Wednesday, May 27, 2015

ABA Membership Inches Up Again

Publishers Lunch 


Membership in the American Booksellers Association rose again in the most recent year, up by 48 members to 1,712 in all. The organization's ranks have now grown for six consecutive years, after reaching a low of 1,410 members in 2008. In 2014 the ABA rolls rose by 32 members; in 2012 the ABA rolls rose by 65 members; in 2011 the gain was 55 members; in 2010, as they prepared to merge with the Association of Booksellers for Children they grew by 102 members; and in 2009, they grew by 9 members.

The ABA also benefited from the recent trend of sellers opening new branches, with ABA members now in 2,227 locations compared with 2,094 in 2014 and 1,651 in 2009. As usual, the membership numbers are previewed by the AP in advance of their official announcement at the ABA annual meeting on Thursday afternoon.

A separate convention preview piece from the AP focuses on diversity, but unlike last year's general lack of diversity, this year BEA and BookCon enlisted help from We Need Diverse Books on panel programming. WNDB co-founder Ellen Oh said: "They're not just paying lip service and they're not just having one panel. And we'll have a forum before both the general public and the industry." Still, as the AP points out, "Diversity panels remain more common than actual diversity in publishing" with "an almost entirely white" conference advisory board and breakfast speaker slate. "We do need to step up things a little bit more," said National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson, one of the planned breakfast speakers. "We have readers hungry for books that reflect their lives and the industry isn't paying attention to them."

PEN American Center also plans two offsite events to protest BEA featured guest country of honor China's human rights abuses. "The freedom to put pen to paper and finger to keyboard is a fundamental human right," PEN announced in a recent statement. "Any consideration of China's burgeoning literary market must take this into account." But BEA event director Steve Rosato pointed out that "China represents a significant market that is critical to this industry. It's important for them to have a seat at the table and engage in a cultural and commercial exchange that could have a positive impact on the future of publishing both at home and across the globe."

Separately, the Wall Street Journal draws further attention to BookCon.

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