Industry News

The American Booksellers Association’s 13th annual Winter Institute will come to a close this evening after drawing a record number of booksellers, publishers, authors, and international guests to Memphis, Tennessee.

PBS announces key authors appearing on The Great American Read; WNBA seeks Pannell Award nominations; Three booksellers join MPIBA Board; PEN to honor Stephen King; Sourcebooks launches “Love Your Library Like a Carnegie!”; NBF elects board members; Proposed New York budget includes sales tax fairness measure; IngramSpark Ignite Awards honor two ABA members; National Jewish Book Award winners announced

#HarperCollinsLovesIndies will highlight another 50-plus indie bookstores on Facebook Live this year. In addition, staff will be on hand to make Facebook Live videos at next week’s Winter Institute.

Beth Ineson has more than 25 years of experience in the book business in New England and has been a supporter of independent bookstores in all of her roles.

The Book Industry Charitable Foundation will award up to $109,000 in scholarships to eligible bookstore employees and owners. Applications are due March 5, 2018.

Online preregistration for the 2018 Find Waldo Local campaign opens on January 23. Participation in the seventh annual small business scavenger hunt is capped at 250 ABA member stores.

Retail sales at U.S. bookstores were down by 6 percent in November 2017 compared to November 2016, according to preliminary figures recently released by the Bureau of the Census. Year-end 2017 sales for independent bookstores, as reported to the weekly Indie Bestseller Lists, were up 2.6 percent over 2016.

WNDB will donate 2,000 copies of each of the 2018 Walter Award-winning titles, Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds and Schomburg by Carole Boston Weatherford, to schools with limited budgets.

Four ABA member bookstores on the East Coast experienced water damage over the past week due to malfunctioning pipes, caused, in some cases, by a recent streak of cold weather in the region.

PEN America and PEN Center USA to merge; Celebratory memorial planned for Strand’s Fred Bass; Changes at New York Times Books Desk; Hearst to sell Rodale Books to PRH; Promotions at Penguin Random House; PNBA Book Award winners, Story Prize finalists announced

During her 2018–2019 term, Woodson will promote her platform, READING = HOPE x CHANGE, which encourages readers to embrace the impact reading can have on creating a more hopeful world.

Heather Duncan, the former marketing and events director for Tattered Cover Book Store and the president of the MPIBA Board of Directors, will take the reins as executive director on January 22.

The Independent Bookstore Day catalog features exclusive, literary-themed merchandise and giveaways for booksellers to showcase on April 28.