Dear Booksellers,

This is your final Friday update email from ABA! Starting next week, you’ll be seeing all this content — and more! — in Bookselling This Week, which will arrive on Tuesdays and Fridays at noon ET.
What to Do

Children’s booksellers are invited to sign up for the ABC Group ShopTalk taking place on Tuesday, April 20, at 3:00 p.m. ET (12:00 p.m. PT) to talk all about selling books to everyone’s favorite young customers.

Speaking of children’s bookselling, this is the last call to join the ABC Best Books for Young Readers catalog committee. All interested children’s booksellers should email ABC Manager Gen de Botton ([email protected]).

Tell your customers about the Wednesday, April 21, A Universe of Wishes event with bestselling authors Samira Ahmed and Dhonielle Clayton. The event is free with the option to donate to We Need Diverse Books.

IndieLite stores should sign up for a Wednesday, April 21, webinar to learn about the steps they need to take to switch credit card processors.

Join the Thursday, April 22, Center for Anti-Violence Education workshop on unpacking microaggressions that are racist, ageist, transphobic, xenophobic, etc. Register here. Booksellers can also check out the handout for the De-Escalation Workshop as well as the video recording of the session (use the password CAE2021!).

Tell your customers about the Thursday, April 22, Independent Bookstore Day (IBD) event with author ambassador Glennon Doyle and Alexandra Elle. The event is free, but donations for Binc are welcome! Also — are you ready for IBD? It’s on Saturday, April 24!!

IndieCommerce and IndieLite stores participating in Independent Bookstore Day can change the online sale date for IBD products to a future date. If your store will be open on Saturday, April 24, you can set the online sale date to Sunday, April 25, by going to Store > Configuration > Indie Bookstore Day 2021 Settings. Read the help doc for all details.

Join the extra Marketing Meetup this month, taking place on Tuesday, April 27, at 3:00 p.m. ET., on How to Use Bookshop.org More Effectively. Booksellers interested in attending should use the sign-up form at the bottom of the ABA Meetups page to join the appropriate mailing list.
What to Know

Starting next week, Bookselling This Week will arrive on Tuesdays and Fridays at about noon ET. The new version will feature concise information in two categories: what to do and what to know (a lot like your updates, but with a cool new design!).

The ABACUS financial survey opens on April 21! Booksellers should watch their inboxes for an email from Michael Becher of Industry Insights, with the subject line “ABACUS Benchmarking Survey.” Stores that fill out the survey will receive a customized report in September that benchmarks them among other bookstores.

As part of the migration to a new customer support ticketing system, the IndieCommerce team’s “From” address is changing in emails coming from support staff; watch for [email protected] (but you can continue to send your customer support related emails to [email protected] as well).

Garth Stein, author of The Art of Racing in the Rain and chair of Binc’s annual Author Leadership Circle Campaign, is inviting authors and comics creators to join him in donating to a pool of matching funds to drive the next stage of fundraising for the Survive to Thrive grant program.

Rhode Island and New Jersey have small business grants available. Rhode Island’s grant of up to $5,000 is open now through April 30. Booksellers can pre-register for New Jersey’s grant of up to $20,000 between April 19 and April 29; pre-registration is required in order to receive a grant.

The next step in the Economic Injury Disaster Loan increase process is to provide the Small Business Administration with some additional tax information. Learn more here.

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ABA is here for all of you. Please reach out if there is anything we can help with. Members can contact me directly or email the Membership, Advocacy, or IndieCommerce teams.

Best,
Allison

Allison Hill
Chief Executive Officer

American Booksellers Association
333 Westchester Ave., Suite S202 
White Plains, NY 10604 | 800-637-0037 
[email protected] • www.BookWeb.org

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