125 Years of ABA: Q&A with ABA CEO Allison Hill

This year marks ABA’s 125th year of helping indie bookstores thrive. As part of our 125th anniversary celebration, we’ll be sharing interviews with key figures in the industry and exploring how the organization has changed since its inception in 1900.

This week, ABA CEO Allison Hill (it’s also her 5th anniversary at ABA!) sat down with Bookselling This Week to discuss the challenges of becoming CEO during the pandemic, share her most vivid memories of the past five years, and her hopes for the future.

Bookselling This Week: You joined ABA as the CEO right before the pandemic, and you were immediately tasked with leading your membership through a massive event that no one was prepared for. How did becoming CEO and leading everyone through this upheaval affect the way you view bookselling? Or did it at all?

Allison Hill: I started at ABA on March 2, 2020, and the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic nine days later. I came into the job with 20 plus years of bookselling, six plus years as a CEO, a freshly minted MBA, and a carefully crafted 90-day plan. None of which fully prepared me for that.

I would say that that year didn't change my view of bookselling. If anything, it reinforced what I already knew — the humor, the creativity, and the commitment of independent booksellers was evident even in some of the darkest early days of the pandemic. It also reinforced what I believed about the paramount importance of empathy and compassion in leadership.

BTW: After five years as ABA’s CEO, what are some of the moments that stand out most for you?

AH: The last five years are such a blur. Until you shared these questions, many of my memories were shut away in the closets of my brain. Opening that door, I've been flooded with memories, especially of 2020. Big things and small things.

ABA helped raise $1.2 million as part of the Save Indie Bookstores campaign right out of the gate. That money ended up being critical to stores that had been shut down overnight due to the quarantine and needed an influx of cash. The whole industry came together and we were able to facilitate that help; it was very special.

IndieCommerce stands out. I think back to the moment when stores became dependent on their IndieCommerce platforms overnight and we had to transform what had been a good platform into an enterprise-level machine to keep these stores alive. The tenacity of the IndieCommerce team and their dedication to making that happen was incredible.

Another big thing that stands out from 2020 was our first Virtual Institute. Virtual conferences are so commonplace today we don't even think about it. But at that time — the pandemic hit in March and we were scheduled to host Children's Institute in June — we had to shift the whole event online practically overnight. Again, it was amazing to watch the dedication of the ABA team in action, and to see their focus on making that possible for booksellers and their deep understanding of how much people needed it.

There was the technology piece — figuring out how to deliver an Institute online — but there was also the challenge of how to create community virtually. It was obvious to us that more than any other resource we could offer people, they needed the opportunity to come together and support each other.

That is such a special memory in terms of the accomplishment and what the ABA staff achieved. I still vividly remember sitting at my desk and logging on that morning, hoping everything worked and watching booksellers from all over the country log on and add a “Hello from New York!” or “Hugs from Minnesota” to the chat. Even telling you right now, it moves me to remember that moment. It was really a special thing.

I also remember the little things from that year. When I sent everyone home from ABA on day nine, I said, "Take enough with you for two weeks. I'm sure it won't be longer than that.” And then I realized it was definitely going to be longer than that.

Initially I told everybody, "Don't worry, I'll water everyone's plants. I live closest to the office.” I can remember a point six months in, when my husband said, "Why is the CEO driving to an office that's closed every week to water plants?” And I said, “Because it was the first thing I promised the staff.” That was the challenge of leadership during that time. Everything was in flux; small things like that mattered.

The other thing that's really vivid in my mind from 2020 is that every day I wrote an email to membership. It became my daily meditation. People needed to feel connected and supported, and to know that they were part of a community. I also sent one every day to the staff. I think they became important to the staff.

What was special for me were the emails I received in response. They felt like messages in bottles or diary entries. People just needed to share what was going on and how they were feeling and how scared they were. Maybe they needed their own meditative moment to reflect on what was happening, because it was all happening so fast and there was so much chaos and confusion. I think being able to look up from that chaos and know that there were others with you meant a lot to people.

There are so many highlights of my time here that I'm so grateful for. The Boxed Out campaign we launched with DCX Growth Accelerator became a viral campaign that went on to win an Ad Age campaign of the year and was a driver for the sales rally stores saw in Q4 2020. The first in-person Winter Institute “post-pandemic” in 2023 — the first time everyone was together again and the joy that was so evident in that moment stands out. Certainly the growth and evolution of IndieCommerce during this 5-year period stands out, especially because of the commitment of the IndieCommerce team.

The meaningful and impactful conversations these last five years around equity and access and representation at ABA, in the membership, and in the industry have been one of the most meaningful threads that has been woven through my whole time here. I really hope that we have modeled something, not just in the initiatives that we've implemented, or the commitment that we've baked into the DNA of ABA through policy changes, but also in the demonstration of how much better organizations are when they have diverse perspectives. And I hope we've modeled that being truly committed means you're going to make mistakes along the way, that if you're truly in the work, and trying new things, and shifting the status quo, it's not always going to be comfortable, and it's not always going to be perfect, but it's always going to be important. 

