Stand Up for Diverse Stories American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE) is concerned by reports of industry pushback on LGBTQIA2S+ book acquisitions, citing political pressure, fear of censorship, and the economic situation it creates. While some, per a senior literary agent quoted in The Hill, claim “it’s difficult to place queer books in stores,” we know how many independent bookstores champion diverse books. Indie booksellers have a voice in this industry. If you want there to be new diverse books for your shelves, you can help by communicating to publishers that the demand for these titles is still there; committing to buying, displaying, and handselling those titles; sharing your LGBTQIA2S+ title sales with publishers through Basecamp; and expressing concern that if publishing and bookselling doesn't stick with the commitment to publish more diverse titles, we will lose readers in an already diminishing reader pipeline. Know Your Rights: Customer Privacy ABFE has “know your rights” resources available to help you be prepared to respond to requests for searches, subpoenas for customer records, and other issues impacting customer privacy. Remember that for time-sensitive freedom of expression support or questions, bookstores can contact the ABFE Help Line or email [email protected]. Florida Book Ban Legislation Hearing Wednesday The Florida House of Representatives’ Education Administration Subcommittee will hear HB 1119 today, January 21, as early as 4:00 pm ET. If your representative is on the subcommittee (Reps. Trabulsy, Black, Nixon, Albert, Alvarez, Aristide, Basabe, Boyles, Gossett-Seidman, Holcomb, Long, Mooney, Jr., Nix, Porras, Sapp, Valdés, Weinberger, Woodson), consider taking a moment to contact them using PEN Florida’s Action Center. Spotlight on Utah Utahns, take notice: SB 73 is a newly filed bill that would create a tax on materials deemed “harmful to minors.” It would impose a (possibly unconstitutional) tax based on gross receipts from sales of content the state doesn’t like, require some vendors to age-verify their websites, and create a basis for invasive audits. The chilling effect would be considerable and compliance would be difficult and potentially expensive. ABA has begun discussions with concerned booksellers in the state. If you’d like to be included in advocacy efforts, please email [email protected] to let us know. While you’re at it, let us know if you’d like to be included in advocacy against HB 197, a bill that would mandate AI review of books to determine book bans and potentially book acquisitions by school districts. This would slow the acquisition process for schools and impact the bottom line of bookstores who do business with their local school districts. If you sell books to a Utah school district, we’d especially like to hear from you at [email protected]. |
