125 Years of ABA: Q&A with Audrey Huang

Audrey Huang of Belmont Books in Belmont, Massachusetts, has been a bookseller since 2017 and has served on a number of ABA committees and councils over the years. 

Huang sat down with Bookselling This Week to discuss some of the ways she's been involved with ABA. 

Bookselling This Week: One of the reasons that I want to talk to you was because you’ve been involved in several different aspects of ABA.

So, why don’t you give me a little bit of background about yourself and some of the things you've done with ABA?

Audrey Huang: I started bookselling a little over eight years ago.

Before I was a bookseller, I was a lawyer. I took some time off and I saw a posting for a bookstore that was opening in the town next to me. And I thought, “Okay, why not? I'll just see how it works. I've always enjoyed books.”

I was hired a month or two before they opened, and I helped open the store. Actually seeing in its natural state without anything in there was wild. It had never even occurred to me how when stores open, they’re totally empty. You have to move the shelves around, and unpack all the boxes. You have to put everything where it goes, right?

And that kind of just blew my mind a little bit.

The store opened in June of 2017, and I've been there since then.

I joined Indies Introduce in 2021, and I thought that was fantastic. Since everything was online, I got to talk to booksellers across the country, and we were just discussing books.

Around that same time, there was an ask for people to join the ABA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council (DEIC). One of the owners of my store nominated me, and then that's how I got on.

We've had a number of booksellers cycle off and back on over the years. I'm the history brain on the Council, so that's why I'm still serving. I have a very good memory.

Also, once or twice a year, someone from the Education Committee will email a bunch of us with a spreadsheet of potential classes for the Institutes. I’ll chime in, and sometimes get on a Zoom or stuff like that.

BTW: Is there a project or anything else that you've been a part of while working with ABA that you're especially proud of? Or that you feel has been especially helpful?

AH: I am very proud of the work I've done for the DEIC.

We've made a lot of incremental changes within ABA and in the industry. Because change does happen. I’ve seen it happen. It may be small changes, but you have to start somewhere.

There are so many things that happened during COVID. We met a lot during those early COVID years, and our group really bonded. But even as people cycled off and new people came on, you could see progress happening.

For example, a DEIC member, David Landry, is the one who came up with the idea that essentially turned into IGNITE. Then, we all gave input on what we wanted IGNITE to look like.

And for a first-time session, I thought that worked out great for the IGNITE participants. Everyone just felt this energy from being in the room together. There is a certain power in having a room of BIPOC booksellers.

With Rep Picks especially, we've heard over the years that the reps often present titles that are very white. If you are a mission-focused bookstore — or if you just don't always read white authors — there's not much for that buyer or for that store.

So having picks presented by BIPOC publishing representatives to BIPOC booksellers was a very powerful thing.

And that's just one of the great things that came out of the DEIC.

BTW: I’m curious: How does your background as a lawyer affect how you look at things — either within your daily work at the bookshop or when you're involved with ABA?

AH: When you're a lawyer, you're trained to advocate for your client. So in this case, I am advocating for books written by marginalized authors with as many intersections as possible.

I can remember a lot of what happens in the books, and when I'm looking at the shelves, I can pull books off and just do a little boom, boom, boom, as to why I think whoever's asking would like this book.

That goes into how, as a lawyer, most of the job is reading, critically thinking about the subject matter, and then selling your argument. In this case, it's not that different. How are you going to find something that the customer wants and will enjoy, and how are you going to sell it?

Even how I manage difficult situations in the store comes from my training.

The funny thing is, there are a lot of lapsed lawyers in the industry. There are a lot who own bookstores or work in bookstores, but also a lot who write mysteries or romance.

BTW: As this interview comes out, we are just starting ABA Board nomination season. Would you talk a little bit about why you feel it's important to be involved with ABA? Or what might you say to anyone who might be looking at board nominations — or anything else that they could be nominated for — and wondering if they should go for it?

AH: It never hurts to try. If you have issues with the industry, the only way they're going to be addressed is if your voice is heard. And the best way to have your voice heard is to get involved in ABA — whether through the Booksellers Advisory Council (BAC), Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council (DEIC), the Board, Indies Introduce, or through one of the other committees.

Change isn't going to happen if you don't get involved. That's really what it comes down to. If you want to make change, you've got to put skin in the game.

And for me, serving on the DEIC is probably one of the most professionally rewarding things that I've done, because I can see the incremental change. I can see that I am making a difference in the industry.

I want to see more. I like seeing that progress. Especially because so much of this country is regressing instead of progressing right now.

I also think some people may be hesitant [to join] the Board (or any committee) because they feel like they don't have the experience, but if you have ideas and you want to make change, you should just go for it.

And if you don't get on the Board, try the BAC, or DEIC, or anything else. You shouldn't get discouraged, because there are so many subcommittees and groups that you can join.

Not being accepted immediately doesn't mean that you aren't qualified. It may mean that there are too many people from your region who are applying, or any number of things.

I also want to stress that you don't have to be an owner or a manager. I'm a frontline bookseller. We may not have a traditional managerial role or owner role, but that doesn't mean our voices aren't important.

So go for it. It doesn't hurt.

BTW: So we've hit 125 years of ABA.

What would like ABA to prioritize moving forward? What do you feel like the important focuses of ABA should be?

AH: I think one of the things is sustainability — making sure that there are living wages, insurance, and all of those other factors that would help make bookselling into a sustainable profession.

It's difficult because the margins are so slim and money is always tight. And there's that balance of what the store can actually pay versus what they want to pay, right?

There are so many things that go into that, whether it’s credit card fees, or discounts, or whatever. It's always local indies who get dinged on all this stuff, because the big operators can negotiate better rates for everything.

I know that ABA is working on some of those issues.

But I think that that is one of the most important things. The other thing is book bans.

ABA’s Philomena Polefrone has been doing a terrific job with advocacy work and with partnering up with stores in whichever states they're litigating in.

But there's also all these soft bans that may be happening in bookstores and libraries, where the librarian or buyer may not know about whatever book is coming out. Or they do know and are like, “Well, I can see this being a potential problem and no one's heard of this person anyway, so maybe I'll pass on this book.”

It's not a hard ban, but now those books aren't available to people who want to see themselves in a book. And the reality is that every person needs to see themselves in a book. Expanding on that: everyone should see themselves represented — not just in serious books about racism, slavery, or immigration, but also as heroes in fun books. It doesn’t mean that main characters may not have issues with racism, but they can solve crimes, be in space, or have a romance.

Along those lines, for a while it seemed like BIPOC authors were being courted, they were getting contracts, the books were being published, and the ARCs were being sent out everywhere.

In my limited view, it seems like that has passed a little bit. At least, there are less physical ARCs of marginalized authors overall.

The way to have BIPOC authors succeed is to promote them. If there are less ARCs, and if reps aren't reading them, they're not going to sell them to the stores. It becomes this snowball effect.

It's not a book ban per se, but we don't want this part of publishing to regress.

BTW: Is there anything that you wanted to bring up or anything that you felt was important to talk about that we haven't mentioned yet?

AH: Back to the idea of getting involved: I would also say, if the thought of getting involved with ABA is intimidating, then start at your regional. It's smaller, you’ll know more people, and you can still have input there and make your voice heard.