Northshire Wins Bookseller of the Year; Rep Honors to Gates

by Kevin Howell, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 3/13/2006

The ballots are in and the votes have been tallied for Publishers Weekly's 14th annual Bookseller and Sales Rep of the Year.

This year's Bookseller of The Year is Northshire Books in Manchester, Vermont, owned by Ed and Barbara Morrow. The bookstore, which celebrates its 30th year in business this year, was originally nominated by Random House rep Rebecca Fitting. "They have cultivated a lively event program and network with their community in such a way that integrates them with their surroundings," she said. "And they are among some of the most passionate readers and handsellers that I've worked with," Fitting noted.

Northshire Books is also a favorite haunt for authors. "Northshire is everything one could want in a bookstore," said Chris Bohjalian. "It's a huge gift to the state." John Irving agreed: "What's remarkable about the quality and range of the Northshire Bookstore is that Manchester isn'ty a college town, or even a very big town, yet the store is both broad and deep—it is literary, friendly to children, and welcoming to tourists. I love the place."

Mark Gates of Holtzbrinck (Holt and FSG) has been named PW's Rep of the Year. Gates, who works out of Verona, Wis., believes a sales rep "should act as the bookseller's advocate for author events and make sure the bookseller gets their fair share of those titles short on stock and long on demand." He continued, "We play detective to find what happened to the missing orders and mathematician when searching for elusive co-op dollars."

Among the half-dozen booksellers who nominated Gates for the award, Daniel Goldin of Harry W. Schwarts Bookshops in Milwaukee, Wis., noted, "Mark is a consummate professional who understands the many markets for books and finds every possible sales opportunity for each title in his catalog. Unlike some reps, Mark doesn't give second-class status to his distributed lines, making every effort to champion lines like Greywolf and Drawn and Quarterly. In my twenty-plus years of bookselling, I have never come across that degree of book enthusiasm among my reps."

Thomson Petersons is once again offering PW's Bookseller of the Year a $2,000 travel grant to attend BookExpo America in Washington D.C., where both awards will be presented. The award-winners will be profiled in PW's BEA Preview issue on April 17.