Advocacy

At Winter Institute 10, Publishers Weekly presented ABFE with a check for $13,600, a portion of the money raised by PW's Tribute to Freedom of Expression in its January 19 issue.

Booksellers who have been providing health insurance to their employees should remember that the Affordable Care Act includes federal tax credits for small businesses.

The American Booksellers for Free Expression is supporting an effort to overturn a new Pennsylvania law that gives victims of violent crime the power to silence the speech of the criminals who hurt them.

Independent businesses experienced strong sales growth in 2014 as more consumers embraced the “buy local” movement and ditched big companies in favor of supporting local retailers and small-scale producers, according to the 2015 Independent Business Survey, conducted by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in partnership with Advocates for Independent Business.

The Children’s Book Council CBC Diversity Initiative has launched the “It’s Possible” blog series, featuring five publishing professionals sharing their memories of working with Walter Dean Myers, the late children’s book author and advocate for literary diversity.

Amazon will begin collecting and remitting sales tax in Illinois beginning February 1 as part of a deal the online retailer struck with state officials in October 2014.

U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) has circulated draft sales tax fairness legislation that would ask most states to radically change their sales tax systems, according to media reports.

On Thursday, January 15, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed the recently passed Main Street Fairness legislation into law, thereby leveling the playing field for the state’s Main Street retailers.

In the wake of the horrifying massacre of the staff of Charlie Hebdo, ABFE Director Chris Finan looks at the courage it takes to stand up for free speech and the challenges facing booksellers.

As part of a social media campaign launched on Monday by ABA and ABFE, booksellers around the country are demonstrating both their solidarity with the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack and their support for free speech.

ABA is encouraging all bookstore members to complete the annual Independent Business Survey. A link to the survey was sent to stores in an e-mail from ABA CEO Oren Teicher on January 7.

In response to news that Amazon had fired its Vermont affiliates because of a 2011 e-fairness law that could potentially kick in this year, ABA and Advocates for Independent Business have launched an e-mail campaign asking Vermont indie retailers to contact Gov. Peter Shumlin in support of the law.

ABA is encouraging all member stores to take part in the annual post-holiday survey conducted by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and the Advocates for Independent Business coalition.

In late December, sales tax fairness proponents in Michigan won a big victory when the state legislature voted to pass e-fairness legislation.

Sony Pictures, which decided to pull The Interview from widespread distribution after threats from cyber-hackers, “should take a page from America’s booksellers,” wrote Ken Paulson, the president of the First Amendment Center, dean of the College of Mass Communication at Middle Tennessee State University, and a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors, in a December 19 USA TODAY column.