Advocacy

The American Booksellers Association's Advocacy page has information on current actions related to banned books and fair trade. 

July 2022

The American Booksellers Association urges you to contact your lawmakers in support of the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S. 2992), Klobuchar’s Antitrust bill. Amazon is primed for another year of anticompetitive practices that will help the online behemoth grow at the expense of communities, jobs, local businesses, and our economy. In response, it’s time to get even; it’s time to even the playing field. Urge U.S. House and Senate lawmakers to bring The American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S. 2992) to the floor for a vote!

June 2022

Help condemn attacks on free expression

A judge in Virginia Beach is currently weighing whether to impose a subjective definition of "obscene" upon the general population, thereby limiting the freedom of all citizens to make their own decisions and have access to a variety of ideas and philosophies. Anyone interested in retaining the right to create, promote, and disseminate works of literature that portray the full array of the human experience is encouraged to defend that right. This ABA and ABFE have created a letter you can adopt and send to your state legislator and board of education to make sure they know a majority of Americans still feel capable of making their own decisions.

Click here for more information.

The American Booksellers Association has created an Advocacy Campaign to reach local and state lawmakers, and has templates of letters that can be used to ask their support in fighting book bans. Don’t forget to check out these free expression resources for booksellers. Resources include school and library book ban resources, an asset to educate customers about book bans, sample freedom of expression and privacy statements for stores, and tips on preparing for controversial author events. Questions can be sent to ABFE Director David Grogan at abfe@bookweb.org .