Join us for two special Meed the Editor events with Simon & Schuster. Registration is not required. The link to the adult event and children's event are below. See you then!

Adult Fall 2020 Presentation
Wednesday, June 10 from 3PM - 4 PM CT / 4PM - 5PM CT

Children's Fall 2020 Presentation
​Wednesday, June 17 from 3PM - 4 PM CT / 4PM - 5PM CT

Short and sweet today. Let’s talk about sales:

• Like many other stores, Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, New Hampshire, is offering shopping by appointment to adhere to social distancing. Unlike other retailers, though, Gibson’s customers purchase a $25 gift card to make their reservation, guaranteeing the bookstore a minimum sale.
  

• Story & Song Bookstore Bistro in Fernandina Beach, Florida, bought big on puzzles and blew out of them all after placing an ad in the local newspaper. Local print advertising is back as your customers return to local newspapers to take a break from screens and to feel connected to their communities.
  

• Stores that are promoting greeting cards are seeing significant sales as customers buy for both occasions they’re missing and to stay in touch with those they’re distanced from. Sell cards pre-stamped and promote them alongside a list of occasions to send them for (Father’s Day, thinking of you, thank you)  and people to send them to (your postal worker, your child’s teacher, a friend). Village Books in Bellingham, Washington, set up an easy form for customers to use for this purpose. 
  

• As IRL events are cancelled due to social distancing restrictions, look for ways your store can help fill the social void. When their community’s beloved annual shrimp festival was cancelled, Story & Song Bookstore Bistro stepped in to offer a special story time, a lecture on seafood “farming,” and carryout lunches featuring local fresh shrimp. Pasadena, California, has an annual chalk festival in June that draws crowds of people. If social distancing requires the event to be cancelled this year, Vroman’s Bookstore might consider promoting a community chalk event. The store could sell chalk and design books and encourage customers to participate in a DIY chalk festival in their neighborhoods that same weekend. Sales, publicity, and community connection.
  

• My friends’ donut store in Northern California launched Project Comfort, which asks customers to make donations to support the store delivering coffee and donuts to community hospital personnel. What can bookstores do? Maybe it’s a national indie bookstore campaign to thank teachers…hmmm….
  

• Now’s a great time to produce a short, funny video promoting services your customers may never have used before — curbside pickup, Hummingbird e-books, Libro.fm audiobooks, your store’s ecommerce wishlist feature, your website, and more.
  

• Speaking of wishlists and registries, promote your ecommerce wishlist! IndieCommerce stores have a tremendous opportunity right now to promote their site’s wishlist/registry feature and help customers with their shopping and their book daydreaming.
  

• Some stores are thinking about big events with big-name authors. But think differently, too. Does your community have a beloved local author who would be willing to do a private Zoom event for your store? Or a beloved local hero who would do a private talk or book group for your store? Or maybe one of your booksellers is friends with an author or a musician. Sometimes the right small event can sell more books than a big one. Customers who purchase the book and/or event ticket receive the link to the event. Partner with a local restaurant or wine store and now it’s a party.
  

• Now’s also a great time to try some new events. Hannah Oliver Depp, owner of Loyalty Bookstores in D.C. and Silver Spring, Maryland, launched two new series recently: the Anti-Racist Book Club reading program and Date Night with Alyssa Cole. The first event is in response to customer requests and both events promise to serve the store’s current customers while also attracting new ones.
  

• There’s an opportunity right now to stand out with special promotions, content, and celebrations. Here’s a list of holidays, most of which you’ve probably never heard of, to design marketing and promotional campaigns that aren’t business as usual.
  

• And lastly, one more from Story & Song that owner Donna Paz Kaufman wrote about their newsletter: “(We) add our personal photos of each person on our crew and beautiful poems and calming, inspiring quotes that show there is a greater good opportunity in our lives, always, and especially right now.”
  

Seems like the perfect note to end on.
ABA is here for all of 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.
Best,
Allison

IndieCommerce

• The trend we’ve observed over the past three weeks is that traffic to bookstore websites is much higher than usual, but it is slowly dropping. We’ve also seen a slow drop in the e-commerce conversion rate during this same period. Some of this is due to states reopening for business, while some of this is due to an annual seasonal drop as weather improves and people go outside. Keep in mind that the conversion rates on bookstore websites are still extremely high. Bookstores should take advantage of this by encouraging customers to shop online; if their store now offers curbside or in-store pickup, they should heavily promote this as a safe shopping alternative. 
  
