Stay up to date with the world of independent bookselling.
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Saturday Is Independent Bookstore Day!
 

This Saturday, April 27, is Independent Bookstore Day! This will be our largest Independent Bookstore Day ever, with more than 1,200 participating bookstores.

Visit the Independent Bookstore Day 2024 Resources and Logos page on BookWeb to access all the event assets!

We’re halfway through Independent Bookstore Day Spirit Week. Don't forget to use the hashtag #BookstoreSpiritWeek, so we can see all your amazing photos!

In the meantime, enjoy this photo of the ABA team sporting their spirit week plaid and bookstore shirts!
Welcome New BAC Members!
 

Congratulations to our newest Booksellers Advisory Council (BAC) members! These members will officially join BAC in June:

  • John Cavalier, Cavalier House Books and Looziana Book Company, Denham Springs, LA
  • Donna Craddock, The Dock Bookshop, Fort Worth, TX
  • Paul Hanson, Village Books, Bellingham, WA
  • Amani Jackson, The Ivy Bookshop, Baltimore, MD
  • Danielle King, Left Bank Books, St. Louis, MO
  • Kate Layte, Papercuts Bookshop, Boston, MA
  • Christina Lefleur, Alcott's Attic, Saint Clair Shores, MI
  • Veronica Liu, Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria, New York, NY
  • Vanessa Martini, Green Apple Books, San Francisco, CA
  • Ian McCord, Avid Bookshop, Athens, GA
  • Frederick Rossero, Oblong Books, Millerton, NY
  • Tim Smith, GLIBA's appointee, Schuler Books, Grand Rapids, MI
  • Lily Taliaferro, Eagle Harbor Book Company, Bainbridge Island, WA

We also welcome these members who recently joined:

  • Evisa Gallman, NAIBA appointee, Uncle Bobbie's Coffee and Books, Philadelphia, PA
  • George Seamer, CALIBA appointee, Books Inc., San Leandro, CA
  • Beth Wagner, NEIBA's appointee, White Birch Books, North Conway, NH
 
See Current Members
 
Save the date for these upcoming events:
 
 
Visit Events Calendar
 
Children’s Institute 2024 Updates
 

There are still spots open on the Children’s Institute 2024 (Ci2024) half-day bookstore tours! Currently these spots are only open to bookseller attendees. If you are a bookseller attending Ci2024 and you want to join the tour, reserve your spot now!

Any bookstore tour spots still available on May 6 will be made available to all (non-bookseller) attendees. 
 
Register Now
 
ABA’s Annual Meeting and Community Forum

ABA’s Annual Meeting and Community Forum will be Thursday, May 23, at 2:00 pm ET. 

The agenda for this meeting is now available on BookWeb.

An ABA Board Community Forum will immediately follow the Annual Meeting

Members can log in on BookWeb to register for this event. Booksellers, publishers, or press without log-ins may contact [email protected] to be vetted to receive the link.
Register Now
Lightning Talks

ABA's Bookseller Lightning Talks series features booksellers presenting 5–10 minute talks on tech tools, organizational strategies, communication methods, or innovations they’ve made in their stores. 

Lightning Talks take place on the second Thursday of every month.

Our May talks will feature:

  • Book Donation Campaigns with Sophie Nogar (Second Star to the Right Books)
  • Book Fest Planning and Logistics with Preet Singh (Eagle Eye Book Shop)
  • Building Awareness & Visibility for the Children's Section with Lily Taliaferro (Eagle Harbor Book Company)
Register Now
Batch Gains Momentum!

Thank you to Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Gardners US. Their participation in Batch demonstrates a commitment to the kind of technology, innovation, and efficiency our industry needs.

And thank you to Blackstone, Microcosm, and Independent Publishers Group for being the latest publishers to sign up for Batch! 

