ABACUS Update: Special Session Set for BEA

Participating Booksellers Will Receive Bonus Reports

Booksellers attending this year's BookExpo America (BEA) will have the opportunity to attend a special session on the ABACUS project on Friday, May 30, from 9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. The session will present an in-depth report on the project's first year's results, and all ABA members are invited to the session.

In addition, those member bookstores that have submitted data to the project will receive a bonus. Participating stores will be presented with their own store's results compared to relevant "data slices" from ABACUS. For instance, stores will be able to compare their results to stores in the same sales range, or region of the country, or profitability range. Participating stores do not have to be at BEA to receive their data -- all submitting stores will receive this information.

Importantly, there is still time for stores to participate in the ABACUS project for this year. The more bookstores that contribute data to ABACUS, the more valuable a tool it will become for members. Comments from booksellers who have seen preliminary ABACUS results at spring ABA Booksellers Forums have been very positive. (And the letter from ABA President Ann Christophersen in BTW this week shares comments from booksellers about the great strides made in simplifying the method of submitting data in the new ABACUS.

The deadline for reporting for ABACUS Year One is March 31, 2003. Instructions and an online form for submitting data are available at www.bookweb.org/read/5786. Questions about ABACUS should be addressed to ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz at avin@bookweb.org.