Industry News

The talk of the independent bookselling community, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry follows the life of a bookstore owner as he deals with the trials and tribulations of life, love, and the book business. Here, author Gabrielle Zevin discusses the inspiration for her story and how she learned so much about the inner workings of the book business without stepping behind a checkout counter.

For planning purposes, booksellers and prospective booksellers in the Mountains and Plains and Southern regions who are planning to attend an ABA Booksellers Forum set for Denver, Atlanta, or Memphis are asked to RSVP within the next few days.

Every store in good standing that makes a reservation by March 31 at the Grand Hyatt New York, the exclusive hotel for ABA member booksellers at BEA 2014, will be entered into a random drawing for free hotel nights, courtesy of BEA.

Petitions to have the names of additional candidates added to the ballot for the ABA’s 2014–15 Board of Directors elections must be received by next Monday, March 3.

Due to technical problems that caused the Binc/Scholarship America website to crash, the deadline for scholarship applications for the 2014–2015 academic year has been extended to 11:59 p.m. CST on Monday, March 3.

World Book Night U.S. announced a partnership this week with the Audio Publishers Association  to give free audiobook downloads to the 25,000 WBN volunteer givers and bookseller givers.

The March Indie Next List’s 12 “Now in Paperback” titles are featured with bookseller quotes on a downloadable flier and shelf-talkers.

Building on the success of the Indies First movement launched last year by Sherman Alexie, ABA today unveiled plans for Indies First Storytime Day, spearheaded by award-winning author Kate DiCamillo, the Library of Congress’ 2014 –2015 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

Featured in this week’s Kobo News & Updates are details about a new Kobo Kids promotion, a Kobo contact guide, and reporting reminders about the Kobo Aura and Arc 7HD Valentine’s Day sale.

Literary prize created in honor of Politics & Prose founder; BEA to expand independent author programming; Colorado’s “Amazon tax” law blocked by judge

Bookseller Gary Robson of Red Lodge Books & Tea, working in collaboration with ABA, has created two boards on Pinterest where booksellers can share ideas about displays and discover innovative ways to showcase books and sidelines in their stores.

Author James Patterson has begun fulfilling his promise to give away $1 million in grants to independent bookstores, distributing $267,000 to 55 bookstores across the country thus far.

On Tuesday, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies hosted a webinar on the findings of this year’s Independent Business Survey, the post-holiday survey of independent business owners across the U.S., which was released earlier this month.

Whether they featured classic literary love stories, promoted modern stories of dating and romance, or celebrated an appreciation for their customers, booksellers enjoyed a bump in sales and increased traffic in their stores for Valentine’s Day.

ABA has invited booksellers and prospective booksellers in the Great Lakes and Midwest regions to its spring Booksellers Forums in Cleveland, Minneapolis, and Iowa City. Each will feature an open forum discussion and the education session “Conversations That Work.”