Dear Booksellers,
Everyday ABA is thinking about how we can help your bookstores. Much of that help is in the form of advocacy, education, communication, publicity, community, and e-commerce. We recognize though that members need financial relief as well.
ABA Financial Relief
When the crisis began, we waived membership dues for March, April, and May; set up as many IndieLite sites for stores without e-commerce as we could; and we donated $100K to Binc to support booksellers.
As the crisis continues we’re happy to announce additional relief efforts. We are: - waiving membership dues for June,
- waiving IndieCommerce and IndieLite dues for March, April, May, and June; and,
- waiving most of IndieCommerce support fees for the 8 weeks of sales generated from April 13 - June 7. If your store is an IndieCommerce or IndieLite store that uses ABA’s Authorize.Net account to process your e-commerce credit card transactions (in other words, you do not have your own credit card processor or relationship with Authorize.Net for e-commerce transactions), you will retain the 4% of your e-commerce sales that are normally withheld by ABA for the 8 week period. (Please note the remaining 0.5% of the usual 4.5% fee is reserved for fraud protection.)
We’re also continuing our support of the #SaveIndieBookstore campaign. The fund has received $728K in funds to date. When the campaign ends, Binc will distribute all funds to eligible indie bookstores in May.
Paycheck Protection Program Relief
While current funding for the PPP has run dry, Congress is expected to allocate more funding (although the timeline is unclear). The Advocacy Team has been in frequent contact with Congressional leadership in both the House and Senate, advocating for increased funding for these programs immediately.
There are still actions you can be taking to help your store:
If you already applied for a PPP loan, ask your lender what stage of the process your application is currently in. - Stage 1: Your lender has approved your application.
- Stage 2: Your lender has submitted an application to the SBA.
- Stage 3: The SBA has run checks on the application, has approved the application, and has sent a loan number to your lender. **If you are in this stage and your lender has received a loan number, you will be getting your loan money. Your loan is part of the initial $349 billion previously allocated**
If you have not yet applied for a PPP loan and are still interested, you can still apply. - Most lenders are still accepting applications even though the SBA is no longer approving them. By applying now, you can get in line for when funding is replenished.
We will provide updates as they become available. Stay tuned to ABA's updates for any new information on this. As always, email questions to [email protected].
In related news, ABA’s government relief webinar for booksellers, “Government Relief and Wage Requirements: What You Need to Know” is now available on Bookweb.org. Booksellers can visit the Education Resources page on Bookweb.org to view a recording of the webinar.
New Relief
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation has announced a “Save Small Business Fund.” - Applications open April 20 at 12:00 p.m. PT. You can sign-up to receive a notification reminding you to apply.
- $5,000 grants will be awarded to eligible recipients.
- To qualify, you must:
The etymology of the word “relief” — from the Latin word “relevant” meaning “to raise up, make light” — is particularly meaningful right now as the crisis continues and the weight feels greater. I hope that this relief raises you up a little and reminds you that support for all of you continues, in all kinds of ways.
ABA is here for you. Please reach out if there is anything we can help with. We are an incredibly creative, resilient, supportive industry. We’ll get through this, together.
Best,
Allison
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