It’s time again to submit your nominations for the ABA Board!

The only eligibility requirements are:

1. Candidates for the Board of Directors must be booksellers or owners of an ABA regular, used, or online-only member store as defined in ABA Bylaws, Article II (2).
2. Board candidates must have at least three years of recent bookselling experience as a bookstore owner or employee.
3. Candidates should be committed to ABA’s mission and Ends Policies, and committed to working in a manner that demonstrates ABA’s commitment to antiracism, inclusion, representation, and diversity.

The Board sets ends policies for the association, monitors the performance of the CEO, and futurecasts for industry trends to inform the membership and ABA’s work. 

Know a bookseller who you think would be a good fit? Nominate them (or yourself!) now!

The deadline for nominations is Sunday, October 13, at 11:59 pm ET.

• Thursday, September 5 at 8:00 pm ET: Neurodiverse Community Affinity Group
• Monday, September 9 at 8:00 pm ET: LGBTQIA2S+ Affinity Group Meetup
• Tuesday, September 10 at 3:00 pm ET: New Member Series: Meet The Partners
• Wednesday, September 11 at 8:00 pm ET: BIPOC Affinity Group Meetup
• Thursday, September 12 at 3:00 pm ET: Bookseller Lightning Talks

Mark your calendars! Registration for Winter Institute 2025 (Wi2025) will open on Thursday, September 19, at 1:00 pm ET.

(Winter Institute sells out quickly! If Wi2025 sells out before you get a chance to register, please join the waitlist. In the past, we have been able to get a significant portion of the waitlist registered for the event, and we will work to do so again this year.)

Wi2025 will be held in-person February 23–February 26, in Denver, CO.

This Institute, our programming theme is Wi2025: Future Forward. As we celebrate ABA’s 125th Anniversary, we look for ways to ensure independent bookstores thrive for decades to come. Our Wi2025 programming focuses on community, innovation, and financial health. 

BIPOC booksellers are also invited to kick off Winter Institute with IGNITE: BIPOC Bookseller Pre-con on February 22, 2025. This pilot event will feature curated rep picks, a happy hour with authors and editors, affinity meetups, and an education session.

Keep an eye on your inbox! The Winter Institute 2025 program will go live tomorrow, September 5.

More details about registration, hotels, IGNITE: BIPOC Bookseller Pre-con, and other new events are coming soon.

Florida Lawsuit

American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE) applauds Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishing Group, Simon & Schuster, Sourcebooks, Authors Guild, and the many authors who are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Florida’s book ban law, HB 1069. The lawsuit challenges the law, which has spurred a catastrophic era of book censorship, on First Amendment grounds.

Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week is right around the corner! Participating stores received their Banned Books Week kits in July — it’s time to pull them out of the back room and start planning your display! (Watch this space for details of the second annual Banned Books Display Contest…)

We’ll be announcing our full slate of Banned Books Week programming in the coming weeks, including a mini-book tour for The ABA Right to Read Handbook: Fighting Book Bans and Why It Matters.

CCCA Fly-In

As part of our fly-in, the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) is looking to schedule virtual meetings with the Senators from Alaska and Hawaii with retailers based in those states. We are hoping to schedule these on Thursday, September 26, the day after our in-person fly-in.

Any stores in either state that are interested in participating should reach out to [email protected]. Alaska and Hawaii are two key states for us and having constituents speak out about the impact of swipe fees on their businesses and the importance of the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) is critical.