96 Hours in Albuquerque

Dear Booksellers,

Many years ago, when I was a college student, I went on a cross-country journey with my boyfriend. Driving for days was a rite of passage, and we passed the time challenging each other with word games and trivia questions. Our favorite distraction was playing the license plate game, a game that, with the proliferation of vanity plates in the U.S., may no longer exist in its purest form: Be the first to spot a license plate from a new state and win bragging rights for at least 30 miles.

I was the first to spot the New Mexico plate, which has enchanted me ever since:

New Mexico is proud of its license plates. The Zia sun symbol is the world’s oldest continuous promotional graphic used on a license plate, appearing every year since 1927. In fact, the turquoise New Mexico centennial plate was voted the best plate in the nation in 2010, winning the prestigious award from the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association.

You will see many New Mexico license plate designs on the road to Winter Institute 2019 ("Wi14"), and can see them all now on this page from the New Mexico DMV. Like New Mexico itself, the variety is visually striking and culturally significant. I can’t think of another state whose identity is so entwined with its aesthetic. It’s a thrill for ABA, therefore, that booksellers from around the country — and world — will gather at Wi14 in this enchanting place for days of learning; camaraderie and new connections; and, we hope, immersion in the surrounding landscape. May this suggested itinerary help you find your way.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22

7:30 am to 6 pm  Wherever you are staying — whether the DoubleTree, the Hyatt Regency, Embassy Suites, Hotel Andaluz, or your Aunt Tillie’s apartment — your badge, the Wi14 printed program, the welcome bag, and lots of important messages and invitations await you at the ABA Welcome Desk in the Albuquerque Convention Center (ACC). Proceed to the 2nd Street entrance on the ACC West Building’s Main Level to find us. Grab everything as early in the day as you can before heading out to a tour, a workshop, or back to the hotel to nap! Be sure to download the Wi14 app so you are prepared for the days ahead.

TIP: 2nd Street runs between the two buildings that comprise the ACC, the East and West. There will be some moving back and forth over the course of the days, but not to worry about the weather — a sky bridge connects the two buildings. Coats can be stored in the Pima room, which is on the Upper Level of the West Building. For those who are directionally challenged, we have made many signs with arrows and pictures!

7:30 am to 6 pm   Representatives from MPIBA, the host regional association, will be at their own welcome area on the Main Level of the West Building (3rd Street entrance side), along with the Arcadia Press table. Arcadia is giving every attendee store a customized book from its Images of America series, which is really quite remarkable! Arcadia author Roger Zimmerman will be available to answer questions about the local area. He has also organized free guided tours of the downtown, departing at 10 am, 12 pm, and 1 pm.

If you’d rather get your kicks walking Route 66 and elsewhere on your own, visit GPSmyCity and Downtown Albuquerque Arts & Cultural District for more information. Details about tours of Old Town Albuquerque can be found at TripSavvy and GPSmyCity.

8:15 and 8:30 am   Daytrippers for the Santa Fe Day Trip and Acoma Pueblo Tour leave from the 2nd Street side; buses and signs will be on the street. Please arrive 15 minutes before departure time to check in! ABA’s two organized, narrated, and curated trips are sold out, although standbys may be accommodated if there is room. In any event, Santa Fe isn’t far by car or the fun and colorful Rail Runner Express, and the Pueblo is operating a full tour schedule.

Arriving in Albuquerque early with nothing planned? Tuesday is filled with focused education, and there are a few spaces open.

9 am to 5 pm   IndieCommerce Institute (“ICI”) IndieCommerce users: If you happen to be in the neighborhood, you don’t need to be attending Wi14 to register for the morning and/or afternoon sessions. Pre-registration preferred but walk-ins can be accomodated.

9 am to 4 pm   The Paz “Introduction to Retail Bookselling” workshop is the Around the World in 80 Days of bookselling education — fun, furious, and instructive. Great for that overview you need to get started in the business or may never have gotten. Pre-registration required.

Also on Tuesday are the Small Business Management Seminars: single-topic, in-depth workshops with real action takeaways. Pre-registration is required for each.

10 am to 12 pm  Staff Management and Human Resources
1 pm to 4 pm  Design for Strategic In-Store Merchandising
1 pm to 4 pm  Used Bookstore Forum

PLAN AHEAD: Spanish-language books are being collected throughout the Institute to benefit parents and children who are waiting at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Refugee Book Drive was organized by New Mexico bookseller Denise Chávez (Casa Camino Real Bookstore, Las Cruces) and is being administered by Border Servants Corps. Refugees are people who have been forced to leave their homes or their country because of war, economic or societal problems, their political or religious beliefs, or natural disaster. Suggested books and genres are posted on BookWeb.org.

