As the American Booksellers Association’s Winter Institute got underway in Pittsburgh on February 23, the Independent Publishers Caucus held a summit and town hall; ABA welcomed booksellers with a presentation on “Bookselling in 2026: The Big Questions”; and attendees gathered at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center for a wall-to-wall reception to kick off the show.

IPC executive director Daniel O’Brien emceed the afternoon’s indie press summit, which drew publishers and booksellers alike and focused on the IPC and ABA’s collaborative Independent Press Top 40 list, which is based on reporting ABA collects from approximately 1,000 independent stores.

An IPC panel on the indie top 40, moderated by PW’s Ed Nawotka, emphasized the importance of having a bestseller list that tracks strong performers outside the Big Five. Kelly Justice, owner of Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Va., said the top 40 encourages a “stretch” beyond mainstream reading lanes, plus “we have a core group of our customers who want to know about the whole publishing ecosystem, and they’re paying attention.”

Having an eclectic bestseller list has the potential to “broaden the horizons of publishers,” Europa Editions executive publisher Michael Reynolds said. “The more often we see riskier, more daring books on this list, the more we’re going to be willing to take those risks." O’Brien said he already has noticed evidence of increased readership. “I’m uploading titles to Bookshop.org,” O’Brien said, “and we’re seeing more affiliate sales than we’ve ever received for the IPC account,” with sales up 10%. Bookshop.org CEO Andy Hunter expressed optimism about the “resurgence of indie bookstores” since 2018, and urged indie publishers to “pour some gas on this fire that’s happening,” by supporting stores with co-op and social media.

That collaborative spirit—among presses, stores, authors, and successive generations—was a central topic for IPC. In a panel on the state of the industry, Princeton University Press director Christie Henry said, “I do think collaboration and connection will continue to be our superpowers.” IBPA CEO Andrea Fleck-Nisbet quoted Henry in another panel devoted to evolving business models at Authors Equity, the Collective Book Studio, and the Stable Book Group.

CJ Alberts, marketing director at Bindery Books, agreed that community is a source of stability amid chaos, and urged indies to practice “reframing the question of ‘how do we survive the current structure’ with the question ‘how are we so dependent on it in the first place?’” To help win over audiences, Alberts pointed to Bindery's development of an eight-bit videogame based on Barbara Truelove’s novel Of Monsters and Mainframes which Bindery released for free, in what Albert called a bif of “reverse engineering” discoverability.

Together, booksellers will weather storms

Monday’s programming concluded with back to back panels moderated by ABA CEO Allison Hill that focused on two of the greatest issues facing independent booksellers today: the decline in reading and AI.

The first panel featured Brein Lopez, the general manager of Children’s Book World in Los Angeles, who emphasized that booksellers in the U.S. are “doing so many of the right things," in trying to encourage reading, especially in promoting representation in contemporary children’s literature. But, he said, booksellers must stop curating their inventory to reflect their personal preferences; instead they should focus on stocking books that children love.

Nic Bottomly of Mr. B’s Emporium of Earthly Delights in Bath, commented on the U.K. government’s support for a literacy project that focused on families with young children, as well as low-income individuals and families. The project, he said, isn’t just about encouraging people to read books: it’s about encouraging people to read, period. “It’s great if we can make it happen,” Bottomley said, advocating for making bookstores places that welcome all, with an emphasis on bookseller recommendations. Noting the importance of shared reading, Bottomley pointed out that research indicates that parents who read to their young children “will make that child a reader for life.”

The second panel, which focused on AI, included Lopez, along with Bookshop.org's Hunter, and Phil Davies, the director of the ABA’s e-commerce program. The three panelists emphasized that AI is both a negative and a positive force in publishing. While AI indeed has taken away jobs from illustrators, translators, and others, Hunter argued that the book world still needs "to engage—or be left behind."

Davies maintained that booksellers need to “define AI the way we want it to be. It's not going to go away, but you can remake it in the image that you want it to be.”

As for Lopez, he urged his fellow booksellers to “do your due diligence” and make sure to maintain the integrity of their bookstores by checking that any title in their store’s inventory is created by human beings, not AI—something, he argued, isn't happening with corporate retailers.

Hill concluded the session by urging booksellers to work together and with the ABA to present a united front. This can be achieved by reporting store data to ABACUS, participating in BATCH, and reporting sales to BookScan.

"We need a stronger boat to navigate the waters that are ahead.” Hill continued, “When you come together around titles, you really move the needle. When you report your sales, it feels like an independent, individual action. But when you all do it, it demonstrates the power of this channel in a really meaningful way."