About ABA

The last weekend in September will be a very busy one for booksellers, publishers, authors, and regional and American Booksellers Association staff. That's when the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association, New England Independent Booksellers Association, and Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance will be holding their respective trade shows. Each will offer an array of regional- and ABA-sponsored educational programming, great author events, contests, and more.

The 2007 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) Fall Trade Show will be held from Wednesday, September 19, through Friday, September 21, in Bellevue, Washington, at the Meydenbauer Center.

The American Booksellers Association will be presenting education sessions as part of the programming at each of the eight regional booksellers association fall trade shows and at the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association sales conference. Here is a first look at what's planned. In the coming weeks, BTW will feature previews of the shows, with details about the time, place, and presenters for each of the association's programs, as well as information about the ABA presence on the trade show floors and opportunities for ABA members to win prizes.

Among the new features of the American Booksellers Association's redesigned trade website, BookWeb.org, is a Booksellers Wiki.

With preparations underway for the holiday selling season, booksellers should be sure to check out ABA's Booksellers Resource Directory (BRD), a listing of vendors of non-book products and services, open to ABA bookstore, provisional, and publisher members. New listings are added or updated on a regular basis.

Though independent booksellers and independent musical-instrument retailers work in disparate industries, the two groups have common ground: They are facing intense competitive challenges from chain stores and mass merchandisers. Independent booksellers have responded with a number of initiatives -- from Shop Local movements to the Book Sense marketing program -- that have provided tools to help them compete with mega retailers.

The American Booksellers Association's members have recently expressed renewed concerns about National Public Radio's continued use of Amazon.com as their sole retail partner for books mentioned on the air and posted on the NPR website. ABA has been in discussion with NPR for some time in an attempt to provide NPR listeners with the option of supporting their local independent bookstore. Here is the latest response to NPR from ABA President Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana.

July 26, 2007

What do Muhammad Ali, baseball bats, mint juleps, and UPS trucks have in common? They all hail from Louisville, Kentucky, site of the American Booksellers Association's Third Annual Winter Institute (a.k.a., WI3), taking place on January 24 - 27, 2008.

The American Booksellers Association's Board of Directors held its summer meeting in Tarrytown, New York, from Thursday, July 12, through Monday, July 16. The meeting began in the late afternoon on Thursday with an orientation to introduce new Board members Steve Bercu of BookPeople in Austin, Texas, and Tom Campbell of The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, North Carolina, to the association's policies and procedures.

From the American Booksellers Association's "Welcome to Brooklyn" events on Wednesday, May 30, through the close of the trade show floor on Sunday, June 3, BookExpo America 2007 featured extensive educational programming, myriad networking opportunities, and, of course, books and authors galore.

A week after the American Booksellers Association launched its completely redesigned and enhanced trade website, www.BookWeb.org, at BookExpo America, user feedback has been very positive -- and helpful. ABA is responding to questions and suggestions from booksellers and is working to ramp up such new features as the Booksellers' Wiki and blog.

The results of the American Booksellers Association's 2007 Board of Directors elections have been certified by the association's auditors, Marks Paneth & Shron LLP. Candidates chosen by ABA's bookstore members to serve as directors, with terms ending in 2010, are Steve Bercu of BookPeople in Austin, Texas; Tom Campbell of The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, North Carolina; and Cathy Langer of Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver. Langer, who currently serves on the Board, was elected for a second three-year term.

This year's American Booksellers Association Town Hall and Annual Membership meetings will be held on Friday, June 1, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center.

The Town Hall Meeting, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Room 1C02 - 1C04 of the Javits Center, offers ABA member booksellers the opportunity to express opinions and share ideas with ABA Board members and staff in a less formal setting than the ABA Membership Meeting, which follows. At the Town Hall, booksellers are encouraged to ask questions and make suggestions on any topic of concern.

This week, ABA announced that ABA member bookstores have the chance to give away a trip for four to London to one of their customers as a Grand Prize in the "Independent Muggles for Harry Potter" sweepstakes, sponsored by Book Sense.