of customer care at Merritt Bookstore since 1996 because, according to president Scott Meyer's nomination letter, "Molly is the epitome of customer care. They say you can always replace someone, but not in Molly's case. Molly is the glue that holds the store together and makes us such a vibrant community store."
Qualifying nominees must be booksellers who have worked in an ABA-member bookstore for five years or less. The award will be presented annually to three booksellers who demonstrate a passion for books and the book business, through customer service and/or handselling, and who exhibit superiority in community outreach or in-store promotions."There were some truly extraordinary nominees that enhance the bookstore universe," Laurie Brown, FSG's v-p and marketing director, told PW.
