WBN US

Words aren’t enough to thank everyone who made World Book Night in the U.S. happen this first year!! All I can say, with gratitude, humility and awe, is THANK YOU to the publishers AND authors AND booksellers AND librarians AND UPS AND the awesome book manufacturers AND Ingram AND our friends in the UK. . . AND especially you 25,000 generous, sweet, and thoughtful givers!!  We hope you enjoyed the experience, we are keeping the book love going on Facebook, and please sign up for the WBN newsletter so you get early news of next year’s sign up timetable. We are also sending you a survey soon, and will have summertime book voting news. THANK YOU EVERYONE!!

There is advice on how and where to post all your wonderful photos from today at our Facebook. Please post them all over your own social media places, but please please don't email us. It'll crash the mailbox for weeks to come.

Go here for the scoop. http://www.facebook.com/worldbooknightusa

Look, some people may look askance at a free book, thinking, well, whatever. If you show them the bonafides of the book...the info on the inside covers, and noting these are popular, current books, should help. That and your powers of persuasion, of course.

In a country of 350 million people and no ad budget, even the nat'l media we got today won't get to most people. We did get great AP and USA Today stories today, and dozens of local stories, YOU are the campaign.

Don't let a few grumps get you down. Most people will light up at the gift of a book. And thank YOU!!!

So, a great write-up on us in Parade today, and USA Today tk, and we think, an AP story. But the real story of World Book Night is local, local, local. There have already run or will run at least 250 local stories, and to me, that's heaven. Along with the natiional coverage, the local stories are about the givers. You. And your amazing passion and generosity.

And that same energy and passion should result in a social media lovefest tomorrow, all generated by you! Descriptions of your interactions, and we hope, photos. Don't email them to us; our mailbox will explode. No, we want all your photos for the world to see on your Facebook, and posted to our wall. Out there right away, locally, and not sitting in our mailbox til we can sort through them. Tweet like crazy. Tumblr and all that. And we do have a Pinterest site.

Share all your love and words and images online soon as you can, dear givers. It will be the best way to extend the impact of one day many days from now, and into our second year of doing this.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

Sorry!! We couldn't afford to pop open 25,000 boxes to insert items for you, so we gave the stores the materials. But retail life is hectic and some forgot. BUT..you can get the giver guidelines letter and logos to use at the Resources tab at this site. And we'll post a downloadble Thank You certificate on Tuesday!!

As a small town kid from Long Island who discovered the mysteries of Brooklyn only after making friends from there at college, I continue to be fascinated by what was once our 4th largest city and the place where 1 out of 6 Americans can trace entry to America through.

More relevantly, there has been a bookstore renaissance in the borough! Indie stores have opened in Williamsburg, Fort Greene and Bay Ridge, and stores in Park Slope (my first home after college) and Brooklyn Heights have spiffed up their digs.

Even more relevantly, WORD, Greenlight, Community and Book Court are ALL hosting pre-WBN receptions for their customers who are givers. Some at the store in a private fashion, and some in a bar! Yay!

Thanks, Brooklyn, heart of mine.

Hello World Book Night fans. We (2 of us, that is) are knee-deep in both national media planning and the processing reams of info for Ingram, our distribution company. This is a crucial moment as we have to get all the book and giver name and store or library location all just so on the shipping documents.

For those who have re-applied to be givers, thank you for your patience. We have an intern putting every request on a grid so we can review them soon as possible. We just can't right now, but I am very confident that we can accomodate everyone who clearly stated where they are going with the books.

I cannot stress enough that this is not a personality contest; if you have a thoughtful location, we'll get you a box. Back in Jan. and Feb., 10% of all applications bounced out for reaasons of missing info, bad emails, or very vague location. I feel awful for anyone who put their heart and soul into their application, only to have the email from us got blocked or not go through at all.

Please email us at april23 AT worldbooknight.org. You will get an autoreply, just so you know it went through, but we are reading EVERY email. Thanks, and be in touch soon.

We are finishing up the first round of book pick-up location choosing, with 90% of our givers all set. The rest of you need to act on our email by Wed. midnight, March 7.

To those of you all set: please do NOT contact your store or library yet. They don't know you're assigned to them yet. They'll have the complete list by late March and will reach out to you then.

To those of you who haven't heard from us by email. See my blog post below and reapply. Please state where you are going and all that you can express in the email. It will help.

EVERYONE: Thank you for your woonderful encouragement and patience. We are still on track - knock wood - to get books where they need to be by April 16 latest, and obviously earlier if we can.

I've been a sorry blogger. Apologies! I did get sucked into the world of Twitter very religiously, but that's easy to do while traveling, or at night watching TV, or up before dawn with coffee, or all other times in between. But the discipline to sit down and write something longer and more thoughtful has evaded me for a few weeks.

Also, in my defense, I'VE BEEN CRAZED! In a good way! The Feb. 1 sign-up deadline looms, we've been preparing the many facets involved with producing all the books, and I have been crafting emails and letters to every audience possible: booksellers, librarians, authors, publishing folks. Messages to them to sign up, AND messages to them that they can send out into the world.

And like the proverbial message in a bottle, your love and passion has been coming back a thousand fold, as book givers and as volunteers in other ways. I cannot thank you all enough and , perhaps, more cogent thoughts to come end of week, now that I’m back off the road from my proselytizing trips of late.

Some do xwords in pencil, some in pen. I use invisible ink.

Hey, 23 across: book day in April. 14 letters. Hmmm.