In celebration of his new title, The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians, James Patterson is back with another bookstore bonus program! 

Up to 500 booksellers from ABA member stores across the country will receive $500 bonuses for a total donation of up to $250,000 from James Patterson.

Booksellers can self-nominate to be considered for a bonus, or they can be nominated by bookstore customers, owners, employees, managers, fellow booksellers, publishing professionals, or authors. Past recipients of James Patterson bonuses and grants are eligible for another bonus.

The deadline to nominate a bookseller is Wednesday, March 13.

• Wednesday, February 21 at 2:00 pm ET: BIPOC Affinity Group Meeting
• Wednesday, February 21 at 3:00 pm ET: Book Biz Book Club: Unreasonable Hospitality
• Thursday, February 22 at 3:00 pm ET: Bookseller Lightning Talks: Independent Bookstore Day Edition
• Friday, February 23 at 2:00 pm ET: Disability Community Affinity Group
• Tuesday, February 27 at 3:00 pm ET: ABA Membership Team Office Hours
  

There’s only 4 days left until Winter Institute! Have you packed your bags yet?

Here are a few last minute reminders before you hit the road.

Use the hashtag #ABAWinterInstitute! We want to see all the amazing photos of your time in Cincinnati. Posts with this hashtag will show up on our Social Media Wall in the app and on the screen before keynote sessions!

Download the Winter Institute 2024 app! The app gives attendees full access to the program, session evaluations, event maps, the resource guide, and more. To provide session feedback, add each event/session you attend to your agenda before the session ends.

Attendees, if you registered for a bookstore tour, check your emails for your tour confirmation. Confirmation emails were sent Monday, February 5, from [email protected]. Your confirmation also lists your tour guides and contact person.

Last week, the Advocacy team attended a fly-in for swipe fee reform, accompanied by 20 booksellers from around the country. Booksellers were included in most of the teams of small business advocates and owners who met with the offices of US Senators to attest to the harm of exorbitant credit card processing fees for small businesses. The Credit Card Competition Act would force credit cards to include an additional processor on their cards in addition to Visa and Mastercard, introducing competition into the market that would lower swipe fees over time and improve card services in other ways. A huge thank you to all the booksellers who took time out of their busy schedules to attend!

Meanwhile, American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE) has been advocating against book ban bills in state legislatures. Our focus last week was on New Hampshire’s SB 523, a partial clone of the Texas READER Act that would force vendors of library materials to rate books sold in the past and future according to poorly defined standards of sexual content. ABFE submitted written testimony to the New Hampshire Senate Committee on Education and contacted New Hampshire booksellers to do the same. Thank you to everyone who took the time to make your concerns known.