ABA’s first spring Booksellers Forum of 2012 will be held on Thursday, March 8, at Towne Book Center & Café in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, in conjunction with the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association.
On March 8, representatives of ABA (Board members and senior staff) will be hitting the road for the first in this year’s series of 10 spring Booksellers Forums. These open forums are designed to provide member booksellers with the opportunity to share ideas, discuss industry issues, and receive updates on various association projects. Each will also feature an educational session drawn from the recently concluded Winter Institute.
On Wednesday, ABA CEO Oren Teicher told Digital Book World attendees that “not only are indie booksellers surviving in extraordinarily turbulent times, but many ... are thriving, even recording record sales numbers for the fourth quarter of last year.”
From the opening plenary to the closing working group activity, booksellers were energized by Winter Institute 7’s many opportunities to learn and network. Publishers, too, found inspiration, knowledge, and invaluable connections.
Due to a database error, the story on ABA member store openings in 2011, which appeared in the January 12 edition of BTW, omitted four member stores. Forty-one ABA member stores opened in 2011.
George Fox Rishel, the proprietor of The Sly Fox in Virden, Illinois, recently shared his thoughts on the future of bricks-and-mortar bookstores in a letter to ABA CEO Oren Teicher. Published here, with permission, is his letter and ABA’s response.
The December issue of the ABC Toolbox, which includes programming, display, and event ideas, as well as access to free materials from publishers, was sent via e-mail last week to members of the ABC Children’s Group at ABA.
ABA CEO Oren Teicher shares his recent experience as a holiday helper at Politics & Prose and encourages booksellers to ramp up marketing efforts to capture post-holiday e-book sales.
