Obituary Note: Avin Mark Domnitz

Avin Mark Domnitz

We also have sad news to report today. Avin Mark Domnitz, CEO of the American Booksellers Association from 1997 to 2009, died on Saturday of cancer. He was 71.

Before becoming head the ABA, initially with the title executive director, Domnitz was president of the ABA and had been on the board for several terms. He was also co-owner of the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops in Milwaukee, Wis., and a principal of Dickens Books, which became part of Schwartz. Before becoming a bookseller, he was a trial lawyer.

As president and then CEO, Domnitz led the ABA during a tumultuous, difficult period for independent booksellers, roughly coinciding with the spread of big box chains across the country, to the opening of Amazon as an online book retailer and then Amazon's launch of the Kindle, which lead to a huge jump for a time in sales of digital books. And as if that wasn't enough, the financial crisis and Great Recession that began in 2007 wreaked havoc on bookstores of all stripes.

Perhaps drawing on his career as trial lawyer, Domnitz was a vigorous and vigilant defender of indies and indie bookselling. His emphasis on the fundamentals of bookselling was evidenced by his training of many booksellers in the basics of business financials. (He was also one of the most financially knowledgeable booksellers we've ever known.) He was a mentor to many booksellers and always available for advice and help.

During his tenure, the association initiated a range of programs and actions that have helped indies survive--and thrive. It founded Book Sense and BookSense.com, which morphed into IndieBound and IndieCommerce; supported and developed shop local campaigns; sold the ABA's office campus in Tarrytown, N.Y.; filed several lawsuits intended to create a level playing field for all book retailers; began battling for sales tax fairness; renewed an emphasis on education for members; created the Winter Institute and the Booksellers' Relief Fund (which eventually became part of what's now the Book Industry Charitable Foundation or Binc); and more.

ABA CEO Oren Teicher, who was chief operating officer during the period Domnitz was CEO, reiterated comments he made only a month ago, at the ABA's Celebration of Bookselling at BEA, when the association honored Domnitz. "Avin's life in bookselling was characterized by his unstinting belief in the transformative power of books and by his passionate belief that the best educational tools possible would help ensure that indie bookstores would be empowered to continue to reinvent and reinvigorate their businesses. He was a very special bookseller, a superb teacher; and, an extraordinarily talented and committed man. He inspired a whole generation of booksellers as well as all of us who worked with him on the ABA staff.

"More than anyone else, Avin was responsible for the renaissance in indie bookselling that we are seeing today. He planted the seeds for today's resurgence; and, never ever lost faith. He will be dearly missed."

At the same event, Mitchell Kaplan of Books & Books, an ABA president during Domnitz's time as CEO, relayed a powerful message to booksellers from Domnitz (which was in effect a kind of eulogy) based on notes he took on his cell phone during a visit just before BEA. Kaplan read, quoting Domnitz: "You won the war. The reason you won the war is because you were right. You were gracious, you were tough and you were adamant. You were right and they were wrong. What's right wins out sometimes, and this time it certainly did. Through lawsuits, through market disruption, through the cry of the experts presaging the end of the book, right prevailed, and bookselling is the stronger for it. Everyone denigrated the book, but you didn't and ultimately that's why you won. It's about the book, about the book. And, I, in everything I tried to do, was motivated by the belief that you and the book would prevail."

Avin Mark Domnitz's funeral will be on Wednesday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Goodman-Bensman Funeral Home, 4750 N. Santa Monica Blvd., in Whitefish Bay, Wis. The family has asked that in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made to the ABA or a charity of your choice.

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