Industry News

Bologna Book Fair postponed; Voting underway for America’s Main Streets contest; Children’s Book Week poster unveiled; Signup open for Suppressed: The Fight to Vote screenings; Ryan Raffaelli writes article on “Reinventing Retail”; Libro.fm offering free audiobooks for Bookstore Day; Washington Senate passes consumer data privacy bill; Flatiron to launch new imprint; Hachette to distribute National Geographic Partners; Random House Children’s Books to separate Schwartz & Wade; Latinx in Publishing launches mentorship program; Nigel Newton gets lifetime achievement award; Diamond Dagger, Kingsley & Kate Tufts Poetry Award winners announced; Finalists named for Helen Bernstein award; Shortlists out for Anthony Lukas Prize, Folio awards; Longlists out for CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenway medals.

The ninth volume of the Book Industry Charitable Foundation’s Bookseller Stories newsletter featured a bookseller who reached out to Binc for help with funeral expenses.

The 2020 scholarship program supports booksellers and comic retailers’ dependents, spouses, and partners in pursuing their higher education goals. 

BookExpo announces children’s breakfast speakers; RWA to hold special election; California Consumer Privacy Act sees update; Panorama Project announces new initiatives; James Patterson named Bookstore Champion; Harlequin’s Love Inspired to launch paperback program; Personnel changes at Holt, S&S; Winners named for LA Times Book Prize, Ripped Bodice awards, Southern Book Prize; Shortlist out for Aspen Words Literary Prize; Nominees and longlists announced for WNBA Pannell Award, PEN/Faulkner Award, Reading the West Book Award, AAP Prose Awards

“We urge booksellers and readers to instead reframe that question as: How do you write someone else’s story? And how are we, as an industry, elevating writers of color?” writes the committee.

Retail sales at U.S. bookstores were down by 7.6 percent in December 2019 compared to December 2018, according to preliminary figures from the Bureau of the Census. 

Booksellers should take a look at the many exciting events on tap for this year’s event and be ready to register for Ci8 at 1:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, February 19.

The campaign, which runs the entire month of July, brings together small business communities across the nation in hosting scavenger hunts for the striped and bespectacled picture book character.