Be at the Heart of the Indie Community at BEA

ABA bookstore and provisional members planning to attend BookExpo America 2009 should make reservations now for Hotel ABA, the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn, New York. The Marriott, which hosted ABA members for the 2007 show, will be the gathering place for indie booksellers at this year's show.

Hotel ABA will host a series of nightly social events sponsored jointly by ABA, BEA, and participating publishers. BEA and ABA are also working together to provide ABA members with free NYC MetroCards for travel between Brooklyn and the Javits Center.

A block of rooms has been reserved exclusively for ABA members for Wednesday, May 27, though Sunday, May 31, at the rate of $183 per night. Reserve a room at Hotel ABA now.

This year, every regular ABA store and provisional member is entitled to at least one free admission to BEA, with additional badges available to stores in an ABA dues category of two or higher. One additional free BEA badge is also available to each member bookstore that was represented at the Winter Institute.

In order to receive their free badges, stores must authorize ABA to share relevant information with BEA officials by completing a simple form on BookWeb.org. All specific sales data provided to ABA for dues calculation purposes will be kept strictly confidential.

All ABA members planning to attend the trade show must also register via the BEA website; ABA is simply providing BEA with information about the number of free badges for which a member store is eligible.