Industry Voices

14 Dec

The Power of "We": ABA President Russ Lawrence on Harnessing the Collective Smarts of Booksellers

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22 Nov

A Bookseller's Open Letter to Publishers

Many independent booksellers decried not only the decision to publish O.J. Simpson's book, If I Did It, but also that it was sold to them as a "blind" title, with no information available about author or subject matter. In an open letter to publishers, Leslie Ryan, owner of Off the Beaten Path Bookstore in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, calls for a better way.


Subject: We Still Have a Problem

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04 Oct

Peter Osnos on Convenience and Quality

By Peter Osnos, Senior Fellow for Media at The Century Foundation and Founder of The Caravan Project

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15 Aug

'Leap of Faith' Enables Employee to Purchase Northtown Books

By Amy Stewart

When Art Burton and Barbara Turner decided it was time to sell Northtown Books, they knew how hard it could be to find a buyer for a small, independent bookstore. After all, they had only been able to purchase the bookstore from its previous owner, Jack Hitt, because he was willing to carry the note. The best way to keep the store alive, they realized, was for them to do the same. On June 1 -- right around the store's 40th anniversary -- longtime employee Dante DiGenova became Northtown's newest owner.

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09 Aug

Rules of the Handsell


Melissa Lion

By Melissa Lion

Diesel, A Bookstore is known in both its communities -- Malibu and Oakland, California -- as a great store to visit for reliable, well-suited recommendations. Here are the rules that I, one of Diesel's enthusiastic handsellers, follow:

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05 Jul

A Letter to the Editor

So I'm puzzled ...

I read the article in [last] week's Bookselling This Week about the lack of participation in ABACUS. Only 150 stores in the entire country have sent in numbers to ABA for this year's survey.

I am puzzled because ABA is working on our behalf, spending countless dollars for one purpose: To make our stores more profitable. Why is there not a 100 percent participatory rate in this survey? Is everyone making enough money?

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09 Mar

Booksellers Achieve a Measure of Success With Revised Patriot Act

Since 2002, ABA Board member Linda Ramsdell of Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick, Vermont, has been instrumental in rallying booksellers and librarians in the effort to amend Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act.

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16 Feb

Homer, Hemingway, and the Palm Pilot: The Changing Business of Books

By Peter Osnos, Senior Fellow for Media at The Century Foundation

The book is an eternal artifact of civilization. Sacred texts. Classics by a crackling fire; a great story; a library lined with the handsome bindings of favorites; a bookstore where browsing is a joy of reminiscence and discovery.

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04 Jan

My Journey Into Retail, or How I Spent Three Fun Days in Salt Lake City's The King's English

By Oren Teicher, ABA COO

From December 16 to December 18, ABA COO Oren Teicher joined the booksellers at The King's English in Salt Lake City, Utah, for a three-day stint as a frontline bookseller. This is his account of the final, hectic holiday sales days at one of the country's leading independent stores.

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14 Nov

Betsy Burton on Being a Bookseller and More

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03 Nov

Bookseller on a Mission to Educate Public on Value of Local Businesses

For Karen Spengler, owner of I Love a Mystery bookstore, there's no real mystery as to why her town of Mission, Kansas, should rethink the idea of allowing a Borders to open in the suburb of Kansas City: It's all simple economics.

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24 Oct

A Bookseller's Trip to the Quills

By Carrie Sutherland of J.W. Beecroft Books & Coffee in Superior, Wisconsin

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10 Oct

The Vision Has Not Dimmed

Gayle Shanks on the Importance of Independent Retailers

Changing Hands Book Store in Tempe, Arizona, was recently honored by the Center for the Advancement of Small Business at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University with a 2005 Spirit of Enterprise Award, recognizing ethics and excellence in entrepreneurship. In accepting the award on behalf of the entire store, co-owner Gayle Shanks spoke eloquently about why "independent, local ownership is the essence of our unique American experience."

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About ABA

The American Booksellers Association, a national not-for-profit trade organization, works with booksellers and industry partners to ensure the success and profitability of independently owned book retailers, and to assist in expanding the community of the book.

Independent bookstores act as community anchors; they serve a unique role in promoting the open exchange of ideas, enriching the cultural life of communities, and creating economically vibrant neighborhoods.

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