This week we're introducing AuthorBuzz Notes, which are literally notes from authors to you. The purpose is to give authors a direct voice to tell you about new reviews, excerpts, podcasts, book trailers, contests, material on their Web sites you can use in bookstore newsletters or library newsletters, marketing ideas for their books, availability to visit reading groups in person or via the phone. AuthorBuzz will appear each Monday at the end of the newsletter. We hope you find it helpful, informative and interesting.

"It's never too late to sell a good book."--Gabe Barillas of HarperCollins at the SCBA Rep Picks session on Saturday.

BookSpan plans on another exclusive offering, according to today's Wall Street Journal. Next May the company's BOMC, Literary Guild and Doubleday book clubs will offer James Grippando's thriller Lying With Strangers to members for six months. After that, Grippando can have the book, which is not part of his Jack Swyteck series published by HarperCollins, published elsewhere.

BookSpan pioneered this kind of arrangement earlier this year with James Patterson's Honeymoon, a move that boosted the book clubs' sales of Patterson but irritated many booksellers.

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Barnes & Noble plans to open a new store in Baton Rouge, La., in November 2006. The store will be in Perkins Rowe, a mixed-use development under construction at Bluebonnet Blvd. and Perkins Rd. B&N has a store in Citiplace in Baton Rouge, which opened in 1996.

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An intrepid Bookselling This Week reporter traveled to Harrisburg, Pa., and caught the 5 a.m. Bookstore Tourism bus to New York City in September. Read all about the day trip by 36 booklovers to 22 Manhattan bookstores.

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The Annapolis Capital settled down for a long coffee break, talking about the new de rigueur combination of bookstore and café. Among the stores it mentions, Hard Bean Coffee & BookSellers was seen by its founder as a bookstore that also had a café. But many customers see it as a café that also sell books.

In a related beverage stimulant story, the paper said Annapolis's Alchemy Tea & Trading Co. is opening a branch to be called Alchemy Tea & Books.

Later today the Southern California Booksellers Association's new bookstore events site goes live. Listing book signings, readings and other bookstore and author events, the site--cae.socalbooks.com--is free to association members, who post their information. SCBA is promoting California Bookstore Events to the public in newspapers and elsewhere. As of last week, 12 stores had listed events.

The site will also include information about the third SCBA bookstore tour, set to roll on November 19 (Shelf Awareness, September 9). On the tour, two buses, leaving from separate locations, will visit the same stores (but at different times) and meet up for lunch. A bus may come from San Diego. Stores to be visited are Dutton's Brentwood, Eso-Won, Vroman's, Book Soup, Bodhi Tree, Cook's Library and Traveler's Bookcase.

The association is considering doing four bookstore tours a year. Possibilities include one to the Santa Ynez Valley northwest of Santa Barbara, which would involve vineyard visits (perhaps after most of the bookstore visits); a parent/child tour of children's bookstores; and even a trip to Northern California bookstores. (For that, executive director Jennifer Bigelow said she'd have to break down and hire a travel agent to make the arrangements.)

Besides the bookstore trips and the new events site, president Terry Gilman, co-owner of Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, San Diego, pointed to several other association accomplishments during the year: a new logo, new guidelines about the duties of the board and the executive director and the first SCBA trade show in 25 years (which featured 50 booths and was attended by 350 people).

At last Saturday's lively Authors Feast in Long Beach, Calif., attended by 275 people, the winners of the Southern California Bookseller Awards were all on hand and included several popular local writers with national audiences.

Fiction:

Lisa See, who had told several people beforehand that she wouldn't win, said that the honor capped a day of firsts for her. Her husband had let her drive his car; she had given a talk in a church; and she won an award--for Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Random House).

Mystery:

T. Jefferson Parker, who noted that he has lived in Los Angeles County, Orange County and now San Diego County, as he works his way down the coast, said that in his mysteries, he has tried to capture something of the essence of Southern California. The recognition by booksellers of California Girl (Morrow) he took as a happy acknowledgement that he had succeeded.

Nonfiction:

A man with roots in the area as deep as they get, Ernest Marquez, who won for his memoir, Santa Monica Beach (Angel City Press), said that in the early nineteenth century, his great-grandfathers owned much of what is present-day Santa Monica. Laughing, he added, "Now 160 years later, I can't even go on it."

Children's Books:

Noting that he had taken much of Alice the Fairy (Blue Sky/Scholastic) from his daughter--half the storyline and even the title--David Shannon wondered if when she turned 18, she might sue him.

This morning on the Today Show: here's Ed! The show chats with Ed McMahon, whose new book is Here's Johnny!: My Memories of Johnny Carson, the Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship (Rutledge Hill Press, $24.99, 1401602363).
Also on Today, supermodel Iman talks up her new book, The Beauty of Color: The Ultimate Beauty Guide for Skin of Color (Putnam, $29.95, 0399153187).
And during the week, Andrew Weil, M.D., makes multiple appearances on the Today Show for Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Physical and Spiritual Well-Being (Knopf, $27.95, 0375407553).

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This morning Imus in the Morning tees off with John Feinstein, whose most recent book is Caddy for Life: The Bruce Edwards Story (Back Bay, $14.95, 0316010863).

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Today on WAMU's Diane Rehm Show, Admiral Stansfield Turner, author of Burn Before Reading: Presidents, CIA Directors, and Secret Intelligence (Hyperion, $23.95, 078686782), tells all.

A huge crop of books arrive next Tuesday. Here's the first of the batch:

Predator by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam, $26.95, 0399152830). Dr. Kay Scarpetta pursues psychological clues from Florida to Boston in pursuit of a dangerous criminal.

Toxic Bachelors by Danielle Steel (Delacorte Press, $27, 0385338279). Three wealthy, globe-trotting bachelors cross paths with women who turn their lives upside down.

The Camel Club by David Baldacci (Warner, $26.95, 0446577383). Four middle-aged conspiracy theorists find themselves part of an unimaginably large plot when they witness the murder of a Secret Service agent.

First Impressions by Jude Deveraux (Atria, $25.95, 0743437144). When Eden Palmer decides to move to a quiet Southern small town, she finds herself the object of admiration and jealousy. A mystery begins to unfold that threatens her life as well as her reputation.

The Truth (With Jokes) by Al Franken (Dutton, $25.95, 0525949062). The Air America host strikes back at the right wing with scorching facts and research mixed with hilarious comedy.