Industry News

Dear Booksellers,

ABA will be holding a Booksellers Forum in conjunction with the Great Lakes Booksellers Association (GLBA), on Tuesday, March 30, at Emmis Books in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Independent booksellers planning to attend BookExpo America (June 3 - 6 in Chicago) are encouraged to attend ABA's All-Day Education Program, a full day of panels and seminars designed specifically for them. The program is set for Thursday, June 3, from 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. at the McCormick Place Convention Center and is free to all ABA member bookstores and their employees who register for BEA. (Booksellers must indicate on the BEA registration form that they are ABA members, and they must register for the all-day program.

Members of the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association (MPBA) attending the regional's Spring Meeting at the Denver Marriott Tech Center on Friday, March 19, and Saturday, March 20, also had the opportunity to take part in an ABA Booksellers Forum and to meet with ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz to learn how easy it is to report financial data to the 2004 ABACUS study.

On Thursday, March 18, ABA held a Booksellers Forum in Seattle in conjunction with the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) Spring Show, which ran from March 18 - 20, at the Hilton Hotel/Seattle Airport. Among the topics discussed at the forum were efforts to amend the USA Patriot Act, changes to the Book Sense 76, and bestseller reporting through Nielsen BookScan. ABA's CEO Avin Mark Domnitz and COO Oren Teicher moderated the forum with the help of ABA Board member Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Bookstore in Hamilton, Montana.

Independent booksellers with Book Sense still have time to send in nominations for several upcoming lists.

The key deadlines are:

Ruminator Update

"We're still here, and I believe Ruminator will be here in the future," Ruminator Books co-owner David Unowsky said of the 33-year-old St. Paul, Minnesota landmark, which has been struggling to stay open in the face of huge debts, stemming largely from its chief creditor, Macalester College.

Author Alice Hoffman chose The Photograph by Penelope Lively (Viking) as the next title to be read by the Today Book Club. The announcement was made on NBC's Today Show on Tuesday, March 23.

In February, organizations representing booksellers, librarians, and writers launched the Campaign for Reader Privacy (www.readerprivacy.org), a nationwide grassroots petition drive that aims to restore the safeguards for the privacy of bookstore and library records that were eliminated by Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act.

In mid-February, ABA began collecting 2003 financial data from member booksellers for the second year of the new ABACUS study.

The American Booksellers Association is extending an invitation to booksellers in the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) region, as well as to booksellers in Connecticut, for a Booksellers Forum to be held at ABA's offices in Tarrytown, New York, on Wednesday, April 14. The gathering, held in conjunction with NAIBA, will be hosted by ABA Board member John Bennett of Wyckoff, New Jersey's Bennett Books, ABA's CEO Avin Mark Domnitz and COO Oren Teicher, as well as other association staff.

New for 2004, BookExpo America's (BEA) Super Pass provides ABA bookstore members with unlimited access to all ABA and BEA educational programming with the $65 show pre-registration admission, potentially saving booksellers hundreds of dollars in course fees.

The American Booksellers Association continued its 2004 Booksellers Forum tour on Tuesday, March 16, with a program in conjunction with the Mid-South Independent Booksellers Association (MSIBA), at Brystone Children's Books in Fort Worth, Texas. The forum, conducted by ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz and COO Oren Teicher, gave booksellers the chance to ask questions and to discuss key issues, including the USA Patriot Act, Book Sense Gift Cards, the 2004 ABACUS study, and more.

New Diesel-Powered Bookstore to Open in Malibu

Alison Reid and John Evans, owners of the Oakland, California's Diesel, A Bookstore, are heading to the beach in Malibu. The two have been camping in and visiting the coastal outpost for over a dozen years, but this time they are bringing books. By the end of April, Evans expects to open Diesel, a Bookstore, Malibu, a 1,800-square-foot space in one of the area's oldest shopping centers.