We’re thrilled to introduce Indie Bookstore Rewind! Inspired by Spotify Wrapped, Indie Bookstore Rewind lets you revisit the stories that defined your customers’ reading year. 

This campaign offers a fresh way to reconnect with your community, celebrate the year in books, and create conversations around your store’s unique curation. We’re created digital and printable assets that bookstores AND customers can use to create unique Indie Bookstore Rewinds!

• Saturday, November 30: Indies First/Small Business Saturday
• Thursday, December 5 at 2:00 pm ET: Neurodiverse Community Affinity Group
• Monday, December 9 at 3:00 pm ET: LGBTQIA2S+ Affinity Group
• Wednesday, December 11 at 2:00 pm ET: BIPOC Affinity Group
• Friday, December 20 at 2:00 pm ET: Disability Community Affinity Group
• Monday, December 23 at 2:00 pm ET: Black Booksellers Affinity Group

Wi2025 Cancellation Deadline

Friday, November 29, is the last day to cancel your Winter Institute 2025 registration and receive a full refund, minus a $30 cancellation fee. (Please note the $260 registration fee for the Paz Workshop is nonrefundable.)

Registrations canceled after November 29 are nonrefundable, but you can still transfer your registration to another individual from your store on or before February 12, 2025.

If you need to cancel or transfer your registration, please email [email protected].

Hotel Waitlist Updates

ABA staff are steadily working through the Wi2025 hotel waitlist. If you are on the hotel waitlist, you can expect to hear from us before November 29.

Credit Card Competition Act

On November 19, Chris Callahan of Battenkill Books in Cambridge, NY, testified in support of the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) at a Senate Judiciary Committee. The hearing, “Breaking the Visa-Mastercard Duopoly: Bringing Competition and Lower Fees to the Credit Card System,” was led by Senate Judiciary Chair and Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). ABA submitted written testimony in support of the CCCA, explaining how out-of-control credit card processing fees hurt small businesses like indie bookstores. 

In book ban news this week: 

The Florida Board of Education released its list of books banned by school districts in the state last year, including almost double the bans of the previous year. In Georgia, Cobb County just can’t stop banning books. Iowa education officials finalized rules for the state’s book ban law, currently being challenged on two fronts; rules include an escalating series of punishments for violators. Michigan legislators will vote on a package of bills to protect books before newly-elected members are sworn in.

Simultaneously, in Northern Michigan, the Bellaire Public Library is being forced to hold a hearing over Heartstopper, a graphic novel about two gay male teens that was adapted into a popular Netflix series. (The series is also facing a potential ban in North Dakota.) In Nevada, Clark County School District is shoring up its library policy to brace for incoming book banners on the board. In Tennessee, the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System sent librarians a list of 400 books banned in a nearby county as a tool for prospective book bans.

In Texas, the 2025 state legislative session (which convenes biannually) is off to a bad start, with two pre-filed bills already seeking to ban books statewide. In Virginia, the Samuels Public Library in Front Royal faces a controversial replacement of the board by the county after the current board refused to ban books. And in Washington, Centralia School District’s school board meetings have been targeted by book banners, driven by the publisher of a local news outlet. 

Will election results in your area impact the right to read in schools and libraries? Let American Booksellers for Free Expression know by emailing [email protected]. With so many school boards to keep track of, we can be most effective and proactive with your help.