• Bookstores should not be conservative with their online marketing right now. Many stores are increasing the frequency of their email newsletters, email marketing, and social media marketing. With the elevated conversion rates we’ve been seeing, if bookstores can get customers into their website, there is a good chance they will convert to a sale.
  

Advocacy

• Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) FAQ: As a reminder, ABA has created a frequently asked question sheet on the PPP loan forgiveness application. The article will be continuously updated with any new information. Even if you are not yet nearing the end of your eight-week period, look through the forgiveness information to ensure you are keeping the required records. Doing this now will make filling out the application later much easier. Read the FAQ here.
  
• PPP bonuses and hazard pay update: The Small Business Administration (SBA) and Treasury Department issued an interim final rule on PPP loan forgiveness, stating that as long as an employee’s total compensation is less than $100,000 annually, bonuses and hazard pay are eligible for loan forgiveness because they are considered a supplement to salary or wages. The rule also clarifies that salary, wages, or commission payments to furloughed employees are eligible for forgiveness. Still, be wary of awarding atypical bonuses and hazard pay to be on the safe side. Speak to an accountant or your lender before making a decision.
  
• $10 billion in PPP funds for CDFIs: Today, May 28, the SBA and Treasury announced they will set aside $10 billion of “round two” PPP funding exclusively for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) in an effort to reach the underserved communities CDFIs typically serve. Locate a CDFI near you.
  
• PPP forgiveness application walkthrough: A recent National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) webinar featured a series of videos from Finch CPA Firm walking through the PPP forgiveness application. See the videos on PPP forms, a business example, PPP Schedule A, and the PPP application.
  
• MBAs Fight COVID-19: A new initiative, MBAs Fight COVID-19, is offering pro bono help to small businesses. Current MBA students are matched with businesses to provide help on a variety of projects (PPP, EIDL, cost cutting, etc.). Get help here.
  

Events

• We look forward to seeing you on June 11 at the virtual ABA Annual Meeting (2:00 p.m. ET) and Town Hall (3:00 p.m. ET). We want to hear from you! Please submit Town Hall questions and comments, or just introduce a topic you want us to address, ahead of time at townhall@bookweb.org. Questions or comments can also be introduced during the meeting via the Q&A interface; however, because the meeting is being presented in webinar format, booksellers will not be able to speak. The event link and further details will be emailed to booksellers and publishers next week. The Publishers Weekly 2020 Bookstore of the Year Award ceremony for Porter Square Books will occur immediately following the town hall meeting!
  
• Join us for a Marketing Meetup on Thursday, June 4, at 1:00 p.m. ET on “How to Make Friends and Influence Purchases: Digital Marketing’s Self-Help Guide to Customer Retention.” Registration is required.
  
• Join us for a Technology Meetup on Thursday, June 11, at 1:00 p.m. ET, featuring bookseller Angela Trigg of Haunted Bookshop in Mobile, Alabama, who has created a chatbot through which customers can place orders. Registration is required.
  
• Beginning in June, ABA’s Coffee Break meeting schedule is changing! Coffee Break meetings will be held via Zoom every Tuesday from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET and the last Thursday of each month at 6:00 p.m. ET. Join the Zoom calls here: the meeting ID is 850 6348 6159 and booksellers should check their email for a Coffee Break Reminder containing the password.
  

Announcements

• Indies Introduce! Thursday, June 4! Free! Booksellers can register now for the Zoom event featuring the upcoming season’s top adult debut titles, chosen by a panel of independent booksellers. It’s an exciting list of books and an opportunity for the indies to pave the way for a bestseller! (Children’s books will be presented during the virtual Children’s Institute program, to be held July 15–16.) 
  
• #SupportSmall Grants program! FedEx has launched a grant program to support 200 small businesses due to the crisis. I know 200 isn’t very many, but why not you? Each grantee will receive a $5,000 check and a $500 credit for FedEx Office print and business services. 
  
• Check out Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s new offer for classroom books — an extra 5% discount on B2B orders for HMH’s 135 most commonly used classroom books. This is a great opportunity for stores to reach out to schools and teachers who need to use their budgets before the end of the school year, or who might be preparing summer reading for students. See the Book Buyer’s Handbook for more details. 
  

Information

• In our scan of interesting information about the future, we found this interesting article in Forbes. 
  

ABA is here for all of 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.
Best,
Allison

Dear Booksellers,
​
Now that #SaveIndieBookstores has ended, ABA is gearing up for the next indie campaign. We’re excited to spread the word about Sourcebooks and Shelf Awareness’ #ReadIndieForward, a pay-it-forward movement to help independent bookstores.
This initiative is all kinds of good—the industry supporting one another, everyone sharing their love of books, readers buying books from the indies, and people connecting with the people they love.

