• Nominate a bookseller (or yourself!) for the Booksellers Advisory Council.
• Did your store participate in Indie Bookstore Day? Don't forget to fill out the sell-thru survey! 
• Nominate titles for the Best Books for Young Readers catalog.
• Mark your calendars! ABACUS will open on May 4.

Booksellers are invited to nominate themselves or other booksellers for the ABA Booksellers Advisory Council (BAC)!

BAC members provide feedback about ABA programs and services as they are being developed, offer suggestions to help ABA improve programs and better serve bookselling communities, bring concerns of booksellers and bookstore owners to the ABA staff and Board, and generally assist ABA.

If you want to be a part of the BAC, visit BookWeb to check out the BAC guidelines and fill out the nomination form.

Nominations are due by May 13.

Thank you to everyone who voted in this year’s ABA Board of Directors election!

We exceeded the quorum required by ABA's Bylaws and voting has officially concluded.

Congratulations to our new Board member:

• John Cavalier, Cavalier House Books, Denham Springs and Lafayette, LA

And congratulations to our returning members:

• Diane Capriola, Little Shop of Stories, Decatur, GA
• Donya Craddock, The Dock Bookshop, Fort Worth, TX
• Jessica Stockton Bagnulo, Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY
• Lisa Swayze, Buffalo Street Books, Ithaca, NY
• Holly Weinkauf, Red Balloon Bookshop, St. Paul, MN

• Monday, May 4 at 3:00 pm ET: Board Office Hours
• Tuesday, May 12 at 3:00 pm ET: New Member Series: Meet the Partners
• Tuesday, May 19 at 3:00 pm ET: ShopTalk
• Thursday, May 28 at 2:00 pm ET: ABA’s Annual Meeting and Community Forum
• Friday, May 29 at 3:00 pm ET: Ci2026 Virtual Institute Orientation #1

Join us in welcoming Karen Torres to the ABA Membership team as a Member Relations Manager!

Thank you to everyone who participated in Independent Bookstore Day 2026!

This year was our biggest yet, with more than 2,000 participating stores.

We’re already thinking about Independent Bookstore Day 2027!

If your store ordered exclusives, don’t forget to complete the Sell-Thru Survey by Friday, May 1. Your responses will help determine future exclusives!

Pictured above are several of our ABA staff members celebrating Indie Bookstore Day at their local indies!

ABACUS, ABA’s free annual benchmarking survey of member sales and financial data, is opening on Monday, May 4!

If you’ve participated in ABACUS in the past, you know how valuable the ABACUS results are — both for member stores and for ABA! 

Stores that participate in ABACUS receive individual “report cards” with key performance indicators that can help you with benchmarking and financial decision-making!

ABACUS also provides invaluable insight into trends, the fiscal health of our membership, and external industry factors impacting the indie channel, all of which helps the ABA team decide how best to support our members.

If you have never participated (or you are not a numbers person), don’t worry! We will be hosting several workshops to help you fill out the survey. 

We'll also offer education sessions later this year to help you understand and apply the survey results!

Watch BTW for more information!

ABA and Members Support the Freedom to Read in Albany, NY

Joined by two incredible booksellers, ABA's Philomena Polefrone was in Albany on Monday to support access to literature free from censorship. Suzanna Hermans of Oblong Books and Hillary Smith of Black Walnut Books made their voices heard about the ways book censorship impacts indie bookstores and the importance of access to diverse stories. 

With a coalition of book industry and civil liberties organizations, we spoke with the offices of multiple state Senators in support of two bills:

• The Freedom to Read Act (S 8630A/A 9537A) offers common-sense guardrails to protect the freedom to read in New York’s school libraries.
• The Open Shelves Act (A 3119B/S 1100A) offers the same protections in public libraries.

Both are essential to ensure the next generation of readers in New York has access to books, regardless of income. You can still add your voice in support of this bill by writing to your state legislators today.

Pictured above: Suzanna Hermans of Oblong Books (far left) joined Hillary Smith of Black Walnut Books (second from right), ABA's Philomena Polefrone (far right), and representatives from Penguin Random House, the Authors Guild, the New York Civil Liberties Union, and Authors Against Book Bans in a visit to Senator Bynoe's office.