Main Street/Shop Local

The American Independent Business Alliance will host the biennial Go Local Grow Local conference in Minneapolis May 8 – 11.

According to an opinion poll released in March by the Small Business Majority, just over half of the small business owners surveyed support increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 from the current federal minimum wage of $7.25.

Independent We Stand is asking small business owners, including ABA member bookstores, to complete a short survey on charitable giving by tomorrow, April 4.

Joseph-Beth Booksellers is teaming with other indie bookstores and libraries in Cincinnati and nearby areas to promote a community reading program leading up to the May 17 celebration of Indies First Storytime Day.

Go Local, Grow Local 2014 early registration discount ends March 31; NCIBA holding logo contest; Roxana Robinson elected president of the Authors Guild; Academy of American Poets launches Poet-to-Poet project; National Book Critics Circle names award winners; Penguin Random House to acquire Santillana Ediciones Generales; Consortium adds three presses

The details of California Bookstore Day were officially announced to the media on Tuesday in a press release highlighting the inaugural celebration of the vitality and diversity of independent bookstores on May 3, 2014. 

More than 80 of the 100-plus authors and illustrators who have already signed up to read to children on Indies First Storytime Day are waiting to be contacted by local bookstores interested in hosting an event. 

BEA reveals lineups for author breakfasts; Bryan Pearce given posthumous humanitarian award; Senate to vote on Maria Contreras-Sweet for SBA administrator; AAUP releases Books for Understanding: Ukraine; Inaugural Pinckley Prizes announced

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books has added IndieBound buy buttons to its website’s authors and performers page in response to last week’s outcry over the exclusive Amazon purchasing links provided for each of the event’s participating authors.

Since the launch of Indies First Storytime Day just two weeks ago, more than 50 authors have signed on to read at independent bookstores across the country on May 17, as part of this year’s celebration of Children’s Book Week (May 12–18).

Preregistration for the 2014 Find Waldo Local campaign, co-sponsored by ABA and Candlewick Press, ends next Saturday, March 15. Candlewick will once again be providing bookstores with a kit for their Find Waldo Local celebrations.

Following last week’s announcement of Indies First Storytime Day, booksellers have begun inviting their favorite local authors to host an in-store storytime on the day of the event, May 17, 2014, to foster a celebration of the love of reading within their communities.

Bookstores receiving grants last week in the first round of awards from author James Patterson are putting the funds to use in ways that both emphasize their role in their communities and underscore Patterson’s goal of promoting literacy.

Building on the success of the Indies First movement launched last year by Sherman Alexie, ABA today unveiled plans for Indies First Storytime Day, spearheaded by award-winning author Kate DiCamillo, the Library of Congress’ 2014 –2015 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

On Tuesday, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies hosted a webinar on the findings of this year’s Independent Business Survey, the post-holiday survey of independent business owners across the U.S., which was released earlier this month.