Here are the details:
What
A pay-it-forward movement supporting independent bookstores by gifting books to friends and family.
Who
Everybody! Booksellers. Bookstores. ABA. Shelf Awareness. Sourcebooks. Other publishers. Authors. Readers. Customers. Everyone can help spread the word to #ReadIndieForward.
When
The next 8-10 weeks. (As shipping times are delayed right now, start early!)
How It Works
Step One:
An individual buys a book from their favorite independent bookstore and sends it to a loved one.
Step Two:
They post to social media with #ReadIndieForward, tagging the independent bookstore they bought the book from and the person they’re sending the book to.
Step Three:
They encourage the person who receives the book to #ReadIndieForward, too.
Step Four:
The person who receives the book posts on social media when they get the gift to say thank you. They can tag the sender and the indie bookstore.
Step Five:
The recipient can the start the whole cycle again: #ReadIndieForward.
How Bookstores Can Help
Spread the word. Turnkey, downloadable social media assets and ads are available at ReadIndieForward.com! You can personalize with your store’s logo or just upload the images to your social media or your website. You can even put your own spin on it and encourage customers to buy books that support local authors or diverse authors.
Why
Because #ReadIndieForward is exactly what we all need right now: something to connect us, and something to look forward to. 
ABA is grateful to Sourcebooks and Shelf Awareness, and all of the other publishers and authors who we know will get on this bandwagon. #SaveIndieBookstores raised over a million dollars. This time, let’s sell over a million books!
ABA is here for all of 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.
Best,
Allison
P.S. We didn’t want to wait to share this resource for booksellers beginning to reopen their stores: Here’s a handy list of tips for keeping your staff and customers safe, as well as a list of where to source related COVID-19 supplies.

• Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgiveness: While we are still waiting on PPP loan forgiveness guidance from the Small Business Administration and the Treasury Department, remember to periodically check ABA’s article on PPP loan forgiveness. The article is updated as new information becomes available and covers:

• • When the eight week period begins;
  • How to spend PPP funds to maximize forgiveness;
  • What expenses are forgivable;
  • How to apply for loan forgiveness;
  • What documentation is required for loan forgiveness; and
  • How Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) affect PPP loan forgiveness.

• PPP payroll expenses:

• • Paying employees to stay at home: If your state is still under a stay-at-home order or your store is voluntarily closed to the public, you can use your PPP funds to pay employees to stay at home. While employees are at home, you can try to find projects such as updating your website, creating a marketing campaign, or long-term strategizing. If there are no at-home projects, you can pay your employees to stay at home and not work. It may sound strange to pay employees not to work, but the main goal of PPP (as it is currently written) is to try to get businesses through the “shut down” phase and lessen the strain on the unemployment system, while also providing some extra funds for non-payroll expenses. Provided that your employees are back on payroll during your eight-week timeframe (at the same rate and hours they were before the pandemic), it does not matter if your employees are being paid to work or not to work.
  • Paying employees bonuses: We’ve heard from some members asking if they can use PPP funds to pay their employees bonuses. Some experts have warned against “going crazy with bonuses.” In other words, paying small bonuses to employees may be okay, but you should proceed with caution when considering awarding large bonuses. The government does not want to see businesses using PPP outside of the program’s intended purpose. When granting loan forgiveness, lenders will want to see that your expenses line up with what you’ve spent in the past. If you have a history of awarding bonuses each year to employees, then using PPP funds for this may be okay. Upcoming guidance may clarify the use of PPP funds on bonuses.
    In addition, some stores may wish to pay more to employees who are working in the store during the crisis. However, until a rule specifically allows for a small business owner to do this with forgivable PPP funds, ABA recommends that bookstore owners assume that any extra pay above the normal should not be included in your calculation for forgiveness; err on the side of caution to ensure that the loan is forgiven until there’s more information provided on this subject. 

• Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) update: The Small Business Administration (SBA) is no longer accepting new applications for EIDL from most small businesses. The EIDL application is now only available to agricultural businesses since they were previously ineligible for EIDL. Small business applicants who have already submitted their applications will continue to be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have questions about your EIDL status, you can contact the SBA Office of Disaster Assistance via phone at 1-800-659-2955 (TTY/TDD: 1-800-877-8339) or disastercustomerservice@sba.gov.  

