Introducing Nathan Halter, ABA’s New Member Relationship Manager

This week, Nathan Halter joined the American Booksellers Association’s staff as the Member Relationship Manager for bookstores in the Great Lakes, Midwest, Mountains and Plains, Pacific Northwest, and Southern regions. Halter comes to the organization after many years as a bookseller and believes his experience utilizing ABA’s services from a bookseller’s perspective will allow him to better serve member stores.

Halter graduated from Penn State in 2001 with degrees in both economics and management. Shortly after, he began working at The Doylestown Bookshop in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. His plan was to stay for a few months before moving on to something else. He considered it a “cool” job, because he was doing what he loved: reading books and telling people why he loved them. “And before I knew it, three months quickly turned into six and a half years,” Halter said. During that time, he took on a variety of different jobs at the bookstore, from managing returns, to maintaining the website and booking events.

“It became more than just telling people about my favorite books,” said Halter. “I became passionate about the important role of the independent bookstore within the community, and the larger world of books as a whole.”

While working at Doylestown, Halter regularly took advantage of the tools ABA provides to member stores, including many of the resources available on BookWeb.org. As an MRM, he wants to make sure that all members are aware that they exist.

“As a bookseller, one of my very favorite things about belonging to ABA was the online Book Buyer’s Handbook,” he said. “It’s not a very sexy choice, but I was doing co-op and returns, and I can’t imagine having to get this information myself. The time it would have taken would have been enormous, and its time that was better spent doing just about anything throughout the store.”

As a Doylestown staff member, Halter attended an ABA Winter Institute, and he plans to make sure that all ABA members recognize both the formal educational opportunities, such as the Winter Institute and the Day of Education at BEA, as well as the more informal perks of being a member, such as networking with peers through the online forums and elsewhere.

Halter said that he looks forward to supporting other indie booksellers and hopes to help them improve what they already do well.

“I love the fact that ABA member stores are so diverse and different,” he added, “from the 600-square-foot stores where the owner takes on most of the work, to the 20,000-square-foot stores with a large staff, and everything in between. And yet, all of the stores are connected by a similar thread — a passion for books. No matter what indie you go to, you will see that passion, in the staff, in the displays, in the customers in the store. I feel it is a great honor to be able to support that passion.”

Nathan Halter can be reached at (800) 637-0037, ext. 6614, or via e-mail. He also looks forward to meeting booksellers at the ABA table on the exhibit floor at the Great Lakes and Midwest booksellers association fall shows.