About Bookselling

Our annual holiday preparations checklist includes reminders about merchandising, marketing, and promotional efforts as well as updates to websites, blogs, and social media, along with other helpful hints.

Here is a list of Edelweiss best practices for book buyers, complied by Robert Sindelar of Third Place Books and annotated with links by Above the Treeline’s Joe Foster.

Author Sherman Alexie has launched Indies First, a grassroots movement that calls on authors to show their support for independent booksellers by signing up to work at their favorite indie bookstore on Small Business Saturday, celebrated this year on November 30, the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

A new film, created for the Lewisburg Literary Festival and now available on Vimeo, features booksellers from across the country discussing books, bookselling, and how bookstores contribute to the health of communities nationwide. Several well-known authors also make an appearance.

SIBA trade show attendees are invited to join ABA staff for a special education session on the Affordable Care Act and what it means for bookstore owners and their employees. At the ABA booth, booksellers will have the opportunity to discuss their concerns with staff and to learn about member services, new initiatives, upcoming educational events, and more.

Bowker releases statistics on consumer book buying; SIBA offering scholarship to fall trade show; Miami Book Fair celebrates 30^th anniversary; Ingram adds new clients; Jeff Bezos to purchase the Washington Post

NCIBA Executive Director Hut Landon invites booksellers and their customers to subscribe to “Hut’s Place: Weekly Words About Books,” a free e-mail column that highlights newly released titles available in independent bookstores nationwide.

Want to put the call out to other booksellers for suggestions on how best to promote eBooks and eReaders? Looking to share best practices for handling personnel matters? BookWeb’s online discussion forums are a great place to bring these and other issues to the attention of other booksellers or ABA and IndieCommerce staff members.

Looking to increase revenue and bring in new customers on top of their regular, in-store business, a number of indie booksellers are turning toward business-to-business sales — large-quantity book sales to companies and organizations.

ABA bookstore members are eligible to receive a discount on standard and custom orders from ChicoBag, the manufacturer of reusable, stylish, and eco-friendly bags that come in a variety of shapes, sizes, fabrics, and colors. 

As part of last week’s Independent Booksellers Week celebrations in the United Kingdom, bookseller Nic Bottomley, co-owner of Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights in Bath, offered “a personal, undoubtedly incomplete manifesto for 21st century independent bookselling.” 

ABA has developed an affinity partnership with Alibris/Monsoon Commerce Solutions, which gives member stores an exclusive discount on services assisting in the sale of books online.

ABA’s educational session “Being Social: Reaching Your Customers and Community” at BookExpo America 2013 welcomed four panelists, who discussed using social media to enhance the communications reach of independent stores. 

Six panelists joined moderator Richard Buthod of Turtleback Books for the session “Common Core: Insight From Industry Touchpoints” at BEA: Melissa Jacobs-Israel from the New York City public school system; Cheryl Dickemper of The Booksource; Kenny Brechner of Devaney Doak & Garrett; Phoebe Yeh, then of HarperCollins Children’s Books; Becky Anderson of Anderson’s Bookshops; and Victoria Stapleton of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

In his bimonthly letter to members, ABA CEO Oren Teicher shares the renewed sense of optimism about indie bookselling that was evident at last week’s trade show, looks at some of the important changes of the past year, and reminds booksellers about several new programs and initiatives.