As we gear up for Wi2023 next week, we are highlighting Black authors leading Wi2023 education sessions! 

Jason Thompson, speaker for the session Designing and Implementing a DEI Program for Your Store, is the author of Diversity and Inclusion Matters: Tactics and Tools to Inspire Equity and Game-Changing Performance and last year facilitated a training session for ABA bookstore managers and owners called Diversity & Inclusion Matters in your Store: A DEI Store Audit to Walk the Talk. You must be logged in to BookWeb to watch. If you do not have a login, create an account today.

Caprice Hollins is leading the Conflict Resolution and De-escalation Techniques session and is the author of Inside Out: The Equity Leader’s Guide to Undoing Institutional Racism and co-authored Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Strategies for Facilitating Conversations on Race.

Dr. Corey Yeager is the author of How Am I Doing?: 40 Conversations to Have with Yourself and will be co-leading the Bookselling and Your Mental, Physical and Emotional Well Being education session.

Matchbook Marketing has teamed up with Franklin Web Printing to offer this special edition of its print newsletter to promote books written by Black authors.

Matchbook donated curation and design, and Franklin Web is donating its presses. As a result, the 8-page newsletter is available for just the cost of the paper it is printed on and shipping.

The 58 featured titles include fiction and non-fiction, and children’s, YA, and adult picks, and there are call-out boxes with further reading suggestions. There is also an area on the back page where stores can place their branding stamp or sticker. 

The deadline to place orders is Tuesday, February 28.

Please visit Black Voices Special Edition to see the full title list and to sign up. Matchbook will also be a vendor at Winter Institute and will have print samples of the 2020 edition available.

Matchbook Marketing is a marketing firm dedicated solely to independent bookstores. Franklin Web Printing is Matchbook's print partner for its bi-monthly newsletter publications. We thank Kizzy’s Books and More for their assistance in the curation of this newsletter.

Independent booksellers across the country have chosen Rebecca Makkai’s I Have Some Questions for You as their top pick for the March 2023 Indie Next List. Here, Bookselling This Week and Makkai talk about I Have Some Questions for You.

Jade Adia is the author of the novel There Goes the Neighborhood, a Winter/Spring 2023 Kids selection. Here, Adia and Earl Dizon of Green Bean Books in Portland, OR, discuss There Goes The Neighborhood.

Dan Nott is the author of the novel Hidden Systems, a Winter/Spring 2023 Kids selection. Here, Nott and Justin Colussy-Estes of Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, GA, discuss Hidden Systems.

Here is the Comics & Graphic Works List, now including the Manga Bestseller List, based on sales at independent bookstores nationwide for the eight-week period ending February 12, 2023.