Letter from Board President Tegan Tigani

Dear Fellow Booksellers,

As many of us head into the busiest season at our stores, my to-do lists seem to constantly refresh themselves with new tasks. Bookselling brings new challenges every day, but even as I worry that I can’t fit everything I ordered for the holidays on our shelves, I hear about stores and booksellers that have catastrophic losses from the recent hurricanes. My heart goes out to all who have been impacted. 

Flexibility and forethought are crucial elements to resilience of stores and their individual booksellers. In our ABA Ends Policies, we want bookstores to have “resources to be successful, including: skills, technology, community, and support of their right to freedom of expression.” Our stores need to be sustainable and resilient. 

On the final day at PNBA, we faced financial realities together, buoyed by the inspiration of an engaging show. This year’s ABA fall show education, “Prioritizing Cash Flow: 10 Areas to Review for Improved Cash Flow and Profitability,” focused on financial resilience; a recording is available on BookWeb. ABA also has on-demand education sessions like last year’s Fall Regional Show session, “This Is a Fire Drill,” to help booksellers and bookstore owners prepare for — and weather — all kinds of storms.

How do you keep rolling with the waves that life sends your way? How do you deal with burnout? Bookseller to bookseller connections, in person and online, make us stronger together. You can connect with other booksellers in virtual communities supported by ABA staff (check the Calendar for programming). Binc, in addition to needed financial assistance, also provides free mental health wellness support. In keeping with our ends — that “Booksellers will have access to resources to support their work and welfare” — the Board approves ABA’s donations to Binc in our annual budget review. 

Hope and appreciation, like the James Patterson bonuses and the bookstore profiles in USA Today, can bolster our spirits. I’m excited to be degrees of separation closer to Trevor Noah, our Indies First Ambassador; he will be an inspiring champion of our stores. The value of independent bookstores is one of the reasons we keep doing what we do, season after season. I would like to acknowledge what you do for each other and for your communities. Thank you for persevering. 

May this holiday season be a sustaining one!

In gratitude,
Tegan Tigani
Children’s Book Buyer at Queen Anne Book Company, Seattle, WA
ABA Board President