Stamped Book Club: Please spread the word about cancelling!
The Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix Virtual Book Club scheduled for Wednesdays in May is completely sold out (great news!) but the waitlist is long and we want to ensure that as many people as possible can attend. Please encourage customers who have signed up but do not plan to attend to cancel their reservation through Eventbrite, which will then automatically register the next person in line on the waitlist. 
Store Status: Please update!
Please update your store status! Open? Closed? Closed with curbside service? Selling online? This information helps us update publishers, wholesalers, and shippers, and find ways to support you. If your store is closed, the alternate address you provide may be used for ABA shipments and/or publisher galleys. You can fill out the form (it takes just three minutes) and also see the results. (Note: This information will be public.)
Bookstore Images: Please send us photos!
We want to see you! Please send gen@bookweb.org photos of your stores. We want to see what your stores look like right now and hear a little bit about what’s going on. Content and photos may appear on an updated #SaveIndieBookstores website and/or be used on ABA social media.
Technology Meetup: Please join us!
The May 14 Technology Meetup, to be held at 1:00 p.m. ET, will look at services and tools that are helping booksellers manage the new ways of doing business that many are having to adjust to. Advance registration is required.
Fundraising: Please check out this new vendor!
Satisfactory Printing, one of ABA’s business affinity partners, is a locally owned and operated screen printing and design shop based in Athens, Georgia. They offer complimentary graphic design for T-shirts, tote bags, hats, enamel pins, and more, and a way to sell that merchandise directly to your customers.
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.

Dear Booksellers,

Today’s update is an urgent request from ABA’s advocacy team. I’m turning this over to them, and I appreciate your attention to this important matter...

We need you to take action to support the Small Business Expense Protection Act.

On April 30, an IRS notice declared that businesses that qualify for PPP loan forgiveness cannot deduct wages or other business expenses they paid for with forgiven PPP funds. A new bill would reverse that IRS rule.

On May 6, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators introduced the Small Business Expense Protection Act, which would clarify the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) so small businesses can deduct from their taxes expenses paid with a forgiven PPP loan. The bipartisan group consisted of Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Tom Carper (D-DE). 

Please reach out to your Senators and Representative to express your support for this legislation.

Tell your lawmakers: 
“Support the Small Business Expense Protection Act to reverse the IRS’s misguided ruling prohibiting businesses from deducting expenses associated with PPP loans. This IRS guidance is the opposite of what Congress intended when crafting the CARES Act. Small businesses that receive PPP loans should not be penalized with an unexpected tax bill when they receive urgently needed federal relief. I urge you to support this legislation so expenses paid with a forgiven PPP loan can still be deducted from small businesses’ taxes. This is much-needed to make sure small businesses have the liquidity and help to get through these difficult times.”To find contact details for your federal lawmakers, go to www.usa.gov/elected-officials.
Thanks in advance for your outreach!

ABA is here for all of 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.

Best,
Allison
​
P.S. Please let us know if you hear back from your legislators!

​Dear Booksellers,
 
Many states are beginning to open back up. Stores may find themselves in the challenging position of figuring out if, how, or when to open to their staff and/or their customers. ABA is researching information to assist stores in this process. Although this list is still in progress, we’re sharing the information we have so far to assist both those who need it immediately and those who are starting to look toward the next steps. 
 
ABA recommends that stores not only adhere to legal guidelines about reopening, but also keep in mind CDC guidelines and your best judgement and instincts about what’s best for your store, your staff, and your customers. These are challenging decisions in challenging times, and each store needs to make their own very personal decisions around reopening. May we continue to support one another through the next phase. In the meantime, here are some best practices and guidelines, gathered from multiple sources, to consider for reopening, partially or fully, depending on your circumstances:  

• Communication:
  • Help customers feel safe: Communicate your store’s policies through emails, your website, social media, and signage.
  • Help staff feel safe: Communicate with them about safety policies and procedures through email, signage, and a store meeting (online if necessary); ask them what their concerns are; share with them what you’re doing to make the store as safe as possible.

• Hand-washing:
  • All employees and customers are required to wash their hands for 20 seconds with soap and hot water after using the restroom. Post signage to this effect in the bathroom.
  • Employees must wash their hands for 20 seconds with soap and hot water after working on a cash register. Post signage to this effect by the time clock. Consider having one dedicated employee operating the register.
  • Employees must wash their hands for 20 seconds with soap and hot water before/after meal breaks. Post signage to that effect in the break room.
  • Post all hand-washing rules and guidelines where other government labor signage is posted as well.
  • Set up a schedule to monitor hand-washing areas throughout the day to ensure that soap and paper towels are full.
  • Be aware of cross-contamination and face-touching.

