Introducing ABA’s New Marketing Manager

In May, Courtney Wallace joined the American Booksellers Association as the new Marketing Manager.

As marketing manager, Wallace is responsible for marketing independent bookstores as a channel. Along with ABA’s graphic designer, she will create marketing campaigns and assets for stores to use to reach new and existing customers; optimize Indiebound.org for independent bookstore branding; manage ABA’s social media; and track consumer trends and changes in the market. Additionally, she is now the project manager for Independent Bookstore Day. She reports directly to ABA CEO Allison Hill.

Credit: Ricardo Treviño

“We’re so thrilled to have Courtney join ABA,” said Hill. "Her background in marketing, her education in design and media studies, and her experience in social media made her the perfect person to help support ABA’s marketing efforts on behalf of the stores. And having a marketing manager, after many years of ABA being without one, enables us to be more strategic in our efforts and to plan further in advance for the stores’ needs. Courtney has jumped right into the work at ABA and has already added to our ever-growing reading lists with her great book recommendations.”

Previously, Wallace was the Senior Assistant Director of Enrollment Marketing and Communication for Miami University in Ohio. She has a B.A. in art history/graphic design, a M.Ed in education from James Madison University, and a graduate certificate in interactive media studies from Miami University. She is an avid reader and a bookstagrammer. 

She told Bookselling This Week she’d been wanting to transition into the book industry for years, but hadn’t found the right fit with the positions she was looking at.

“I knew I wanted to share stories from talented authors, foster a bookish community, and introduce readers to books they may not have picked up initially,” said Wallace. “When I first saw the position, I knew I had to work at ABA.”

Indie bookstores have helped foster a sense of community in Wallace’s reading life. When traveling, she always makes a list of bookstores to visit in that area. “I’m that person who sees you picking up a book and I immediately start a conversation, with patrons and booksellers alike,” she said. “Each store is unique and has a great story to tell that I love hearing about and sharing with other readers I know. It’s like finding a home away from home anywhere in the country.”

As a reader, Wallace described her taste as eclectic. Right now, her favorite genre is murder mystery. But, she said, “that changes constantly. In the spring it was YA fantasy. I love that about my reading style; it evolves and grows with me, to where I am reading new-to-me authors and rediscovering genres I’ve shelved.”

Find Wallace on Instagram, where she shares the books she’s reading and loving.