Industry News

Sue Monk Kidd, the author of The Invention of Wings, discusses her research and writing processes, the challenge of entwining fact and fiction, and the importance of women finding their own voices.

PartnerShip, ABA’s shipping program provider, is offering members a detailed paper analyzing the recently instituted small package rate increases from UPS and FedEx.

Bookstores should be on the lookout for an e-mail from ABA arriving on Monday, January 6, with a link to the seventh annual post-holiday survey, conducted this year by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and the Advocates for Independent Business.

Independent booksellers rang in 2014 with high spirits and stories of success, as special holiday sales and buy local efforts brought customers out to support local bookstores in communities nationwide.

Byrd’s Books owner named person of the year; Andover Bookstore celebrates 50 years in current location; Food for Thought gets a makeover; Other Tiger for sale; Mrs. Nelson’s to continue book fair and library businesses

List of states where Amazon collects sales tax grows; Kate DiCamillo named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature; Authors Guild files appeal

Registration for ABA’s second Children’s Institute will open next Thursday, January 9. The full-day education program, sponsored by Baker & Taylor, will be held on Monday, April 7, in San Antonio, Texas, and is open to all ABA member booksellers.

In case you missed the announcement during the holiday rush, here’s a reminder that the January Indie Next List’s 12 “Now in Paperback” titles are now available for download on both a flier and shelf-talkers.

ABA members should look for their 2014 dues renewal notices to arrive via the USPS within the next several days. The membership year for all members is February 1, 2014 – January 31, 2015.

Owners and managers are encouraged to post the list of 2014 Indie Next List deadlines in their stores’ backroom or wherever reading copies and ARCs are kept to encourage staff to nominate the titles they will be enthusiastically handselling in the coming months.

In a resort community whose population more than doubles in the summer months, Barbara Siepker has nurtured a book shop and a nonprofit publishing company that celebrate permanence and the area she calls home.

Changing Hands meets fundraising goal; WORD opens in Jersey City; Curious Iguana featured in Washington Post

Pennsylvania House pushes Congress toward e-fairness; More consumers to finish holiday shopping online; National Book Foundation calls for Innovations in Reading nominations; Candlewick reaches out to teens through E-Volt Tumblr; Making Information Pay conference to co-locate with Digital Publishing Forum at BEA

Four e-book promotions were recently added to the IndieCommerce Publisher Promotions page. Categories include digital originals, middle grade and teen deals, and year-end specials.

Stores that participated in the Black Friday and Cyber Monday Kobo Arc promotion must report units sold by this Friday, December 20, via the Kobo Reporting Tool.