11:00 am to 4:30 pm   With all the ins and outs and comings and goings on the very busy first day of Wi14, we are grateful that lead sponsor Ingram is providing respite on the Lower Level of the ACC: Ingram’s Indies by the Fireside, in La Sala. You won’t miss the multi-story fireplace from anywhere in the ACC. All booksellers are invited! Chat with IPS publishers, editors, and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate with all the fixings -- whipped cream, chocolate, marshmallows, and those really heart-warming fixings, Baily’s and Kahlua. You’ll also find New Mexico’s famous biscochito butter cookies, and an array of books loved by Ingram staff.

4:45 pm to 5:30 pm   Attention mentor volunteers! Attention mentees! This time is set aside for you to meet and greet that friendly face in the very big crowd. We will convene in the foyer of the Grand Pavilion Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency before the Welcome Reception begins.

5:30 pm to 7:30 pm   Wi14 officially launches at the Welcome Reception, held in the Hyatt Regency. Always up for a party, Shelf Awareness is co-sponsoring this fun welcome to New Mexico and each other with music supplied by Los Trinos.

9:30 pm to 10 pm   The music and party continues at the Hotel Andaluz, just around the corner from the Hyatt Regency (which is just across the street from the ACC.) As a special treat, in an early stop of their U.S. tour and soon to be playing at a bookshop near you, is The Bookshop Band!  The band will also play their original bookshop-inspired music at Thursday’s breakfast and at 2 pm in La Sala during the coffee break, and again on Friday at 2:45 pm in La Sala.

I hear they are writing something just for Wi14. If I may suggest a line or two….

Indie booksellers don’t rock dress suits,
though they are dedicated and resolute,
filled with passion and other attributes,
they are the stars at Winter Institute.

10 pm to 1 pm   Who needs sleep when there is music, dance, and drink at the Afterparty in the Hotel Andaluz? Hosted by the National Book Foundation, Lit Hub, Bookselling Without Borders, and indie presses Archipelago, Catapult, Counterpoint, Europa Editions, Graywolf, New Directions, New York Review Books, Other Press, and Soft Skull.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23

7:45 am to 9 am   Everyone comes together for breakfast and to get started with the main event. (Mentees meet mentors at 7:30 at designated tables. Look for the campaign-style “Mentor/Mentees Meet Here” signs raised high in the front of the room!)

The opening keynote is Reshma Saujani, who has inspired millions of girls and young women as founder of the tech organization “Girls Who Code,” and whose task at hand is to inspire hundreds of booksellers who read. If her popular 2016 TED Talk, “Brave, Not Perfect,” is an example, we will leave determined to teach our girls to not be afraid.

9 am to 6 pm  The Galley Room opens early and closes late. We know booksellers love to browse, but fear not — there are hundreds of galleys, so no need to skip important groups, sessions, or meals in order to get a head start. In fact, the galleys are courtesy of the sponsors, who generously supply the books in exchange for speaking with booksellers at important groups, sessions, and meals! It’s a righteous circle that should remain unbroken.

Apologies to Annie Proulx, but there is Shipping News! Ingram is powering all the shipping from Wi14 and it should be easy-peasy. Everything will be sent UPS — at 40% off — and charged back via your Ingram account.  For anyone without an account, Ingram will issue an invoice after Wi14. Relax, Ingram’s got this. (If you prefer to ship on your own, you can take boxes to the ACC business center or back to the hotel.)

The Galley Room and Shipping Desk are both opening early and closing late, all three days:

• Wednesday, 9 am to 6 pm
• Thursday, 9 am to 7 pm
• Friday, 7:30 am to 8 pm

9:20 am to 10:20 am   We are wasting no time getting booksellers together in the same room to talk about “brave” and “perfect” issues raised by Reshma Saujani’s Breakfast Keynote. Bookseller Discussion Groups will be held at various locations around the ACC. Check your badge for your assignment, and then look for an ABA staffer holding high a paddle sign with group numbers to help you on your way.

Publishers also have an opportunity to discuss and better understand bookselling at their own session, ABACUS and Bookstore Finances, at the DoubleTree hotel, which is connected to the lower level of the ACC by tunnel.

