New Booksellers

Whether you’re testing the waters or already a new owner, the May workshop retreat “Owning a Bookstore: The Business Essentials” will provide critical retail fundamentals and indie bookstore best practices for establishing a competitive business.

Following publication of last week’s list of 2012 ABA member store openings, three more stores were added, bringing the total to 43.  Also added to ABA’s membership over the past year were 11 bookstores opening for business in 2011 that joined the association in 2012.

ABA welcomed 43 indie bookstores that opened in 2012 in 25 states. Among them were six branches of existing businesses and seven selling primarily used books. California is home to seven new stores; New York, five; Florida and Texas, three; and Kansas, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, two.

ABA Provisional members and employees of Regular member stores can now register for “How to Succeed at Retail Bookselling: Introduction to the Bookstore Business,” a full-day seminar to be held in Kansas City, Missouri, on Friday, February 22, 2013, the day before the eighth annual Winter Institute (Wi8) begins.

Registration opened today for the full-day seminar “How to Succeed at Retail Bookselling: Introduction to the Bookstore Business,” to be held in Kansas City, Missouri, on Friday, February 22, 2013, the day before the ABA Winter Institute begins.

The opening of Acorn Books in Dover, Delaware, earlier this month was made possible with help from YWCA’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Division and SCORE — community resources funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Bryan Foster, a retired senior logistician for the United States Army, has joined forces with fellow book lover T. Charles “Chuck” Garman to open a bookstore in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

Prospective booksellers ranging from Warwick, New York, to Santa Barbara, California, gathered on Amelia Island, Florida, last week to discuss industry trends and to learn about the business of bookselling at the full-week spring workshop retreat “Owning a Bookstore.”

*Forty-one ABA member bookstores opened in 2011, including seven branches of existing businesses and eight that sell primarily used books.

Jennifer Green’s plans for Beantree Books, which is slated to open this June, include an inventory of new and used books, a coffee bar, a community meeting room, and more.