Free Expression Friday is an interview series from ABA's American Booksellers for Free Expression celebrating the amazing work of booksellers, organizers, and book people in general fighting for the right to read.

Mosaics Community Bookstore & Venue is unique — unique in Utah, and unique, period. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, Mosaics has repeatedly faced incredible hardship on top of the normal hardships of being a small indie bookstore: bomb threats, SWATing, and now health problems. Now Mosaics is asking for help, and demonstrating how to pivot and ask for support in times of crisis. Philomena Polefrone (she/her) from ABFE spoke to Tara Lenea (they/them), the founder of Mosaics who is stepping back to focus on their health, and Dean Mauchley (she/they), who is stepping up to take a more active role in the space.

Follow the American Booksellers for Free Expression on Instagram at @ABFEFreeExpression to keep up with ABFE's advocacy efforts and tune into their Free Expression Friday series. Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

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ABA's Lightning Talk series features booksellers presenting short talks on tech tools, organizational strategies, communication methods, or innovations they've made in their stores. On November 14, 2024, Chris Steib of Transom Bookshop (Tarrytown, NY) walked us through how to DIY your profit and loss statement (P&L).

Session Video & Resources

Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

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Dr Faith Harper, licensed professional counselor and author of Unf*ck Your Brain and the YA adaptation Befriend Your Brain (Microcosm Publishing), leads booksellers on a session on mental health and self-care in a "post" pandemic world.

Session Video & Resources

Recorded June 21, 2022 at Children's Institute 2022 (Ci10) in Phoenix, AZ

Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

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ABA's Indies Introduce interview series spotlights debut authors handpicked by booksellers from around the country. In each episode, a bookseller from the Indies Introduce panel interviews an author featured in the program to celebrate the release of their book.

In this episode, Lisa Swayze of Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca, NY interviews Tom Newlands, author of Only Here, Only Now, available November 12, 2024, at your local independent bookstore.

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Community partnerships are an untapped source of income for many stores. They can have a profound impact on a store's bottom line as well as the soul of the store and its community. A panel of booksellers who work closely with community partners will share how to make initial contact, what format a partnership can take, and how to manage expectations without taking on too much. Attendees will have an opportunity for open discussion and to ask each other questions on community partnerships.

Session Video & Resources

Recorded June 22, 2022 at Children's Institute 2022 (Ci10) in Phoenix, AZ

Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

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Free Expression Friday is an interview series from ABA's American Booksellers for Free Expression celebrating the amazing work of booksellers, organizers, and book people in general fighting for the right to read.

Lindsay Schultz didn't open The Spine Bookshop looking for a hill to die on, but she wasn't going to back down when book banners came to town and started threatening librarians. She found allies in Keri Lambert and the rest of the Rutherford County Library Alliance, and together they stood up and made their voices heard. They weren't ultimately able to stop books from being banned, but it led Schultz to turn her store into a community space, launch a book access program for banned and diverse books, and plan a read-in in her store for next year. Schultz and Lambert join Philomena Polefrone to explain what happened, what made the Rutherford County School Board meetings uniquely unhinged, and how they stood up against it.

Follow the American Booksellers for Free Expression on Instagram at @ABFEFreeExpression to keep up with ABFE's advocacy efforts and tune into their Free Expression Friday series. Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

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CoverHound is thrilled to present a special four-part webinar series for ABA members: Insuring Success: Business Insurance for Bookstores.

On September 26, CoverHound presented part four of this series, Safeguarding Our Stories: Leveraging Insurance to Navigate Book Bans, a webinar designed to help bookstore owners navigate book bans and censorship challenges. Discover how insurance coverage can play a crucial role in ensuring books remain freely available to your community. Learn about the specialized coverages that protect your book business against legal battles, loss of revenue, and reputational damage in the face of censorship efforts. We'll show you how insurance can serve as a safeguard for your bookstore's mission of promoting diverse ideas and perspectives. Engage in an interactive Q&A session to address your concerns and gain actionable strategies for protecting your bookstore's freedom of expression.

Session Video & Resources

CoverHound is proud to partner with the ABA in managing the Bookseller Insurance Program, which has been supporting the unique insurance needs of bookstores since 1997. More information can be found at https://www.bookweb.org/coverhound-business-insurance-details.

Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

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Understanding financial benchmarks within your children's bookstore or children's departments can help you maximize space, optimize non-book gifts and sidelines, improve profitability, and more. This session is for children's-only bookstores or general bookstores with a children's department. Attendees will also learn more about ABACUS — how to participate, how to use this important tool for your business, and why it's so important for children's bookstores to be counted in this data.

Session Video & Resources

Recorded June 21, 2022 at Children's Institute 2022 (Ci10) in Phoenix, AZ

Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

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Activist and author Karen Walrond (author of The Lightmaker's Manifesto) opens Children's Institute 2022 with a keynote conversation with ABA Director of Education Lee (Kim) Hooyboer on how booksellers can maintain their spark while continuing to work for change in their communities and the world at large. By identifying tools and practices that can help booksellers define and refine their missions without succumbing to burnout, Walrond's opening keynote is sure to kindle conversations that will resonate through the entirety of Ci10.

Session Video & Resources

Recorded June 21, 2022 at Children's Institute 2022 (Ci10) in Phoenix, AZ

Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

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Free Expression Friday is an interview series from ABA's American Booksellers for Free Expression celebrating the amazing work of booksellers, organizers, and book people in general fighting for the right to read.

Lee Wind (he/him) of the Independent Book Publishers Association knows all about how literary censorship impacts independently published books by authors from marginalized communities. A Queer author himself, Lee's books — like A Different Kind of Brave, The Gender Binary is a Big Lie, and No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves — are independently published, and at least one has been challenged or banned on several occasions. Philomena and Lee spoke about the impact of book bans on independently published books and IBPA's program to combat it (in collaboration with the EveryLibrary Institute), a program called We Are Stronger Than Censorship. Learn more, including how to become a bookseller partner, at wearestrongerthancensorship.org.

Follow the American Booksellers for Free Expression on Instagram at @ABFEFreeExpression to keep up with ABFE's advocacy efforts and tune into their Free Expression Friday series. Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

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