10:40 am to 11:40 am   Education block #1 has six options, and I’m glad I don’t have to pick just one: Selling International and Diverse Books; Your Landlord, Your Business Partner; Bringing Play and Revenue Into the Store; ABC Group Presents: Hosting A+ Educator Nights; Industry Trends and Analytics; and Lower Your Cost of Goods Sold.

Luckily, you don’t have to choose either, because ABA is live-streaming many of the keynotes and recording dozens of the education sessions! Keynote videos will be available for a limited time on BookWeb.org following the event, and the session videos will be posted over the next few weeks. BTW is your source for those announcements.

The Wi14 video program is a huge step towards ABA making more of its educational content available to more of its members. It’s also a huge boon for booksellers who feel torn about which sessions to attend while at the event, or who want to refresh their memories after the event — and for presenters who wonder what they really look like during the event!

Tired, lost, need another cup of coffee or a quiet place to meditate? Wi14 is looking out for you: The MPIBA Hospitality Suite is open each day from 9 am to 4 pm; the new, stress-free Quiet Room is open each day from 9 am to 5 pm on the lower level of the West Building; and my personal favorite, the ACC Concession Stand (hot dogs!) is open on the West Upper Level Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 9 am to 12 pm and 2:30 pm to 5 pm.

11:55 am to 1:55 pm  (We are serious about seconds and minutes at Wi14; so, no, those times are not typos. The schedule includes time to get around, but we appreciate booksellers arriving at sessions on time and staying for the duration.) Rep Picks Speed Dating, Day 1, for which publisher reps have been training for months to improve their time out of the starting blocks, is in session. International guests enjoy their own lunch and a look at the U.S. book industry.

2:10 pm to 3:10 pm   For your consideration: Six afternoon education choices covering a wide range of topics and appealing to a variety of bookseller interests, including two advanced idea exchange groups, one for newer managers and owners and one for more experienced manager and owners.

3:25 pm to 4:25 pm   I am especially looking forward to hearing Afternoon Keynote Hanif Abdurraqib talk about the writer’s relationship with memory, and romantics of memory. He is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic whose new book, Go Ahead in the Rain, is a blend of personal experience and history. Apparently, Hanif will be expecting someone to show him the best milkshakes in Albuquerque after the keynote. Suggestions, area natives?

4:45 pm to 6:15 pm   The Bookseller and Publisher Focus Groups are organized differently this year, giving booksellers both a 45-minute break and 45 minutes with publishers for discussions. This way, everyone stays alert and fresh, and the meetings are so much more constructive!  

Booksellers, you are assigned to either the First Shift (4:45 pm to 5:30 pm) or the Second Shift (5:30 pm to 6:15 pm). You are also assigned to a table number within that time shift, which determines whether you go upstairs or downstairs. ABA staff will be parading around with helpful signs and will answer any questions.

6:20 pm to 7:30 pm   After a long, productive, head-expanding day, the Ingram Drinks and Hors d’oeuvres Open Reception, including a photo op with a surprise Ingram party favor, is just the ticket. No hints — you’ll just have to pick up your welcome bag to discover the surprise.

9:30 pm to 11:30 pm   Save room for dessert at the Scholastic YA Fest Afterparty at the Hotel Andaluz. Everyone is invited to meet YA authors, check out new books, and take home a surprise gift. You can seriously “rock the casbah” at the Andaluz!

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24

7:45 am to 9 am   Start the day with music from The Bookshop Band and breakfast with your colleagues. Then, the fantastical meets the dystopian when Margaret Atwood and Erin Morgenstern take the stage for a much-anticipated conversation.

9 am to 12 pm   We like to think of the Consultation Station as a pop-up college fair for booksellers...without the colleges, but with a host of vendor friends to independent bookselling, all of whom offer something special just for the indie market. We encourage you to stop by Thursday and Friday mornings and afternoons. (Closed during lunches.) By the way, we hope to see many Binc “Heads or Tails” fundraiser blinkee pins blinking away! Purchase them from Binc in the Consultation Station.

9:20 am to 10:20 am and 3:40 pm to 4:40 pm   Many questions will be asked in the 12 education breakouts during the two Thursday education blocks. Such as, can you be in two places at once? We’re delighted that so many outside experts are joining booksellers as presenters in Albuquerque, teaching human resources, merchandising, leadership, social media, and other topics. Wi14 is also where the National Book Foundation is launching its new Author in Focus program, featuring the work of James Baldwin. “Why James Baldwin Always Matters,” presented by passionate authors Casey Gerald and Robin Coste Lewis, will address the question, What if everyone read James Baldwin?

