A Note on Bookseller Associations
It’s been two weeks since Kristina and I exhibited at the 62nd annual Chicago Book & Paper Fair. It was a good fair this year. We met quite a few collectors. We also caught up with fellow booksellers–folks we’ve gotten to know over the years at fairs and through business dealings and through bookseller associations. It’s a tight-knit community, the world of booksellers. But the fairs are the only time you get to see everyone together. It’s a good community, too. Kristina and I were warmly welcomed into it when we launched Evening Land Books in 2022.
I’ve been reflecting on that community since we got back from Chicago. In particular, I’ve been thinking about one important facet of the community: the bookseller associations that formalize and organize it in many ways. I thought I’d share my thoughts on those bookseller associations and announce, in a way, my own intentions to continue engaging with them moving forward. This was always my intention, it’s nothing new. That much is intimated through Evening Land’s Guiding Principles which we drafted at the onset–to be lifelong learners with the bookseller community, to foster reading and collecting interests for our communities. I think those intentions are worth reiterating and clarifying, though, after formally joining some bookseller associations and contributing to them over the past several years.
But just briefly, let me specify what associations I’m referring to. The one affiliated with the Chicago Book & Paper Fair is the Midwest Antiquarian Booksellers Association (MWABA). Founded in 1977, MWABA has grown to have members from Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Missouri. It has a history of promoting regional book fairs and its members. Today its primary role is the continued hosting of the Chicago Book & Paper Fair. Evening Land Books has been an official member of MWABA since 2023.
We are also members of the Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA). IOBA was founded in 1999, at a time when online bookselling was in its infancy and a group of early practitioners identified a need to maintain professional standards, support online booksellers with professional development, and build trust between online booksellers and the general public. IOBA has grown to be one of the largest bookseller associations in the world. It has several hundred members. Most are located in North America, but there are many from Europe, Africa, and Australia as well. The IOBA maintains its original purposes. It is especially effective as a resource for its members. It offers scholarships to rare book schools, professional guidance, and more. Since becoming a member, I’ve joined the Public Relations Committee to help strategize IOBA’s social media presence, organize book fair sponsorships, distribute promotional materials, and help to build a long-term strategy for the association’s engagement with the bookseller community and the general public alike.
After joining and serving these associations, I’m left even more convinced of their vital roles in promoting the health and future of the bookseller community. I could provide arguments for why they’re beneficial to the general public, too, but that’s not necessarily the focus I have right now. What I’ve learned about these associations is that they provide a sort of connective fabric for the bookseller community. They bring together regional pockets of booksellers at events and fairs. They tend to attract members who are more community-minded, making interactions among members more likely to be mutually beneficial and even charitable at times. They create information resources as well. Through their internal communications, a network of trade information passes fruitfully among booksellers. This information often involves the business-related aspects of the trade, but also the bibliographic and book history foundations that ensure booksellers can prove what they know about books.
This is all to say that those associations are doing more than you might imagine from the outside looking in. It’s also to say that I intend to continue supporting and engaging with bookseller associations moving forward. In that regard, I intend to maintain my position on the PR Committee for the IOBA and continue to help the association promote itself to booksellers and the public. I also intend to keep Evening Land Books a member of MWABA and serve that association however possible. Finally, Kristina and I have also charted a path to joining the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA). It is a goal of ours, one in progress, but first we must meet the ABAA’s initial criteria of having been a legal business entity for four years prior to applying for membership. We will have fulfilled that criteria in August 2026, roughly a year from now. From there, we plan to apply for membership and serve that association in whatever capacities we can.
If you’re a fellow bookseller, I encourage you to look into these trade associations. Apply to become a member, get involved, ask questions, and find ways to contribute. You will be doing yourself a service. These associations will reciprocate. And if you’re a book collector, I hope you’ll follow and engage with them as well. Supporting associations like MWABA, IOBA, and the ABAA is simultaneously supporting hundreds of independent booksellers and small businesses who care deeply about books, book collecting, reading, history, and culture. These associations provide formal connections between people and businesses that would otherwise be working disparately across the trade. If you support them, critique them, join them, or in any way engaging with them, you’ll be helping to steer the larger culture of bookselling in positive directions.
PS – Evening Land Books is gearing up to exhibit at the Minnesota Antiquarian Book Fair on July 12th. We’re looking forward to meeting more booksellers and collectors there!
