The NCIBA in Pictures

Michael Ondaatje visited the NCIBA office in December to chat with booksellers and sign pre-ordered copies of The Cat’s Table.

Penguin sales reps Lindsay Wood (left) and Wendy Pearl hosted Sebastian Barry for a book signing and meet-and-greet to promote his new book On Caanan’s Side at the NCIBA offices in late September.

The NCIBA office recently hosted a signing and meet-and-greet with Grace Bonney, author of Design*Sponge at Home.

The NCIBA office was delighted to host a meet-and-greet with booksellers and Suzanne Collins, who personalized more than 200 copies of Mockingjay right before the holiday selling season. Photo by Carol Seajay.

Before his Thursday lunch appearance at the NCIBA Trade Show, Michael Cunningham sat down at the NCIBA booth and signed 400 copies of By Nightfall that had been pre-ordered by stores. Photo by Calvin Crosby.

Jonathan Franzen relaxes with NCIBA’s Carol Seajay and Hut Landon after signing more than 500 copies of Freedom for our bookstores. Photo by Gigi Reinheimer.

Bookseller favorite Barbara Kingsolver signed over 400 copies of The Lacuna at our offices in November.

Jonathan Lethem was on hand at the office recently to sign copies of his new novel Chronic City for bookstores.

Margaret Atwood signing copies of The Year of the Flood in our office on October 5, 2009. Photo by Carol Seajay.

Alexander McCall Smith visited the NCIBA office on a recent Sunday to sign copies of his new book, Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, for booksellers. Photo by Joyce Ripp.

Mary Roach signs copies of Bonk after her uproarious morning talk at the NCIBA’s recent Spring Gathering. Photo by Joyce Ripp.

T.C. Boyle signing copies of his new book The Women in the NCIBA office. Photo by Joyce Ripp.

The NCIBA welcomed first-time novelist Paul Harding, author of Tinkers, to the office recently for a meet-and-greet with booksellers. Photo by Joyce Ripp.

Annie Leibovitz signing her new book Annie Leibovitz at Work (Random House), at the NCIBA office. Photo by Joyce Ripp.

World Book Night Arrives in April 2012

World Book Night is an annual celebration designed to spread a love of reading and books. Next year, on April 23, fifty thousand book givers will go out into their communities in the United States and each hand out twenty copies of one of the twenty-five World Book Night picks, for a total of a million paperbacks given away. Bookstores and libraries will be encouraged to put up displays of the books in their regular editions. As well as widespread publicity for the value of books and reading, the U.K.’s first World Book Night saw book sales of the picks soar. Click on the logo for more information.

GOP Legislators Favor Tax Breaks for Amazon Over a Level Playing Field for Local Retailers in Their Districts

Governor Jerry Brown signed a compromise bill in September 2011 that should compel Amazon.com to collect sales tax... in September of 2012. The bill he signed was an amalgam of legislation that had been proposed over the course of the spring and summer and geared to force Amazon to begin sales tax collection immediately. So what happened?

Republican legislators refused to support any of the original three Amazon bills—AB 153, AB 155, and SB 234—introduced this past spring. Each of the bills would have strengthened different sections of the state’s sales tax code language, making it much easier for the Board of Equalization to pursue sales tax collection from Amazon.

GOP recalcitrance led the Democratic leadership to combine the three bills into one “trailer bill” that was part of the state budget package.

The trailer bill was passed by majority vote, but no Republicans voted for it, which meant the bill failed to garner a 2/3 majority and left it open to a referendum challenge.

Amazon sought a referendum that would void the trailer bill, in part because the bill did not receive a 2/3 majority vote and was therefore subject to referendum.

In response, the Democratic-controlled legislature introduced a revised AB 155 bill that essentially mirrored the trailer bill. The goal was to repeal the trailer bill, replace it with AB 155, and pass it as an “urgency” bill with 2/3 majority. That action would make the bill non-referendable and make Amazon’s existing referendum bid null and void.

In order to achieve a 2/3 majority, a total of four Republicans needed to vote with Democrats—two each from the Senate and the Assembly. None did.

If you’re counting, that’s three separate instances where lack of GOP support allowed Amazon to dodge legislative bullets and eventually get to the referendum stage. And the referendum was a key strategy because the law being challenged—in this case the trailer bill—would have been suspended until the June 2012 election. So Republican non-support gave Amazon a chance to buy and additional nine months of sales tax avoidance. The referendum also became a bargaining chip for Amazon and eventually led to the current deal—AB 155 is passed with support from both parties but doesn’t go into effect until September 2012, Amazon, meanwhile, drops the referendum.

So I think it’s fair to say that the Republican legislators at the very least cost the state $200 million in lost sales tax revenue for yet another year. GOP leaders are taking credit for helping forge a bi-partisan compromise, but their unwillingness to support any earlier legislation created this “solution.” We think they should be made to explain to local retailers in their district and held accountable for their (non) actions.

—HUT LANDON
Executive Director, NCIBA

New NCIBA Bookstore Blogs Page

We now have a page with the latest posts from blogs written by NCIBA members. Check it out!

Top Shelf Picks

We are sending the list weekly to booksellers, and we are also posting the information on our bestsellers page. There you’ll also find the week’s Top Shelf list — 10 recommended new titles from an independent bookstore.