Less than two weeks after attending this year's Winter Institute, Becky Milner, the owner of Vintage Books in Vancouver, Washington, wrote to ABA staff to share some of the many changes the two-day education program, and her networking colleagues, inspired her to make in the store's operations. What she created was the beginnings of a great marketing checklist for any independent bookseller.

February 13, 2007

By ABA President Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana

Jessica Stockton, events coordinator at New York City's McNally Robinson Booksellers (and bookseller blogger extraordinaire), files a full account of the second annual Winter Institute, in Portland, Oregon, from the opening reception to the plane flight home.

By Jessica Stockton

by Len Vlahos

From December 8 to December 10, Len Vlahos, ABA's education and BookSense.com director, joined the bookselling team at Maria's Bookshop in Durango, Colorado, for a weekend stint as a frontline bookseller. This is his account of magical car rides, a charming Colorado town, and hectic holiday sales days while working at a very successful independent bookstore.

To Have and to Hold ... From This Day Forward?

By Ann Lacefield

When technology fails, or a marriage for that matter, whose fault is it?

Many independent booksellers decried not only the decision to publish O.J. Simpson's book, If I Did It, but also that it was sold to them as a "blind" title, with no information available about author or subject matter. In an open letter to publishers, Leslie Ryan, owner of Off the Beaten Path Bookstore in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, calls for a better way.

Subject: We Still Have a Problem

By Laura L. Hansen