Booksellers Find Community, Solidarity at This Year’s Fall Regionals

A few hours after Heartland Fall Forum (Oct. 14–16) ended in Indianapolis, Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association executive director Larry Law described the joint trade show, cohosted by GLIBA and the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association, as “positive and uplifting.” Law noted that the panel “Mutual Aid: We Take Care of Us,” exploring how booksellers can create third places rooted in solidarity and resistance, “was a big part of the show’s vibe—that we take care of our communities and support and fortify each other.”

Sourcebooks senior marketing manager BrocheAroe Fabian, also a bookseller at River Dog Book Co. in Wisconsin and the moderator of PW’s BXsellers social media group, added that Heartland was “a mix between joy at seeing each other again and strategically planning for whatever lies ahead for us as booksellers these days.”

The sense that booksellers are upbeat and determined to stand in solidarity with one another and their communities permeated all six regional trade shows this year. Organizers reported that their annual gatherings drew record numbers of bookseller attendees, many of them first-timers from new stores. Approximately 3,000 individuals attended a regional this year in some capacity, including 1,540 booksellers—which perhaps is not surprising, considering that the American Booksellers Association reported a 43% increase since 2020 in the number of bookstore companies that are members, from 1,635 to 2,863, and in 2024, 323 bookstores opened their doors, a 31% increase from 2023.

New Voices New Rooms, cohosted in Atlanta (Aug. 3–6) by the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association and the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, set the tone for the entire season. The show was packed with education sessions, author events, parties, receptions, and tours of local bookstores; it culminated in a visit to AmericasMart, the world's largest collection of wholesale product showrooms.

“Despite the many challenges booksellers are facing around sustaining and growing their businesses while dealing with a divisive political climate, the mood was energized and overall positive,” SIBA executive director Linda-Marie Barrett said. “Booksellers were making the most of their time, focused on being in community with colleagues, soaking in the wisdom and best practices offered by our education panelists and peers, and connecting with authors and publishers.”

Describing NVNR as “magical,” NAIBA executive director Eileen Dengler noted that the two regional bookseller associations are committed to “taking care of” their bookseller members holistically: interspersed between education panels and workshops, a mental health specialist led three sessions at NVNR (each session limited to 15 booksellers) entitled “Nurture: How to Carry All That Weight on Your Shoulders.” Reflecting on her impending retirement next year, Dengler says that NVNR will “continue to build a community larger than our individual regions.”

Beth Ineson, the executive director of the New England Independent Booksellers Association said that this year's conference in Manchester, N.H. (Sept. 9–11) was a "buzzy and joyful show," with the theme being "profitability and possibility." Besides the usual education sessions focusing on store financials and logistics, NEIBA emphasized the health and well-being of booksellers, with an evocatively named session, “Bookseller Wellness 101, or Our Bodies Are Prisons of Flesh.” The class featured stretching exercises and tips on staying healthy.

The California Independent Booksellers Alliance ran a tight ship, packing a full program into two days for its Fall Fest in South San Francisco (Sept. 17–18). “It was a really positive show,” executive director Hannah Walcher told PW. “We had over 200 booksellers from across the state, as far south as San Diego—that’s 500-plus miles traveled—and as far east as Truckee.”

In conversations, CALIBA Fall Fest attendees prioritized “cash flow,” Walcher said. “They’re gearing up for a fourth quarter that we’re expecting to be strong, but full of unknowns.”

The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (Sept. 28–30) took a chance on a fall trade show site they hadn’t booked since 1999: Spokane. Executive director Brian Juenemann said the new locale was a hit, especially among PNBA's Idaho and Montana contingents. “Anything we thought might be lost in attendance was easily made up for in the enthusiasm of all the people who were thrilled we came to the east side,” he said.

Being at a distance from coastal Portland, Ore., and Seattle, to say nothing of New York and L.A., Juenemann said, “showed that people can have an active part in the association and realize they’re not so removed from what we think of as the top of the industry." He felt that the "relaxed, joyous" ambiance of a pre-show party at Auntie's Bookstore with PNBA booksellers and local authors "set the tone of the show for me."

Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association executive director Heather Duncan called FallCon in Denver (Oct. 5–8) “celebratory, optimistic, and upbeat.” The “Conversations with Colleagues” sessions successfully connected new and seasoned booksellers, she said, and a quiet time one evening encouraged booksellers to sit and color in the pages from a new release, Coloring with Coco: Reset and Reflect (Sourcebooks). “We made great art!” one of the 25 attendees told PW, expressing her wish for a similar event next year.

Honoring booksellers

The speakers and exhibitors at this year’s conferences also emphasized the strength and resilience of booksellers and the book world in general.

MIBA executive director Grace Hagen reported that the two marquee author breakfasts at Heartland shifted from an atmosphere that was "solemn, almost sacred," with the speakers as well as the audience "moved by what was being shared," to a sense of resolution—"a recognition of our power as individuals and as a community." She continued, "There were moments of real joy as well—it felt like such a gift to be filled up with such beautiful stories and ideas."

At NEIBA, opening keynote speaker Jon Meacham (American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union, Mar. 2026) set the tone for the conference, describing booksellers as warriors, fighting on the frontlines in a cultural war against authoritarianism.

Meanwhile at PNBA, AJ Williams and KJ Williams of Rise With Us, a conflict-resolution consultancy firm that has presented at Winter Institute, led an education session the first day of the show about interpersonal dynamics. “I’ve never seen a large education session where people were so eager to stand up at breakfast and bring their story to the mic, pointing out things they realized about themselves and figuring out how to communicate with each other,” Juenemann said. “It was big stuff for early in the morning. We got real with each other right off the bat.”

At FallCon, keynote authors during their presentations thanked MPIBA booksellers over and over for doing the work that they do. Tami Charles (Together, United, illustrated by Bryan Collier, out now) praised booksellers for “not just putting a book in a child’s hands, but offering the gift of courage, the gift of resistance to censorship. “Stories and books are being banned, but you have the power to fight that,” Charles declared.

And, after denouncing censorship as a means of control over others that “comes out of fear,” Shannon Hale (Holly Jolly Kitty-Corn, illustrated by LeUyen Pham, out now) urged MPIBA booksellers to “live in joy,” as it’s “the greatest rebellion” against fear. “Live in joy, despite everything,” she insisted, “because that’s how change happens.”