BTW News Briefs

Prospective Booksellers Learn the Ropes

Thirteen prospective booksellers took part in the recent “Owning a Bookstore: The Business Essentials” workshop facilitated by Mark Kaufman and Donna Paz Kaufman of The Bookstore Training Group of Paz & Associates and co-sponsored by the American Booksellers Association. Fourteen book industry trainers shared best practices of bookstore retail management with the students, who explored the opportunities of a changing marketplace.

Standing in the photo (right) are bookstore architect Liz Dion, Sue Moretti, Jamie Ridenhour, Martha Haack, VaLinda Miller, and Laura Hoffmann; seated are Erika VanDam, Sarah Hollenbeck, Shaelyn Germain, Amy Salley, Kristina Bilonick, and Lauren Zimmerman, with facilitators Mark and Donna Paz Kaufman in front.

The next Paz workshop retreat is scheduled for September 15 – 19. Details may be found at PazBookBiz.com.

U.K. Official Demands Amazon Pay Fair Share of Tax

Margaret Hodge, chair of the public accounts committee in the United Kingdom, recently cited numbers showing an underpayment of sales tax by Amazon.com, reported The Guardian. Amazon’s U.K. segment paid £4.2 million in tax last year, but sold goods worth £4.3 billion, said Hodge. Amazon says that it pays appropriate taxes in the jurisdictions it operates in, as its European headquarters is in Luxembourg.

“It is an outrage and Amazon should pay their fair share of tax,” said Hodge. “They are making money out of not paying taxes….If you are an Amazon user, you get endless e-mails saying Amazon.co.uk. You then order your goods and you get them delivered by the Royal Mail in parcels stamped with the Queen’s head, and they then pretend it’s nothing to do with business in the U.K. They are damaging British jobs. If you are a small bookshop in the high street you can never compete with their prices, because you pay taxes.”

NAIBA Accepting Nominations for Drabyak, Helmuth Awards

The New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association is accepting nominations for the Drabyak Handseller of the Year Award, recognizing a bookseller who has the special talent of picking just the right book at the right time for the right customer. Booksellers and publishers looking to recommend a bookseller can e-mail NAIBA with the nominee’s name and a paragraph explaining why they deserve the award.

Booksellers can also recommend to NAIBA the publisher sales representative who goes above and beyond his or her job description for the Helmuth Sales Rep of the Year award.

SIBA, MIBA Announce Award Finalists

This week, the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance announced the 22 finalists for the 2014 SIBA Book Awards in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, children’s, young adult, poetry, and cooking. The winners will be chosen by a panel of SIBA booksellers and will be announced on July 4, “Independents Day.” See the full list of finalists here.

Also announced this week were the 15 finalists for the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association’s 2014 Midwest Booksellers Choice Awards in the categories of adult fiction, adult nonfiction, poetry, children’s YA and middle grade literature, and children’s picture books. MIBA booksellers will vote for their favorites over the next month, and winners will be announced on July 7. A celebration of the winners will take place at the Heartland Fall Forum in Minneapolis on September 30.