Congratulations to Sandra Law, and to all the Chicago Lit 50 honorees!

We are so proud of Sandra Law, our Chicago-based rep, for her recognition this year in New City’s annual survey of the LIT 50 – “Who Really Books in Chicago”.

Sandra is featured alongside our rep colleagues from Penguin, Random House, and Macmillan: Brian Wilson, Bridget Piekarz, and Anne Hellman.

Sandra Law, Brian Wilson, Bridget Piekarz, Anne Hellman/Photo: Monica Kass Rogers (New City)

Sandra Law, Brian Wilson, Bridget Piekarz, Anne Hellman/Photo: Monica Kass Rogers (New City)

Every year, New City seeks out and features some of the most interesting and hard-working literary people around Chicago. Also among this year’s featured 50:

  • multi-talented educator and writer Eve Ewing

  • poets H. Melt, José Olivarez, Chris Abani, and Reginald Gibbons

  • Haymarket Books’ co-founder and publisher Julie Fain

  • GLIBA executive director Larry Law

  • booksellers Jason Smith & Rachel Weaver from the Book Table and Javier Ramirez (also from the Book Table), Rebecca George & Kimberly George from Volumes, Jeff Deutsch & Alex Houston from the Seminary Co-op Bookstore, and Sarah Hollenbeck & Lynn Mooney from Women & Children First.

We could not be more proud to know that so many of our friends and colleagues are among the top literary people in the Chicago scene.

Well, this site will be even more valuable to us in 2019. (See ya, Facebook! 👋)

After all the news about Facebook’s privacy fails, we’ve been feeling more and more queasy about continuing to remain active on the site. And the latest news yesterday about Amazon and Facebook having a secret data-sharing agreement was pretty much the last straw.

So we’ll be closing down our Facebook group page over the holidays and focusing more and more on our blog here and our email newsletters to share updates out to our customers and friends. I’m shutting my page down shortly, and Stu already has.

Squarespace just released a new iOS app that makes full-featured web site management, and posting, even easier. We’re definitely going to take advantage of it in 2019 to keep updating here while we’re on the go. (I’ve already started, writing half of this post while in a carwash, under the suds!)

You’ll still find our group posts under the handle @abrahambookreps on Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out our individual posts for Stu, Emily, Sandra, and me on Instagram and/or Twitter. (Check out the links in our menu above to see where you can find us.)

And yes, we’re sticking with IG, despite the fact that they’re owned by Facebook themselves. We’re hoping that the straight-up photo sharing network is somewhat less privacy compromised than the mothership has been. There’s just too much good book stuff and great booksellers on there for us to walk away right now.

Heck, Vox just reported that Instagram helped save indie bookstores. So, there ya go. 🙄

If you’ve got suggestions about anything you’d like us to cover, or feature, or talk about here, we’re happy to hear them. Let us know by email or tweet. Our DMs are open, as they say.

– John

Yay! for new Sad Shop Card Items

Check out these great new items from Sad Shop Cards!!

New Sad Shop Onesies and Cards are ready for you to order from your Abraham Associates rep or order online today. See below for list of new items.

  • Minimum Order: $100 

  • Cards – order in 6’s, $2.50 net each 

  • Onesies – order in 3’s, $12.50 net each

  • Flat Shipping Fee: $15

new Baby Onesies

  • CRYING HELPS

  • OLD SOUL, NEW BODY

  • BOYS CRY

  • FUTURE VOTER

new Holiday Cards for 2018

  • All I want for Christmas is a new president.

  • Rudolph was too cool for reindeer games anyway.

  • Dear Santa, please stop kissing mommy.

  • Best holiday wishes from our dystopian future.

new Valentine Cards for 2019

  • My therapist says I'm great.

  • You had me at I hate parties.

  • I'm glad you're single too.

  • I like my men how I like my pizza. With pizza.

  • The world is a mess, but I'm glad you're in it.

  • My heart is as full of love as the ocean is full of plastic.

  • Steal my heart, but don't steal my food.

  • I'm proud of you for picking me.

You can also ORDER ONLINE.
Let us know if you need a login to the new Sad Shop wholesale site for convenient ordering.

National Book Award Longlist

We are very excited for our Publishers and Titles on the Longlists for the National Book Awards.

Congratulations to all our publishers who have books in the running for National Book Awards this year: Candlewick Press, Coffee House Press (two picks!), Haymarket Books, Omnidawn, Oxford University Press (two picks!), and Wesleyan University Press.

Click on each book for more information.

Here’s the full selection of longlisted titles: 2018 National Book Award Longlists