Posted on

Don’t Let a Disaster Find You Unprepared

It’s July and that means summer and, unfortunately, the middle of hurricane season.

Hurricanes are now regularly joined by wildfires, floods, tornados and ice storms to wreak havoc on booksellers across the country. Booksellers have been assisted by Binc after their homes were flooded by a hurricane, stores and homes were destroyed in a raging wildfire, having pipes burst or roofs collapse under ice and snow, and all manner of natural disaster. Thanks to our generous donors, both corporate and individual, we have never had to turn anyone away. Binc has been and continues to be a place to turn when booksellers begin to put their lives back together after enduring a natural disaster.

While there are many different types of natural disaster, the preparation is the same. With the help of industry partners and a number of bookstore owners, we have created some tools to help you, your employees, and your store meet whatever Mother Nature has in store.

Last year in conjunction with LIBRIS we rolled out a Disaster Preparedness Checklist. Hopefully, there is already a copy in your bookstore; if not, download your copy LIBRIS_DisasterPreparedness.

Earlier this year we received an email from Sara Hines from Eight Cousin’s Bookstore in Falmouth, MA.

 Because of our situation last year (closed for three months due to massive water damage) and seeing all of the other disasters that bookstores across the country have experienced and because a restaurant across the street from us recently had to call an ambulance for a customer who overdosed during dinner, I am working on increasing our emergency preparedness staff training.

Sara realized that her store needed instructions that were specific to their store. She was looking for a way to train staff on how to manage a situation until the people who know what they are doing arrive. She knew that overwhelming her staff with too much information would be counter-productive but wanted them to be prepared for any emergency. She was compiling an emergency training binder and asked if Binc would take a look at what she had and make suggestions.

What Sara created was an amazingly detailed step-by-step plan to prepare her employees ready for any emergency. We were able to help her organize the information and we are happy to share what we call Emergency 1-2-3. We encourage you all to personalize the pages with important phone numbers, meeting places, contacts and any special processes you use. Then be sure to share the information with your staff. After going over the information with her staff, Sara has it all filed in the store’s Emergency Binder. Every employee of Eight Cousins knows the contents and where to find the binder.

Don’t let your store get caught unprepared, create your personal Emergency Binder today.

Posted on

Publishers Working with Humble Bundle Raise Over $100,000 for Booksellers in Need

The Humble Bundle community that purchases ebooks, games, software and other digital content has contributed over $145 million to charity since 2010. In 2018 Chronicle Books was the first publisher to designate the Binc Foundation as their charity of choice for their Humble Book Bundle. The proceeds from sales of these two bundles resulted in a donation which helped at least thirty-six booksellers and their families through financial emergencies like illness, homelessness prevention, and natural disaster recovery.

“Time and time again, I’m extremely heartened to see how the book community is there to support each other,” said Kelley Allen, Director of Books at Humble Bundle. “Although Humble Bundle is known for supporting many gaming charities, we are also there to assist other deserving charities profoundly impacting the book community such as Binc.”

Later in the year, John Wiley & Sons designated Binc as their charity of choice for a DIY electronics bundle. And Skyhorse Publishing designated Binc as one of their charities of choice for a Fortnite themed bundle at the end of 2018.

By choosing Binc—Chronicle, Wiley, and Skyhorse together with their customers raised over $100,000 for booksellers in need. The funds raised helped nearly fifty booksellers and their families.

Binc Executive Director, Pam French, said, “I encourage publishers to partner with Humble Bundle and ‘Think Binc’ when selecting their charity. What a powerful way to give back to the booksellers who have given the bookselling community so much. For Binc to be selected as the charity of choice by Chronicle, Wiley, and Skyhorse has been an honor. The money raised through the sales of these bundles will help an astounding almost fifty booksellers and their families through truly difficult times. These funds will help relieve the financial pressure on booksellers and their families from events like stroke, a partner’s job loss, and cancer diagnosis. We are grateful that these publishers chose to help booksellers.”

In 2018, publishers raised over $5.6M for charity via Humble Bundle.

The Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation
The Book Industry Charitable Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that coordinates charitable programs to strengthen the bookselling community. Established in 1996, the core program provides assistance to bookstore employees who have a demonstrated financial need arising from severe hardship and/or emergency circumstances.

