Industry News

While some people go out of their way to shop at only independents, one couple has taken it a little bit farther -- 13,000 miles farther to be exact.

The Miami Book Fair International (MBFI), among the nation's largest and most highly regarded book events, will come to the South Florida campus of Miami Dade College for eight days beginning on November 13.

A prominent box at the top of the weekly e-mail edition of Bookselling This Week offers readers two printing choices.

Tatnuck Bookseller, one of the largest independent bookstores in New England, with stores and adjoining eateries in Worcester and Westborough, Massachusetts, is celebrating its 30th year.

Booksellers who want to take advantage of the special $89 hotel room rate at the Long Beach Hilton, the host hotel of the American Booksellers Association's inaugural Winter Institute, must register by November 15. The Winter Institute will be held on Thursday, January 26, and Friday, January 27, 2006, and for booksellers who are traveling to Long Beach, California, ABA has arranged the special $89 rate, available for three nights: Wednesday, January 25, through Friday, January 27.

For the past three years, in an effort to help booksellers increase their profit margins, the American Booksellers Association has been gathering data on the financial operations of its member bookstores. Each year, these results have been published in a new ABACUS Study and participants have been sent customized store reports, which compare their financial performance with the performance of other stores based on more than 20 different criteria.

The following bookstores, publishers, distributors, regional booksellers associations, and individuals have all generously contributed to the Bookseller Relief Fund, which was established by the American Booksellers Association in response to the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

On Wednesday, November 2, a panel of judges in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City heard two arguments regarding an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenge to the issuance of National Security Letters (NSLs) to a Connecticut Library and New York Internet Service Provider (ISP), which asked each to turn over customer records in regards to terrorist investigations. The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression is among the organizations that have filed amicus briefs in both cases.

The American Booksellers Association will convene a Spanish-Language Bookstore Focus Group on the world of Spanish-language bookselling, in both Spanish-language stores and within general trade stores, on November 18 at the 2005 Miami Book Fair International (MBFI). The goal of the group will be to better understand the needs and challenges of bookselling to, and by, the Latino community, with an eye towards developing new education, marketing, and other programs to meet these needs.

Random House Announces New Business Model for Online Viewing of Books

As big box retail continues its onslaught on towns throughout the USA -- often dominating the local retail landscape in many cities and towns -- one local business alliance in Utah is helping its citizens envision what their communities and towns would look like if they were made up entirely of chain retail outlets by drawing them a picture. Literally.