Industry News

The Indies First movement has grown into a full-time campaign with plenty of ways for ABA members to participate. This year’s celebration of all things local will again feature a variety of special offers from publishers, author events, and more. In addition, in response to booksellers’ input, the program’s message to consumers has been strengthened and streamlined and the participation process is easier.

ICSC poll finds support for e-fairness at all-time high; Chase and Google to award small business grants; Study analyzes reading habits of Millennials; Man Booker Prize shortlist revealed; Neil Gaiman to present lifetime achievement award to Ursula Le Guin; Ellen Chodosh named director of NYU Press

Advocates for Independent Business is launching the social media campaign #efairnessnow to encourage consumers to show their support for Main Street retailers by posting images on their Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Event registration and hotel reservations for ABA’s 10th Annual Winter Institute will open in Bookselling This Week on Thursday, September 18. The 2015 Winter Institute will be held February 8 – 11 at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina.

Here is the latest on the upgrade of IndieCommerce websites to the Drupal 7 platform, including details on “no touch” service for simple sites whose DNS is hosted by ABA and “almost no touch” service for stores whose DNS is not hosted by ABA.

Finally Found Books owner Todd Hulbert is giving every teacher in two Washington school districts a $10 store gift certificate to help with classroom expenses.

Booksellers attending MPIBA’s Fall Discovery Show, from October 9 to 11 at Colorado’s Renaissance Denver Hotel, will find a full schedule of author events and educational programming, including a new session from ABA, “The Nuts and Bolts of Finance.”

In response to a challenge from The Elliott Bay Book Company, ABA staff completed the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge on Thursday and now hands the baton to AAP, BISG, and NACS.

Madeline McIntosh has been appointed president of the Penguin Publishing Group, which brings together the Penguin imprints Penguin Adult and Berkley/NAL under one leadership team.

Booksellers are responding enthusiastically to the latest Banned Books Week promotion from Ingram Content Group and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression.

Husband-and-wife team Jeff Garrett and Nina Barrett welcomed their first customers through the doors of Bookends & Beginnings earlier this year and the store is now well on its way to becoming a welcoming social space for the surrounding community. 

Barnes & Noble has joined the American Booksellers Association in supporting sales tax fairness by urging Congress not to delay in passing e-fairness legislation in the closing weeks of this legislative session.

Being the sole bookseller for the 14th Annual Library of Congress National Book Festival “far exceeded our expectations,” said Politics & Prose co-owner Bradley Graham.

David Mitchell, the author of The Bone Clocks, recently spoke with Bookselling This Week about the inspiration for his latest bestseller, some of the characters readers might recognize from previous novels, and his own experience working in a bookstore.

Booksellers at all ABA member stores now have until next Wednesday, September 10, to place their orders for additional copies of the 2014 ABC Best Books for Children Catalog.