Since its inception, the organization has provided over $6.6 million in financial assistance and scholarships to more than 7,476 families. Support for the Foundation’s programs and services come from all sectors of the book industry. The Book Industry Charitable Foundation’s mission is to strengthen the bookselling community through charitable programs that support employees and their families. The Foundation was imagined and built by booksellers and proudly continues to be their safety net. It is our vision to be a caring community of book people. Additional information can be found at https://www.bincfoundation.org.


Humble Bundle sells games, ebooks, software, and other digital content through pay-what-you-want bundle promotions, the Humble Store, and the Humble Monthly curated subscription service. When buying a bundle, customers not only choose how much to pay, but also how their payment is divided between the content creators, charity, and Humble Bundle. Purchases from the Humble Store and subscriptions to Humble Monthly also help support charity. Since the company’s launch in 2010, Humble Bundle and its community have raised more than $145 million for a wide range of charities across the world. To see more, visit https://www.humblebundle.com.

Posted on

Humble Book Bundle

Publishers Working with Humble Bundle
Raise $100,495 for Booksellers in Need

The Humble Bundle community that purchases ebooks, games, software and other digital content have contributed over $143 million to charity since 2010. And in 2018 Chronicle Books was the first publisher to designate the Binc Foundation as their charity of choice for the Humble Book Bundle. The proceeds from sales of the two bundles where Binc was named the charity of choice resulted in a donation of $72,941 to Binc, which helped at least thirty-six booksellers and their families through financial emergencies like illness and natural disaster recovery.

Later in the year, John Wiley & Sons designated Binc as their charity of choice for a DIY electronics bundle resulting in a $25,712 donation to Binc—helping thirteen booksellers. And Skyhorse Publishing designated Binc as one of their charities of choice for a Fortnite bundle at the end of 2018.

By choosing Binc—Chronicle, Wiley, and Skyhorse together with their customers raised $100,495 for booksellers in need. The funds raised helped nearly fifty booksellers and families

Binc Executive Director, Pam French, said, “I encourage publishers to partner with Humble Bundle and ‘Think Binc’ when selecting their charity of choice. What a powerful way to give back to the booksellers who have given the bookselling community so much. For Binc to be selected as the charity of choice by Chronicle, Wiley, and Skyhorse has been an honor. The money raised through the sales of these ebook bundles will help an astounding almost fifty booksellers and their families through truly difficult times. These funds will help relieve the financial pressure on booksellers and their families from events like stroke, a partner’s job loss, and cancer diagnosis. We are grateful that these publishers chose to help booksellers in their choice of charity.” —Pam French

In 2018, publishers raised over $5.6M for charity via Humble Bundle.

The Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation
The Book Industry Charitable Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that coordinates charitable programs to strengthen the bookselling community. Established in 1996, the core program provides assistance to bookstore employees who have a demonstrated financial need arising from severe hardship and/or emergency circumstances.

Since its inception, the organization has provided over $6.6 million in financial assistance and scholarships to more than 7,476 families. Support for the Foundation’s programs and services come from all sectors of the book industry. The Book Industry Charitable Foundation’s mission is to strengthen the bookselling community through charitable programs that support employees and their families. The Foundation was imagined and built by booksellers and proudly continues to be their safety net. It is our vision to be a caring community of book people. Additional information can be found at https://www.bincfoundation.org.

Humble Bundle is a distribution platform selling games, ebooks, software, and other digital content. Since Humble’s founding in 2010, our mission has been to support charity (“Humble”) while providing awesome content to customers at great prices (“Bundle”). We started by offering only game bundles, but have branched out to include an online storefront, a monthly subscription service, a publishing initiative, and lots more.
https://www.humblebundle.com/

Posted on

It’s Regional Tradeshow Season

We love traveling to all the Fall trade shows and having the opportunity to meet the Macmillan Booksellers Professional Development Scholarships Winners in person. It’s a joy to see these booksellers in their element! The value of having the opportunity to sit with others in the bookselling industry, attend education sessions, and connect with authors cannot be underestimated. At Binc we are grateful to Macmillan Publishers who made these scholarships possible.

“Sitting in the Minneapolis Airport overcome with gratitude. Thank you [Binc] and Macmillan for making my first tradeshow excursion a reality. I have gained so much from this experience. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”

-Scholarship Recipient Rebecca Fortes | Nicola’s Books