ABA Member Outreach Aims to Lend Support in Tough Times

The American Booksellers Association has undertaken an aggressive outreach program to provide members with information and support to help them cope with the current economic downturn and its effect on retail sales this holiday season. To spread the word about this education effort, ABA has sent an e-mail communication to every member bookstore with the offer of a follow-up call from an association staff member who can provide details about a variety of Tough Times resources that are available free from ABA.

"If any member store hasn't received our e-mail communication with the subject line 'Hello From the American Booksellers Association' and bearing news of our intention to follow-up with a phone call, I encourage them to contact our Member Services Director, Jill Perlstein," said ABA Chief Program Officer Len Vlahos.

"We want to make sure that we reach out to each and every one of our members, and it's possible that for reasons beyond our control, including invalid e-mail addresses or network spam filters, our initial communication went astray."

Among the Tough Times resources that ABA has made available free to member stores are a one-on-one consultation with association CEO Avin Mark Domnitz; a webinar on managing operations and finances; a whole range of Bookselling This Week articles and education materials focusing on best practices; IndieBound holiday materials that stress the value of the book as a great gift; and IndieBound.org and its new wish list feature. (Learn more.)

Questions about the outreach effort should be directed to Perlstein at jill@bookweb.org. --Rosemary Hawkins