A message from ABA CEO Allison Hill

Dear Booksellers,

Hard to tell these days, but it’s Friday again. We’re kicking off the end of week roundup with some good news from the Advocacy team:

Additional Small Business Funding

President Trump signed into law a bill allocating additional funding to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loans/Grants (EIDL). 

The bill authorized additional funding of $310 billion for the PPP, $10 billion for EIDL grants, and $50 billion for EIDL. In addition, $60 billion of the $310 billion for PPP is set aside for loans made by smaller insured depository institutions and credit unions.

According to Senator Rubio, the PPP funds should be available starting Monday, April 27.

If you have already applied for the PPP loan, check with your lender about the status of your application; you should NOT have to reapply. 

If you are having difficulty with your PPP application at a traditional national bank, please let [email protected] know. You can also apply through local banks/credit unions and companies like PayPal and Square.

Also, we’ve heard from some booksellers with questions about their PPP loan documents, concerned that some banks may not consider these loans “forgivable,” leaving the store on the hook to pay the loan back with interest. 

According to guidance published by the Treasury, loans are forgivable so long as they meet the proper criteria (for instance, 75 percent of the loan must be used on payroll costs). Based on this guidance, loan terms for PPP are the same for all banks. See an easy-to-read breakdown of PPP here. Please keep in mind that the SBA and Treasury are expected to issue more guidance on loan forgiveness shortly, which may be prompting some confusion among lenders and borrowers. As always, if there are any questions about loan forgiveness, speak with your lender and be sure to reference the Treasury guidance above.

Remember, if you receive a PPP loan, you must apply for loan forgiveness with your lender following the eight-week period in which you spend your PPP funds. To make this process easier, keep detailed records of how you spend the funds. Here is more information on this process.

And please be sure to let the Advocacy team know how the loan process is going for you! Email Dave and Molly at [email protected].

Zoom Security
Please bear with us as we put new security in place around our Zoom meetups and coffee breaks due to a Zoom bombing in a meeting yesterday. (So sorry to those in attendance — and to my team — that you had to witness that.) For those concerned about your own Zoom security, here are some best practices:

• Disable screen-sharing for participants.
• For smaller groups and/or meetings with known participants, require a password to enter your meeting.
• For larger or public meetings, employ Zoom’s waiting room feature to dissuade opportunistic bad actors.
• Instead of posting event details publicly, have attendees register for the event ahead of time and only share the meeting details with them via email.
• Train Zoom hosts on how to quickly shut down a disrupted meeting if necessary.

Pick-Me-Ups
Thanks to Alsace from Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, Florida, for sharing this piece from her local news station about socially distanced bookselling. It moved me to watch this, to think about all of the ways that bookstores are still of service in their communities right now. It’s also a great example of a pitch to make to your local news station to promote what you’re doing at your store.
Thanks also to author Isaac Fitzgerald for his video on why indies are important, and for all that he’s doing to support #SaveIndieBookstores. His video doesn’t have a lot of views on YouTube, but the same message on his social media has been far-reaching. It’s a good reminder of what your stores mean to people and also a good example of the ways authors can help your stores. 
Don’t hesitate to reach out to authors to ask for their help right now, as Landmark Booksellers in Franklin, Tennessee, can attest. 

This week was a long one, and I know it doesn’t really end just because it’s Friday. I hope everyone has a good weekend nonetheless and I hope you find a moment to relax and read.
ABA is here for you. Please reach out if there is anything we can help with. We are an incredibly creative, resilient, supportive industry. We’ll get through this, together.
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Best,
Allison