ABA meets with publishers regularly, but once a year during May and June we have our annual meetings with about 40 publishers. These meetings are attended by myself, ABA’s Chief Operating Officer Joy Dallanegra-Sanger, and 2–3 ABA Board members per meeting, all of whom are booksellers and bookstore owners. On the publisher side, we usually meet with the Publisher or CEO along with various senior staff members and others on the publisher’s team who work with indies.
These meeting tones and topics can vary greatly, based on who attends and on publisher culture and priorities. It’s evident in all of them though that the publishers love indie bookstores.
“2025 was another banner year for independent bookstores. ABA’s membership grew by 19%, and 605 new brick-and-mortar, pop-up, and mobile stores opened across the US. The majority of stores also reported year-over-year increases in sales for 2025 over 2024. These numbers are part of some incredible momentum for the indies; ABA membership has grown 151% the past 6 years.
2025 was also the most challenging year for indies on record as our members faced rising costs, tariffs, the impact of ICE and the National Guard in communities, discriminatory laws, the impact of climate change, book bans and challenges, and free speech harassment in addition to the perennial challenges of thin margins and Amazon’s monopoly and monopolistic chokehold on our industry.”
“I hope those of you who joined us in Pittsburgh will continue to draw from the joy and community you found at Winter Institute 2026 to support you in the important work you’re doing in the world. And I hope those of you who were not able to join us are finding joy and community in other ways that sustain you.”
"During a loneliness epidemic, you’ve created spaces for people to gather and connect. During an era of disinformation, you’ve provided history and truth. During a time when the voices of Black people, trans people, people of color, and LGBTQIA2S+ communities at large are being silenced and erased, you continue to center and celebrate these vital stories. As the world has been flooded with AI-generated content, you’ve championed authors and illustrators, real people who put their hearts and souls into their books. And you’ve continued the day-to-day seemingly ordinary, but truly extraordinary, gesture of connecting readers with books that entertain them, reassure them, reflect them, challenge them, and often change them.
I hope that while you’ve been doing that vital work your path has included those moments of grace that keep indie booksellers going — the young person who returns to tell you how much they loved the book you recommended, the customer who shares that your store feels like their refuge, the debut author who thanks you for hosting their very first event."
“We're in dark times, and the light is shining out of the windows of bookstores, and that gives hope.”
ABA’s former Senior Strategy Officer, Dan Cullen, said these words last year in an interview in Bookselling This Week on the occasion of ABA’s 125th anniversary. His words ring true right now. We see you, booksellers... You are not alone in these dark times.
"Despite it all, we hope your season was also filled with moments of holiday retail magic: finding the last copy of a book that’s been missing for days for a grateful customer, deciphering a few vague clues to identify the title a customer has been frantically trying to remember, recommending the perfect book for a customer’s impossible-to-shop-for family member, and hearing again and again how much your store means to your community."