I really appreciate the ABA team and how we've worked together to transform ABA into a values-focused organization over the past 5 years. It's always been a mission-driven organization, but we've worked really hard to define our values and focus our work, using those values as a North Star. That's something that I'm proud of this team for and it definitely stands out during my time here. 

There are really so many things. Certainly, every single time a bookseller has sent us an email thanking us, letting us know how something we did helped them. Because underlying all of this — the reason I came here — is I deeply believe in the work that independent bookstores do. And their success is our success.

BTW: What are some of the challenges you have seen booksellers/indie bookstores overcome in the past, and what are some that are still present today?

AH: It’s interesting, the challenges booksellers have faced during my time in the industry have been a roller coaster.

It was, “oh no, e-books are coming,” but now we're in a phase of “yay, e-books are coming through Bookshop.org.” It was “Big box retailers are taking over.” Then “Big box retailers are going away.”  Then “Barnes & Noble is opening hundreds of stores.” So we've seen these cyclical challenges, and indie bookstores are overcoming them every day just by the fact that they exist, and that they're surviving, and in many cases thriving.

The biggest challenge that's been ever present during the course of my career — because my career has aligned with its trajectory — is Amazon and its stranglehold on the industry. Most people understand the direct hit of Amazon as a competitor, but what many people miss is the indirect ripple effect — the impact of their power over publishers, shipping companies, the paper industry, and every aspect of our industry.

I've said this before, but in the past, we tried to level the playing field. That was the goal. But now Amazon owns the playing field. And what do you do when that's the case?

The normal challenges of small businesses are part of the landscape too obviously, but it's incredible to see how the indie channel has been growing these last few years, how the indies have faced these challenges, and how their value proposition has become more important than ever.

BTW: We’ve hit 125 years of ABA! What are some of your hopes for the next 125? 

AH: There's a particular weight to the responsibility of leading a legacy organization, and at the same time, understanding and being humbled by the fact that I will be one steward in what I hope is a long long ABA history.

I think this question is a great exercise in reverse engineering. One hundred and twenty-five years from now, someone will be sitting down — probably not with you and definitely not with me — conducting ABA's 250th anniversary interview. What accomplishments would we want them to be celebrating? And what do we need to do to ensure that?

I hope 100% of publishers and booksellers are participating in Batch so that we can fully realize its potential as a catalyst to transform this industry, creating critical efficiency, inspiring investment in industry technology, and potentially transforming the returns model. I hope that 100% of indie bookstores report their data to ABACUS and their sales to BookScan and Edelweiss so that we can fully demonstrate the value of independent bookstores, and leverage that data for better sales and profitability for bookstores and publishers.

I hope that books are no longer weaponized, that book bans are not even on the radar when they sit down for that interview someday. I hope that Amazon is no longer selling books, and that the cost and consequences of their monopoly power in the industry has been recognized and dismantled.

I hope that every community has an independent bookstore. I hope that those independent bookstores are profitable, and that independent bookselling is a meaningful and financially viable profession.

I hope the world becomes a little more like independent bookstores. For me, one of the meaningful things about independent bookselling was always that these stores can be a little microcosm of the world you want to live in. You can champion books, and create community, and provide people with meaning, and education, and connection. I think back to my time working in stores, and some of the moments that stand out are the customers who shared that a book we sold them changed their life. Or that the bookstore was the place they came to on a really really bad day. Or they wanted to come talk to booksellers and to be in community during some big event. 

I'm remembering 9/11. I was working for Book Soup at the time, and I remember calling Doug Dutton, who was the owner of Dutton's Books. I called Doug, who I considered a mentor in the industry, and I said, "What do we do? Do we close?" And he said, “They're going to need to be in bookstores."

So we opened. I brought a TV in, and people wanted to watch the news on TV together. People wanted to talk to each other. People came in just to cry. They needed that space. They needed that community. They needed that support as much as they needed the books. And I think in many ways, the world we're living in right now needs those things from us.

I think we see the role that independent bookstores play in their communities after a tragedy, a trauma, and even celebrations and joyful moments. So, I hope that the world becomes a little more like independent bookstores—centered around community and connection. I’m grateful that independent bookstores embody those things, and I hope over the next 125 years there are more of them.

I hope that 125 years from now, the community of independent bookstores is built on a stronger foundation, and that ABA has contributed to that foundation. I hope in 125 years that the profitability of independent bookstores is a given, and that the economics of bookselling allows independent bookstores to truly thrive and deliver what I can only assume the world is going to desperately need from them.

BTW: We’ll be celebrating ABA’s 125th anniversary (and Bookshop.org’s 5th anniversary!) at the Winter Institute 2025 Opening Reception in Denver, Colorado. Is there anything you’d like to share with us or tease about the reception?

AH: It's wonderful to have the opportunity to celebrate so many things right now. We’re going to start with the Opening Reception at Winter Institute, celebrating ABA's 125th anniversary, Winter Institute's 20th anniversary, and Bookshop.org's 5th anniversary. These are incredible milestones in the industry and I hope this celebration contributes to an overall joyful and inspiring Winter Institute.