Announcing the authors and speakers appearing at Wi2023 in Seattle from February 20–23! Check out this amazing lineup with even more authors being added as they are confirmed. Keynotes will be announced in January.

Sign up for Batch now to make paying invoices more efficient (and greener). The more booksellers who are signed up, the more publishers will join, the more savings through efficiency for the industry. (All UK booksellers and publishers use Batch and wonder why we don't!)

And if you incur bank fees, Batch will reimburse you one fee per month for six months! Contact Nathan Halter for more information or assistance.

The new Advocacy Task Force will meet once early next year to help ABA gain insight into the top priorities and problems facing booksellers and bookstores, which will help ABA best advocate for legislative and regulatory change at the local, state, and national level. ABA appreciates all of those volunteering their time and energy.

Get ahead of the holiday rush and save on shipping by setting up your account in the FedEx Advantage® discounts program. It’s free to join. As an ABA member, you can save up to 50% on shipping. Next, download the last days to ship calendar and share these dates with your employees and customers. Keep them top of mind to stay on schedule and deliver a better customer experience.

Here are the 25 Indie Next List and 6 Now in Paperback picks on the January 2023 Indie Next List flier. Top pick? Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor. And, to mark the start of a new month, December Indie Next List social media assets are live on BookWeb.

For the four holiday shopping days following Thanksgiving 2022, we saw online sales that are still 115.87% above pre-COVID 2019 levels. Cyber Monday sales this year were particularly strong compared to the previous three days. IndieCommerce shared some additional notable stats for those four days.

A group of authors signed a PEN America open letter protesting alarming book bans in Missouri schools this fall. The authors and illustrators have all had books banned in Missouri or in other parts of the country in the past year. Missouri schools pulled at least 297 books from shelves this fall. The overzealous book bans appear to be a response to a new Missouri law that contains a provision establishing a criminal penalty for providing “explicit sexual material” to students. This author letter is illustrative that we are all in the battle against book bans. ABA and ABFE sign letters weekly in support and recently issued a petition with almost 2,000 signatures to elected officials. We know there is power in numbers.

Check out American Booksellers for Free Expression's (ABFE) ongoing work providing booksellers with free expression resources and protecting the right to read. 

In mid-November, Small Business Rising, a coalition of small business trade organizations, including the American Booksellers Association, sent a letter urging Congress to consider the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, an antitrust bill. The letter received coverage by The Hill and prompted meetings with key Congressional leaders.

To help combat book bans and challenges in schools, ABFE belongs to the Kids’ Right to Read project, a coalition of groups led by the National Coalition Against Censorship that reach out to school districts to stop them from removing books from schools and libraries. Since July, ABFE has signed onto 25 letters, which booksellers can access on BookWeb. The page will be updated on a regular basis. 

ABA members should be aware that the Affordable Care Act open enrollment dates have been extended. While the Medicare annual enrollment period still ends on December 7, 2022, the open enrollment period for ACA plans has been extended to January 15, 2023. However, if you need coverage to start on January 1, the deadline is still December 15. More information will be emailed to booksellers on Thursday, December 1.