Industry News

Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was named Publishers Weekly’s 2020 Bookstore of the Year and recognized during the virtual ABA Annual Meeting and Town Hall on Thursday, June 11.

The American Booksellers Association’s Board of Directors has proposed changes to two sections of Article IV of the association’s Bylaws; votes are due by 11:59 p.m. PT on Thursday, June 18.

In response to the renewed Black Lives Matter movement and the surge in sales of antiracism books, publishers have created a number of book lists on Edelweiss that feature the topics of diversity, race, antiracism, and more.

The catalog will feature frontlist titles published in the year 2020, but will not include holiday books so that the catalog may be used year-round.

ABA partnered with Hummingbird in 2018 for e-book sales. The free, turnkey e-book and audiobook retailing platform allows bookstores to have their own branded and customizable storefront.

Readers flooded bookstore websites in search of antiracism titles last week. Over the weekend, traffic began to slow to normal rates for this time of year.

From curated reading lists by LGBTQ+ and Black authors to live conversations surrounding activism, booksellers are promoting Pride in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Promotional posts for the campaign are rolling in, with bookstores and readers contiuing to post about books related to the current antiracism movement and in support of Black authors.

This increase is the result of customers shopping for antiracism titles across the IndieCommerce system.