• Social Distancing:
  • Reconfigure desks, office spaces, work stations, and meeting areas to adhere to the six-feet-apart recommendation. Remove desks and chairs as needed.
  • Where space doesn’t allow for six-foot distances, spread staff out over split shifts.
  • Reconfigure or eliminate gathering spaces in the store to allow for six feet of social distancing. 
  • Widen aisles to allow for six feet of social distancing, or limit access to aisles to one or two people who are socially distancing.
  • Limit the number of customers who are shopping at one time. Smaller shops can use signage and open their door when more customers can enter. Larger shops may want to consider a reservation system.
  • Post signage asking customers to stay six feet apart when browsing the aisles. Ask staff to monitor.
  • Consider installing plexiglass sneeze guards at information and register areas.
  • Use tape on the sales floor, as needed, to show what six-foot distancing looks like.
  • Post signage on elevators asking customers to ride the elevator one at a time.
  • Schedule appointments to limit the number of people in your store.
  • Consider implementing special hours for at-risk customers.
  • Make store aisles one-way; use tape to make arrows on the floor.
  • Allow employees whose jobs can be done remotely to work from home.
  • Stagger shifts for employees.
  • Ask staff to meet via online video, even within the store, if multiple people need to attend.

• Gloves, Masks, and Hand Sanitizer:
  • Provide gloves and masks and require staff to use them.
  • Make hand sanitizer available to staff at each workstation.
  • Provide commercial hand sanitizer at the entrances for customers.
  • Establish a regular sanitizing schedule, including wiping down phones, keyboards, door handles, and bathrooms throughout the day.
  • Here are some great illustrations to demonstrate social distancing. It’s in German but still helpful.

• Policies:
  • No handshaking.
  • Require employees who are sick to stay home.
  • Change attendance policy accordingly.
  • Require employees to wear masks and gloves at all times. 
  • Require employees to wash hands on every break, whenever they use the bathroom, and after handling cash.
  • Require social distancing for staff and customers.
  • Require customers to wear masks.
  • No shared use of store equipment: one cashier per register, for example.

• Payments:
  • Suspend the use of PIN pads.
  • Make wipes available to sanitize credit card reader styluses between customers.
  • Enable contactless tender, like Apple Pay.

• Materials:
  • Gloves
  • Hand sanitizer
  • Masks
  • Plexiglass sneeze guards
  • Stanchions
  • Tape
  • Signage
  • Additional cleaning supplies

• Sourcing of Materials:
  • ABA is researching resources for members.
  • Partner with other local businesses to share sources for materials and coordinate discounts.

• Legal Issues:
  • Here’s what you should know about COVID-19 as it relates to labor laws, hiring, the Americans With Disabilities Act, and more.
  • See OSHA’s dedicated page on COVID-19 control and prevention.

• Contingency Plans:
  • Find a COVID-19 cleaning vendor in case you need it.
  • Talk to staff about what to do if a customer won’t comply with your store’s safety policies.
  • Crosstrain staff on key functions.

• Other Considerations:
  • Taking employee and customer temperatures, testing employees for antibodies, requiring customers to sign in for contact tracing purposes — these are all controversial initiatives discussed right now as possible options for businesses to consider as they reopen. There are legal concerns, serious privacy and free expression concerns, and other concerns to consider with these initiatives, all of which ABA is researching to provide members with more information in the coming weeks.

 
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.
 
Best,
Allison

Dear Booksellers, 
​
There’s a lot to go over today, so I’ll get right to it:
#SaveIndieBookstores
The application deadline has passed. All eligible bookstores will receive a check in mid to late May! We still have a few more days to accept donations. Please help us spread the word about the donation deadline and the final fundraising events:

• Today! Rick and Becky Riordan are still matching donations, dollar to dollar, up to $100,000!
• Tonight! Shannon Hale, author of the Austenland series, hosts a reunion of the cast and crew of the 2013 Austenland film in support of #SaveIndieBookstores. Watch it on ABA’s YouTube channel starting at 8:00 p.m. ET. #AustenlandReunion
• Wednesday! A John Grisham and Stephen King virtual event to promote both Camino Winds and If It Bleeds and to support of #SaveIndieBookstores. Live on Stephen King’s YouTube channel on April 29 at 7:00 p.m. ET.  

