Read a recap of yesterday’s ABA Meetup, which was the first in a five-part series on social media.

Sign up for next week’s events:

• July 6 at 3:00 pm: ShopTalk
• July 7 at 7:00 pm: BIPOC Meetup/Quarterly Forum
• July 8 at 1:00 pm: Social Media Series: All About Video

Social media assets for the Indie Next List #1 pick for July and the Kids’ Next List #1 pick for July/August are now live on BookWeb.org. Share with your customers to encourage them to buy the latest picks from your store!

The 2021 Best Books for Young Readers Catalog cover features B.B. Alston’s Amari and the Night Brothers (Balzer + Bray). This is the first time in the catalog’s history that a middle grade novel will be featured on the cover. Books in the 2021 catalog are being hand-selected by a seven-person committee of children’s booksellers from a list of over 480 young readers titles nominated by ABA member booksellers. The final list will be available in August.

End Book Deserts, an organization dedicated to literacy advocacy, will host a virtual two-day event focused on raising national awareness about book deserts. The August 8 event is free to attend; pre-registration is required. View the schedule here.

The deadline for IndieLite stores to switch to their own credit card processor is the end of this month. On Friday, July 30, IndieLite stores that have not switched will no longer be able to process credit card transactions using the ABA shared merchant account. Take a look at this guide for more information on switching to your own merchant account. ABA also held a two-part webinar on the topic. View part one here and part two here.

Ohio bookstores: If your bookstore was established in 2020, you may be eligible for Ohio's New Small Business Grant. This program provides $10,000 grants to new small businesses. Applications are currently open. Learn more here.