Main Street/Shop Local

Author Sherman Alexie has launched Indies First, a grassroots movement that calls on authors to show their support for independent booksellers by signing up to work at their favorite indie bookstore on Small Business Saturday, celebrated this year on November 30, the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Today show creates book club; Overstock continues play for Amazon customers; Quebec proposes regulation of book prices; Simon & Schuster and Barnes & Noble settle dispute; Small Business Administration names acting administrator; May 2014 damages trial scheduled for Apple

Last weekend, the Opinion Pages of the New York Times’ Sunday Review featured “Tumult in the Book World,” a dialogue in letters, including one from ABA President Steve Bercu, that were solicited by the paper to answer the question “Can traditional bookstores survive the digital marketplace?”

Author Jamie Ford asks readers to support bricks-and-mortar bookstores; National Book Awards longlist to be announced September 12; Facebook algorithm change increases engagement; BISG releases study on teacher preferences for course materials

The community of Excelsior, Minnesota, is united in the hunt for green beans of the dastardly kind in a fun promotion created by Excelsior Bay Books. The focus of the event is How Martha Saved Her Parents From Green Beans, by David LaRochelle, illustrated by Mark Fearing (Dial).

Since President Obama’s jobs speech at an Amazon warehouse on July 30, there has been an outpouring of disappointment from independent booksellers across the country about the president’s choice of venue.

Next month, a national campaign that will put more than a quarter-million cotton bags and other promotional materials with the brand message “Books Are My Bag” in U.K. and Irish bookshops will launch.

To gauge the event’s success, Candlewick is requesting that participating booksellers complete a short Find Waldo Local 2013 survey.

As Find Waldo Local 2013 –– sponsored by Candlewick Press and the American Booksellers Association –– came to a close in communities across the country, participating booksellers took note of the event’s success and eagerly look forward to next year’s festivities.

The strong reaction of independent booksellers and other Main Street advocates to President Obama’s visit to an Amazon warehouse in Tennessee to deliver an address on job creation was reported in media outlets across the country.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance has compiled five facts about Amazon’s true economic impact on communities across the country that Main Street businesses can use when talking to the media.

On the heels of press reports that Amazon has drastically lowered the price on many hardcover titles, on Monday, July 29, the Board of Directors of the American Booksellers Association and CEO Oren Teicher criticized President Obama’s decision to hold his jobs speech this week at an Amazon facility in Tennessee.

Planning is under way for the first-ever California Bookstore Day, a celebration of the written word and the culture of independent bookstores across the state, set for May 3, 2014. Last week, organizers launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds to support publicity and marketing efforts for the event. 

Utah celebrates Independents Week in a big way; Buthod named SIBA One Book at a Time organizer; Amazon’s tax affairs in U.K. deterring shoppers; LibraryReads launches this fall; Senators express concerns over Patriot Act surveillance programs; Authors lose class certification in lawsuit against Google; Hachette acquires Hyperion adult imprint; Ingram integrates Hachette Livre titles

Bookstores and businesses in neighborhoods across the country will be promoting the shop local message by celebrating Find Waldo Local during the month of July.