• Thursday! The #SaveIndieBookstores donation deadline is 11:59 p.m. on April 30.
• Saturday! We’re in the final stretch of the Bookscan Challenge, which ends May 2. Archipelago, Beacon, ECW, Grove Atlantic, Steerforth, and Tin House are donating 100 percent of the profit of select backlist titles (as a multiple of weekly Bookscan unit sales). You can promote these titles online or over the phone to drive sales and donations!
• Monday! May 4 at 9:00 p.m. ET is the last My Brilliant Friend viewing party. Join Elena Ferrante’s translator, Ann Goldstein; Europa Editor-in-Chief Michael Reynolds; novelist and short-story writer Lauren Groff (Florida, Fates and Furies); writer and editor Maris Kreizman (The Maris Review); and author and poet Ian Williams (Reproduction) for an informal online conversation about Ferrante’s novels and the HBO adaption of My Brilliant Friend. The conversation will be followed by an exclusive reading by Goldstein from Ferrante’s new novel, The Lying Life of Adults. Then, if you have HBO, stay in the virtual “living Zoom” to watch the final episode of My Brilliant Friend. 
• #SocksForBinc, Libro.fm’s partnership with artists to support the indies, continues!
• We’ve provided digital assets for you to use to spread the word for the final days of #SaveIndieBookstores.
• Thank you! So many people have generously donated to this campaign. Some are listed on the #SaveIndieBookstores donor page, and some donated anonymously. We are incredibly grateful to all of them. We are also incredibly moved by the number of booksellers who donated to the fund, and the bookstores who didn’t apply for the money because they felt that other bookstores might need it more.

Shelter-in-Place Lifted
Some parts of the country are starting to open back up as shelter-in-place mandates are lifted. Many stores in these areas are reporting that they do not plan on opening fully to the public yet, despite being allowed to do so. For some, the plan is to adhere to CDC guidelines and scientific evidence, rather than government policy, for when it’s safe to open fully again. Some are continuing the hybrid operations they began under shelter-in-place: curbside pickup, shipping, and delivery. We’ll keep you posted as we hear from stores about how they’re making these difficult decisions and how they’re proceeding.
Government Relief
We appreciate stores updating us about their EIDL and PPP experience by emailing us at advocacy@bookweb.org.
Face Masks
ABA is working on sourcing and partnerships to acquire face masks for stores. Stores may need masks for their staff and to sell to customers. Ingram is currently backordered for face masks on iPage; stores can still place backorders. This will demonstrate demand and help encourage Ingram to order more. Ingram is also trying to source hand sanitizer for stores. (Protective Masks, Product Code: 826750090029, US SRP: $7.50.)
Watch Out for Fraudulent Internet Orders
The IndieCommerce team is seeing a significant increase in fraudulent online orders. Most of these have only one red flag: the bill-to and ship-to addresses don’t match. We strongly encourage stores to call and verify those orders. If you’re unable to reach someone at the number provided, it’s a good indicator that the order is fraudulent. 
Another red flag is the customer’s IP address. If the bill-to and ship-to addresses don’t match, stores should check where the IP address is located to see if it matches either the bill-to or ship-to address. The IP address is printed at the top of every order.
There have also been a few fraudulent textbook orders. Some of these are large orders (which are always good to call and verify) and some have been small orders. If your store is not in a college town or doesn’t normally receive textbook orders, we encourage you to call and verify these orders as well. It also helps to train staff who process your online orders on what to look for, not just on individual orders but on how orders compare to one another. 
For example, one store reported noticing multiple smaller orders from the same IP address but different bill-to and ship-to addresses. It may help to understand where these fraudulent orders come from: There are bad actors who sell books online. They take orders from customers and get paid. But they get the books for free from you by ordering books from your store with a fraudulent credit card then having them sent to their customer. 
Please refer to the Fraudulent Order section on BookWeb for more information and please notify indieCommerce if you receive fraudulent orders. This helps us warn other stores about similar fraudulent orders. 
Call Publishers!
It’s critical right now that publishers hear from bookstores — about your store’s operating status and about your store’s financial status. Many publishers are offering assistance on a case-by-case basis, but we’re still hearing reports from publishers who are not hearing from bookstores. We strongly urge you to contact both your credit rep and your sales rep to let them know what’s going on. These conversations don’t have to be difficult. You’re just offering them information. That information will potentially help the publishers help you, and it will help the publishers have context when ABA meets with them next week for our annual publisher meetings.
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.
Best,
Allison

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 advocacy@bookweb.org 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 advocacy@bookweb.org.

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