Industry News

ABA member booksellers began Wednesday morning at BEA with visits to “Meet the Editor” at various publishers’ offices around New York City. “It was just an incredible, incredible session with some very high caliber editors,” said Matt Miller of Tattered Cover about his experience.

The 2015 winners of the Book Industry Charitable Foundation’s Higher Education Scholarships, announced this week, include 53 current bookstore employees/owners and their dependents as well as former Borders Group employees and their dependents.

On Tuesday, Kobo revealed plans for an incentive program aimed at encouraging customers at ABA member stores to give e-reading a try. Set to launch later this summer and to run for 100 days, eRead Local will reward both ABA member stores that acquire new Kobo customers and the customers themselves.

Bookseller essays sought for new series; Children’s Book Council to receive BEA’s Industry Ambassador Award; PEN to stage “Shadow Expo” during BEA to shed light on Chinese censorship; Los Angeles preliminarily approves $15 minimum wage 

Booksellers expressing concerns on a range of issues during the Small Business Majority’s first-ever Small Business Leadership Summit last week included incoming ABA President Betsy Burton of The King’s English Bookshop, Bradley Graham of Politics & Prose, Christin Evans of The Booksmith and Kepler’s Books, and Kris Kleindienst of Left Bank Books.

Key sections of the USA PATRIOT Act are set to expire on June 1. The U.S. House has overwhelmingly approved the FREEDOM Act, which extends the expiring sections but includes protections for the privacy of personal information. However, there may not be enough votes to pass this new legislation in the Senate.

Five of this year’s Indies Choice and E.B. White award-winning authors and illustrators will be at next week’s Celebration of Bookselling and Author Awards Lunch, along with a number of honor award recipients and Indie Next List favorites. The event will also feature a special tribute to former ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz.

ABA is encouraging all members to attend its 2015 Annual Membership Meeting, to be held on Thursday, May 28, from 4:15 p.m. to 5:15 p.m., in Room 1E15/16 of the Javits Convention Center in New York City during BEA.

The PowerPoint presentation from the ABA spring Booksellers Forum education session “Exploring New Markets” is available to booksellers on BookWeb.org. The forums, which began March 11 in Omaha, Nebraska, concluded on April 29 in Boston, Massachusetts.

The House has passed the USA FREEDOM Act, a bill that creates important safeguards for the privacy of personal information of Americans, including their bookstore and library records. A vote in the Senate is expected next week, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is promising to defeat the bill.

Book Club Hub, a project launched by BookBar owner Nicole Sullivan, is a national reading group networking site that aims to pair readers and book clubs with independent booksellers.

The ABC Children’s Group at ABA is inviting all member booksellers to submit title recommendations by June 30 for its newly renamed catalog, “ABC Best Books for Young Readers.”

The ABA Member Lounge at BEA will feature autographings and meet-and-greets by some of today’s top-selling authors, including Jonathan Franzen, seven BEA Book and Author Breakfast speakers, and 16 Indie Next List favorites.

In a letter sent on May 8, ABA called on its members to contact their representatives in the U.S. House to show their support for the USA FREEDOM Act, which limits the scope of data collected under the Patriot Act. The letter also urged booksellers to contact their senators to voice their opposition to S. 1035, a bill that reauthorizes Section 215 without any changes.