Booksellers, if you've been waiting for more publishers to sign up, don't wait! More booksellers means more publishers! To get started or learn more about Batch — a free platform to process invoices and payments in a more efficient manner saving you time and money — fill out our contact form or email Nathan Halter.
Sign Up Now
National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month and Amanda Gorman, the youngest presidential inaugural poet in US history, is our ambassador for Independent Bookstore Day!

You can find Independent Bookstore Day assets featuring Amanda Gorman on BookWeb.

Gorman believes independent bookstores are “vital hubs of creativity and community.” 

And make sure to pick up some of her work as you celebrate!
Download Assets
A Q&A With Kaliane Bradley, Author of May Indie Next List Top Pick “The Ministry of Time”

Independent booksellers across the country have chosen Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time as their top pick for the May 2024 Indie Next List. Here, Bookselling This Week and Bradley talk about The Ministry of Time.
Read Interview
The Mother-Daughter Trio Behind Mavey Books

This week, for Arab American Heritage Month, we’re spotlighting Mavey Books in Ardmore, PA. This new indie bookstore will host their grand opening this Indie Bookstore Day, April 27! Nadia Alawa and her daughters, Silla and Deema, are the trio behind Mavey Books. Alawa sat down with us to share her origin story and vision for the store.

Read Interview
The Novel Neighbor: On Ten Years of Operation and Open Door Romance

You’ve probably heard of The Novel Neighbor. The shop in St. Louis, MO, first opened in 2014. In the ten years since then, they’ve expanded, added a nonprofit arm, and recently announced their latest project — Open Door Romance. I sat down with Holland Saltsman, Owner; Kassie King, Director of Social Media and Marketing; and Stephanie Skees, Director of Events and Curated Collections; to learn about the past and future of The Novel Neighbor.
Read Interview
Lauren Groff: Free Expression Friday and Indie Bookstore Day

Lauren Groff, the first Indie Bookstore Day Ambassador, is set to open her bookstore The Lynx in Gainesville, FL, over Indie Bookstore Day weekend. Groff talked with ABA’s Advocacy Associate Manager, Philomena Polefrone, about the landscape of indie bookselling amidst book bans and how Groff made the leap into owning a bookstore as an author.

You can also listen to this interview on the ABA podcast, BookED.
Read Interview
Want to be Featured for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month?

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPI) and we’d love to highlight AAPI-owned stores.

If you’d like your store to be featured, reach out to [email protected] and tell us a little about your store! Photos are welcome. 
Email BTW
Jewish AmericanHeritage Month

May is Jewish American Heritage Month. This is an excellent time to feature works about famous Jewish Americans like Ruth Bader Ginsburg or Stephen Sondheim. You can also take this opportunity to center modern authors with Jewish heritage like Judy Blume, Walter Mosley, or Jodi Picoult.
Learn More
Advocacy Updates
 

American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE) has been advising stores receiving pressure and harassment regarding their sentiments or alleged sentiments on Israel and Palestine. We remind stores that you have a First Amendment right to curate your stock, displays, events, and everything else about your store, in accordance with your own beliefs and perspective. We also advised booksellers in New York and Texas about book censorship around the country and the best way they can support free expression. Finally, we filed an amicus brief, along with the Association of American Publishers, Authors Guild, and more, in support of two consolidated lawsuits against book bans in Iowa: PRH v. Robbins and GLBT Youth v. Reynolds, against a combination book ban and “Don’t Say Gay” law that will disproportionately target LGBTQ+ books.

On the small business side, ABFE has submitted an objection to the insufficient relief provided by the recent settlement of Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Legislation (No. 05-MD-1720 (MKB)(JAM)). While independent bookstores and other small businesses face an existential threat due to rising credit card fees — typically 2.5% of net sales — the settlement only reduces the interchange rate by at least .04% (4 basis points) for three years, reducing the overall average rates by just .07% for five years. These limits are as temporary as they are meager. Don’t be fooled into thinking we don’t need the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA), which the settlement may be intended to weaken. We need CCCA more than ever. 
 
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