There’a a lot going on today at ABA and in the world, so just a few resources and announcements: Time Change! ABA (short) Annual Meeting immediately followed by Town Hall
ABA’s Annual Meeting is still scheduled for Thursday, June 11, and will begin at 2 p.m. ET. Please note, the annual meeting may be very short; Town Hall will begin immediately following the annual meeting, possibly 2:15 or 2:30 p.m. ET. Please submit Town Hall questions and comments, or just introduce a topic you want us to address, ahead of time at [email protected]. Questions or comments can also be introduced during the meeting via the Q&A interface; however, because the meeting is being presented in webinar format, booksellers will not be able to speak. The event link and further details will be emailed to booksellers and publishers later this week. The Publishers Weekly 2020 Bookstore of the Year Award ceremony for Porter Square Books will occur immediately following the town hall meeting! Reading Lists for Allies, Advocates, and All
As bookstores struggle to fill the significant demand for antiracism books, we’ll be sharing additional lists of titles for bookstores to order and feature for customers, including resources for children’s books on the topics of racism and resistance. We also recommend creating lists through your Libro.fm, Hummingbird and Bookshop accounts for your customers, highlighting books about African American history, the history of civil rights, books by black authors, books with black characters, and books on antiracism. Upcoming Meet Ups and Coffee Break Thursday, June 4, at 1:00 p.m. ET on “How to Make Friends and Influence Purchases: Digital Marketing’s Self-Help Guide to Customer Retention.” Registration is required. Thursday, June 4, at 2:00 p.m. ET, a last minute addition to the new June coffee break schedule features booksellers from Left Bank Books in St. Louis, MO addressing questions around advocacy, allyship, and other issues booksellers may be dealing with in their communities. Left Bank Books will speak to the store’s experience in St Louis during these days following the murder of George Floyd, as well as their experience following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO in 2014. The meeting ID is 850 6348 6159. Booksellers will be given the password via email. Thursday, June 11, at 1:00 p.m. ET, featuring bookseller Angela Trigg of Haunted Bookshop in Mobile, Alabama, who has created a chatbot through which customers can place orders. Registration is required.
Indies Introduce
Thursday, June 4, at 3:00 p.m. ET. Booksellers can register now for this free Zoom event featuring the upcoming season’s top adult debut titles, chosen by a panel of independent booksellers. We know how overwhelmed everyone is right now. Maybe this is your coffee break, or your moment to breathe. We hope you have a moment to connect with books in the midst of everything, or to share this with your booksellers. (Children’s books will be presented during the virtual Children’s Institute program, to be held July 15–16.) IndieCommerce
The last two days have been the biggest days in IndieCommerce history. The IndieCommerce volume the last 24 days has been equal to what we normally see in a year! We added two extra web servers today and are doing a database upgrade tomorrow, all of which should help with IC speed if the volume continues at this rate. |
