About ABA

ABA Board members and senior staff will be in Chicago on Thursday, January 15, to meet with booksellers in the Great Lakes region. The ABA Booksellers Forum, held in conjunction with the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, will convene at the Allerton Crowne Plaza, the Hotel ABA/Chicago for BookExpo America 2004, located at 701 North Michigan Avenue (corner of Michigan & Huron).

Booksellers in the Southeast will have two opportunities in January to meet with representatives of the ABA Board and senior staff to discuss issues of concern and share ideas, as well as get an update on the association's past activities and influence future plans. ABA's first forum of 2004 will be held on Friday, January 9, at the John F. Germany Public Library in downtown Tampa, Florida.

There will be no issue of Bookselling This Week during the week of December 22; however, the Book Sense Bestseller List will be compiled and e-mailed to booksellers as usual on Tuesday, December 23. In addition, the list in PDF format will be posted to the Web at www.bookweb.org/booksense/bestsellers/ either late Tuesday or early Wednesday, December 24. Booksellers will receive an e-mail from ABA when posting of the Bestseller List to BookWeb is complete.

This week, ABA sent e-mail invitations to booksellers in the Southeast and Great Lakes regions (including booksellers in Wisconsin) to attend the first two ABA Booksellers Forums of 2004. In conjunction with the Southeast Booksellers Association (SEBA), ABA will hold the first forum of the winter season on Friday, January 9, at the John F. Germany Public Library in downtown Tampa, Florida.

ABA has announced that as of Tuesday, December 9, all rooms at the Allerton Crowne Plaza and Radisson Hotel & Suites set aside for ABA member booksellers planning to attend BookExpo America (BEA) 2004 in Chicago have been sold out.

"ABA and BEA thank all the booksellers who have signed up to take advantage of these great hotel offers," said ABA COO Oren Teicher. "We have some great things in store for you when you arrive!"

On Friday, January 9, ABA will hold the first of 16 Booksellers Forums scheduled for various locations across the country over the next four months. The forums provide booksellers in every region an opportunity to meet with senior ABA staff and Board members to share ideas, to discuss industry issues, and to receive updates on various association projects. Data gathered at the forums is invaluable to the association as it shapes future programs and initiatives to the benefit of all ABA bookstore members.

Due to the overwhelming response by ABA member booksellers to the initial "Hotel ABA" offer for BookExpo America (BEA) in Chicago next June, ABA has obtained a small additional block of double rooms at the Radisson Hotel & Suites, which is next door to the Allerton/Hotel ABA. ABA members staying at the Radisson will enjoy all the same benefits and the same great rate as those staying at the Hotel ABA/Allerton. (See below for a list of features.)

This weekend ABA staff will be conducting educational programming and Book Sense gift card demonstrations at the New England Booksellers Association's (NEBA) 30th Annual Meeting & Trade Show and at the Southern California Booksellers Association's (SCBA) Authors Feast and Fall Seminars. The NEBA trade show will be held in Providence, Rhode Island, at the Rhode Island Convention Center from Friday, October 24, to Sunday, October 26.

With the Book Sense Gift Card Program in full swing, and the holiday season just around the corner, booksellers participating in, or planning to join, the program should note these important announcements regarding the availability of swipes, barcode readers, and receipt printers through ABA, as well as the approach of important deadlines.

On Monday and Tuesday, October 20 - 21, the American Booksellers Association's e-mail system came under attack from outside sources, and the result was intermittent breaks in service during which incoming e-mails may have been lost. If you sent an e-mail to any address @BookWeb.org or @BookSense.com on Monday or Tuesday and have not received a response, or have received notification that it was undeliverable, please resend it.

Our e-mail system is once again working properly, and we want to know what you had to say.

The American Booksellers Association Board of Directors held its fall meeting in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, from October 9 - 12. In addition to ABA-related discussions, the board also had the opportunity to meet with the Upper Midwest Booksellers Association Board in an informal setting to discuss a number of bookselling issues.

The New England Booksellers Association's (NEBA) 30th Annual Meeting & Trade Show and the Southern California Booksellers Association (SCBA) Authors Feast and Fall Seminars will take place next weekend. NEBA's trade show will be held in Providence, Rhode Island, at the Rhode Island Convention Center from Friday, October 24, to Sunday, October 26, and SCBA will hold its authors feast and seminars on Saturday, October 25, at the Westin Hotel in Pasadena, California.

The results of ABA's semi-annual revenue survey of stores with Book Sense indicate that 59 percent of reporting stores experienced an increase in sales for the first half of 2003, compared to the same period in 2002. Thirty-six percent reported a decline in sales, and 6 percent reported no change in sales from the previous year.

A third of responding stores reported sales increases of 6 percent or more, and 21 percent reported increases of more than 10 percent.

ABA staff will be at this weekend's Upper Midwest Booksellers Association (UMBA) Trade Show at the RiverCentre in St. Paul, Minneapolis, to present the results of 2003 ABACUS study and to provide demonstrations of the new electronic gift card program.