Deadline for Joining Quills Nominating Board Is June 30

Booksellers who would like to be part of the second annual Quill Book Awards Nominating Board and who are new to the process should contact Quills Executive Director Karen Mender, at karen.mender@quillsliteracy.org, by June 30. Booksellers who served on the Nominating Board last year will automatically receive information about the process via e-mail by the end of this month.

The Quills Nominating Board is open to booksellers, including all Book Sense participants and subscribers to Publishers Weekly. The Nominating Board will select titles from the Quills long list, which includes Book Sense Picks and titles with starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, among others. Eligible books must be English language books published in North American between August 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006.

The Quill Awards, honoring books in a wide variety of popular categories, are sponsored by Reed Business Information (RBI) and the NBC Universal Television Stations. This year, the awards will be presented during a ceremony on Tuesday, October 10, at the American Museum of Natural History's Milstein Hall of Ocean Life in New York City. The ceremony will be aired on Saturday, October 21, on the NBC Universal Television Stations and will be syndicated through NBC Universal Television Distribution.

The nominating period will take place from July 1 through August 15, culminating in a ballot consisting of the top five nominees in each category. Beginning on August 22, 2006, consumers will vote for one of the five nominees in each of the categories and the Quills Book of the Year Award from all nominees in all categories.

Other new developments this year include enhanced technology for consumer voting through the support of MSNBC. The Quills will also have an exclusive presence on MSNBC.com, which will feature unique content about the Quills.

For complete information about the 2006 Quill Book Awards, visit www.thequills.org.