Anita Silvey
Chris Finan |
By Chris Finan, President of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
It never hurts to be lucky.
 Last fall, Carl Lennertz, vice president for independent retailing at HarperCollins, put out a call to booksellers and librarians for essays for regional versions of State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America (edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey, Ecco). The Great Lakes Reader, the first of nine planned titles, debuts this October.
Chris Finan |
In this column, Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, explains why booksellers should care about what happens to Robert J. Stevens, a Virginia man who has been convicted of creating videos that contain scenes of dogfighting.
 I bought my bookstores 13 years ago without any business training. I had worked in, and then managed the stores for several years, but apart from that, I was, let's face it, an English major.
By Meg Smith, ABA Chief Marketing Officer
In 1787, eleven ships left Portsmouth, England, to form a penal colony in Australia. Among the 1,480 men, women, and children and clothing and building supplies carried by the First Fleet was a notable essential for the new life ahead: a printing press. Whatever was to come, the new settlers were prepared to write and read about it.
Dear Fellow Bookseller:
We are writing to you today both as colleagues and as members of the ABA Board of Directors because of our concern that one of ABA's most valuable services has become one of the most threatened.
Hut
Landon |
Lenny
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This column by Lucy Kogler of Talking Leaves Books appeared on the Opinion Page of The Buffalo News on April 29, 2009.
Little did T.S. Eliot know when he wrote the first five words of "The Wasteland" in 1920 -- "April is the cruelest month" -- just how portentous his words were.
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On April 1, the American Booksellers Association transferred co-op management for booksellers participating in the ABA E-Commerce Solution to Paz & Associates. Mark Kaufman, who currently serves as co-op administrator for 30 independent booksellers using Paz's newsletter marketing services, is now working with E-commerce stores to claim publishers' co-op monies to help offset the cost of maintaining their websites.
When John Updike died at the end of January, the book industry lost not only one of its greatest writers, but also a true devotee of independent bookstores. In 2006, at a BookExpo America Book & Author Breakfast filled with more than a thousand industry professionals, Updike paid homage to the most important influences on his development as a writer and reader.
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About ABA
The American Booksellers Association, a national not-for-profit trade organization, works with booksellers and industry partners to ensure the success and profitability of independently owned book retailers, and to assist in expanding the community of the book.
Independent bookstores act as community anchors; they serve a unique role in promoting the open exchange of ideas, enriching the cultural life of communities, and creating economically vibrant neighborhoods.
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