About Bookselling

Just Write! connects Village Books to writing community; Penguin Bookshop launches writers series; The Writer’s Block to bring education, events to Las Vegas; Third Place Books owner Ron Sher featured; California’s Bay Books offers personal touch

With a Senate vote on the FREEDOM Act expected soon, ABFE Director Chris Finan takes the opportunity to look back at how the fight for reader privacy began 17 years ago, when subpoenas for a customer’s records were issued to two Washington, D.C., bookstores.

At the Children’s Institute in Pasadena last month, booksellers and authors at the forefront of the We Need Diverse Books movement shared a host of strategies on how best to promote diverse messages and content through in-store displays, events, and hiring practices.

Canadian company to host summer Bookseller Academy; Publishers Lunch releases Buzz Books; Kobo to provide free e-book access to Southwest Airlines customers

Sales were strong at three New Orleans indies that banded together to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day a week later than the rest of the country, due to a conflict with Jazz Fest.

Flowh, a platform designed to turn an online events calendar into a marketing tool, is offering a free year of its premium service exclusively to ABA member stores.

In his last letter as ABA president, BookPeople’s Steve Bercu reflects on the positive changes for independent booksellers in the past two years and reminds members to take advantage of educational and networking opportunities at BEA.

Booksellers chose Pieces of My Mother, a memoir by Book Passage events coordinator Melissa Cistaro, as an Indie Next List pick for May. In the book, Cistaro writes about her mother’s disappearance from her life at a very young age and how she came to terms with this fateful choice as an adult.

Canada’s Indigo Books looks to expand to U.S.; Macmillan partners with BitLit on e-book bundling; Lerner to distribute Hutton Grove; Skyhorse announces promotions, reorganization

Edelweiss/Treeline Education and Outreach Coordinator Joe Foster demonstrates how booksellers can quickly get a feel for what is happening with their inventory by looking at three Treeline screens: Market Top Sellers, Trends, and the In-Stock Bar Chart.

Booksellers can still sign up for “Meet the Editor,” which is returning to BookExpo America following its debut in 2014, as well as “Publicists Speed Dating,” ABA’s newest bookseller/publisher networking event.

To facilitate conversations that began during the Roundtable Discussions on POS Systems at Winter Institute 10, and to foster new discussions, six new booksellers-only online forums were recently added to BookWeb.org.

For a limited time, ChicoBag is offering the top three IndieBound slogans most requested by ABA members on original-style bags for half the suggested retail price.

Here is an array of great ideas for promoting bookstores as hubs of creativity, community, and activity, all gleaned from the bookseller discussion groups following Steven Johnson’s plenary talk, “How We Got to Now,” at Winter Institute 10.

Booksellers planning to enter this year’s Children’s Book Week Display Contest, sponsored by the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader in partnership with the ABC Children’s Group at ABA, must mount their displays from April 30 to May 10.