Industry News

Nominations are being accepted for the WNBA Pannell Award, which honors bookstores that foster a love of reading and books in children and young adults.

New this year, booksellers will receive a special mini Waldo standee, dressed just a little differently from the others to see if eagle-eyed Waldo searchers can spot the difference.

The new Books Change Lives Indie Co‐op Program gives bookstores the opportunity to receive a rebate on the total number of books ordered in the form of a quarterly credit to their account. 

NAIBA to offer professional bookselling certification; Applications open for NBF Innovation in Reading Prize; Tin House to send indie bookseller to summer workshop; Workman book sales to boost Australian animal rescue; HarperCollins Children’s Books launches Quill Tree imprint; Albert Whitman brings distribution in-house; Skyhorse to publish books under World Almanac name; W.W. Norton to distribute Abbeville; Leadership changes at PRH; Board changes at National Book Foundation, MacDowell Colony, Booker Prize Foundation; Announcements made for Walter Dean Myers Awards, Edgar Awards, Romantic Novelists Association Outstanding Achievement Award, and Golden Kite and Sid Fleischmann Awards.

The new group will be known as the California Independent Booksellers Alliance (CALIBA).

Retail sales at U.S. bookstores were down by 7.3 percent in November 2019 compared to November 2018, according to preliminary figures from the Bureau of the Census. 

Jason Reynolds named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature; Binc accepting scholarships to the Denver Publishing Institute; Paz & Associates adds mini workshop; Audible settles copyright dispute over Captions program; Publishers Lunch Buzz Books features Wi15 authors; Harlequin’s Carina Press launches LGBTQ+ romance line; IDW, Smithsonian partner on illustrated books imprint; S&S to distribute Humanoids; B&N’s James Daunt to give keynote at BISG annual meeting; Tracie D. Hall named ALA executive director; George Coe returns to Brodart; RWA president, executive director step down; Stephen King to be honored at Audie Awards; and more.

ABA board member Chris Morrow of Northshire Bookstores is the newest member of the Book Industry Charitable Foundation’s Board of Directors.

Candlewick will once again provide 250 host bookstores with a toolkit containing everything needed to launch a Find Waldo Local event in their communities.

“The holidays really bring out the magic of what a bookstore is and what it can do for a community,” said Laurie Raisys of Island Books. “We get to be a part of so many little special moments. It amazes me.”

For the upcoming membership year, the American Booksellers Association is inviting all member bookstores to renew their dues via an online form.