Today, Friday, May 7, Oprah and Marilynne Robinson will discuss the third in the Gilead novels quartet, Lila. Remind your customers to stop by the Oprah Book Club website to watch.

ABA is asking all bookstores that participated in Independent Bookstore Day to provide feedback about the event via this survey by today, Friday, May 7.

Both new and new-ish members are welcome to register for the next ABA New Member Series: Store Ownership 101 on Monday, May 10 at 1:00 p.m. ET. This session will provide new and prospective bookstore owners with an opportunity to ask questions of seasoned bookstore owners/staff. Once registered use this form to submit questions ahead of time.

Thinking about changing your store's business model? Sign up for conversation with booksellers and experts on May 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET about transitioning your existing bookstore to a co-op. (And view a recording of a recent session on transitioning to a nonprofit business model here.)

IndieLite stores: Sign up for the second in a two-part series on switching credit card processors on May 19 at 1:00 p.m. ET. This session will focus on new tools and features available to stores after they switch to their own credit card processor. Register here.

Sign up now to receive a Banned Books Week kit for Banned Books Week 2021. The deadline to sign up is June 11. Important: All bookstores (including stores that already signed up in the past) MUST sign up to receive a kit this year.

Save the date: This year’s Annual Meeting and Town Hall will occur on Thursday, May 27, starting at 2:00 p.m. ET. (The Annual Meeting starts at 2:00 p.m. ET, followed immediately by the Town Hall.) Register here.

Booksellers, continue nominating children's book titles for the annual ABC Best Books for Young Readers consumer catalog through Edelweiss or by using the form on Bookweb.org.

Booksellers, the Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation may be able to help owners or employees with personal household expenses related to a natural disaster. In addition, Binc can assist with expenses directly related to the store in certain cases.

Take a look at the assistance page on the Binc website and contact Binc directly at help@bincfoundation.org or (866) 733-9064.

The federal health insurance marketplace and most state exchanges are open for a Special Enrollment Period through August 15. Booksellers can also take advantage of newly expanded subsidies enacted under the American Rescue Plan. Learn more here.

ABA will have a booth at the U.S. Book Show, which take place virtually from Tuesday, May 25, through Thursday, May 27. ABA member booksellers can register using the promo code ABACOMP for free admission. Register here and watch BTW for more details to come.

Based on the results of a recent survey, ABA will be providing space on Thursday, June 10, at 7 p.m. ET for our LGBTQIA+ Booksellers and LGBTQIA+ bookstore owners only to gather for connection, support, community, resources, and networking. Booksellers interested in attending should use the sign-up form at the bottom of the ABA Meetups page to join the LGBTQIA+ Meetups mailing list. To ensure that this space belongs to the attendees, ABA staff will not be in attendance and another attendee will act as the host.

ICYMI: Take a look at the education sessions ABA held in April.

Read a Q&A with Emiko Jean, author of May/June Kids’ Indie Next List top pick Tokyo Ever After.

The Indie Poetry Bestseller List, based on sales at independent bookstores nationwide for the eight-week period ending May 2, 2021, can be found here.

Earlier this week, some IndieCommerce websites reported that their customers were experiencing difficulty when attempting to checkout. The IndieCommerce team found that customers who had recently installed a new Google Chrome update were having this issue. IndieLite websites were not affected. Modifications were made to the IndieCommerce system to accommodate the Chrome update and the problem was resolved. If your IndieCommerce website is still receiving complaints from customers about checkout, please advise them to clear their browser cache and cookies. Instructions are available on this Google support page.