10:40 am to 11:40 am   The ABA Town Hall is an open discussion forum facilitated by ABA Board President Robert Sindelar and his fellow board directors. The Diversity Task Force is just one of the results of member advocacy begun at the Town Hall. Questions about the industry and the association can be sent in advance to [email protected].

12 pm to 2 pm   This will be you, very soon, at the Rep Picks Speed Dating Lunch, Day 2:

2:20 pm to 3:20 pm   We feel like mothers with their chicks when watching the debut authors read excerpts and answer questions during the Indies Introduce Authors and Booksellers program. There is nothing like being at the beginning of something wonderful, like a burgeoning career as a writer.

5 pm to 6:30 pm   Many of the more than 140 authors attending Wi14 will be signing at the fan-favorite Author Cocktail Reception. Thank you to the many publisher sponsors — there will be more than 300 people from 130 companies attending! — who bring such an amazing array and range of authors to Winter Institute. You’ve outdone yourself this year! Thank you, thank you, and a huge thanks to lead sponsor and long-time indie champion, Ingram.

9:30 pm to 11 pm   Continuing the deep dive into James Baldwin, NBF will sponsor a special screening of I Am Not Your Negro, the award-winning documentary about Baldwin. What a gift to us to end the day.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 25

7:45 am to 9:15 am   The final day shifts the sponsor focus somewhat to smaller, mid-sized, independent, and university presses. To start, there will be fifteen, five-minute Rep Picks Breakfast Presentations from the stage, immediately followed by the breakfast sponsors holding Publisher Office Hours (9:15 am to 10:45 am); then 18 small presses handy for informal conversations and book giveaways in the Meet the Presses area (9:15 am to noon and 1:30 pm to 6 pm); and five sponsors showcasing their authors at the Closing Reception (6 pm to 7 pm).

But before all that…at the Friday breakfast, one lucky bookseller will win an original Wi14 drawing by bestselling author, famed illustrator, and The New Yorker cartoonist Bob Eckstein (The Illustrated History of the Snowman: A Pictorial Celebration, Globe Pequot), whose daily drawings you’ll have seen featured during the Institute, who is kindly signing his new book at the Author Cocktail Reception, and who will bring his unique eye to the people of bookselling — much as he brought it to the independent bookstores he loves.

9:30 am to 10:30 am   Education breakouts resume without skipping a beat, offering a kids’ focus (Experimental Reading — Graphic Novels Shape the Way Young People Read), difficult conversations (Do We Need to Talk? Surviving the Political & Cultural Divide With Your Co-Workers), and much in between.

10:45 am to 11:45 am   I knew very little about the inner workings of bookstores when I began at ABA 20 years ago. However, with exposure to the excellent booksellers I met then and through the years, and through osmosis made easy thanks to their generosity and passion, I’ve learned a little something. I owe a debt and thank you to each of the ABA Past Presidents in Conversation: Becky Anderson, Anderson’s Bookshops (Naperville, IL); Betsy Burton, The King’s English Bookshop (Salt Lake City, UT); Mitchell Kaplan, Books & Books (Coral Gables, FL); and Gayle Shanks, Changing Hands Bookstore (Phoenix and Tempe, AZ). Come — you’ll learn something, too, I promise.

12 pm to 1:30 pm  It’s time for the Author Lunch Reception! Which means more food, thirty-two more authors, more books, and more discovery.

1:45 pm to 2:45 pm   Grab a cup of coffee and proceed to the final education breakouts of Wi14, intriguing topics all. A reminder: Don’t fret if you can’t choose, for breakouts will be recorded and shared on BookWeb.org in the coming weeks.

2:45 pm to 3:15 pm   Enjoy a mid-afternoon break with bookish music from The Bookshop Band at their final Wi14 performance. The tour continues at stores across the U.S., and if you’re still in town on Friday, 1/25, you’ll be able to see them at Title Wave Books in Albuquerque, 8.30pm - 10pm.

3 pm to 4 pm   Dorothy Massey, owner of Collected Works of Santa Fe, moderates Salute to Authors of New Mexico with William deBuys, Denise Chávez, Anne Hillerman, Layli Long Soldier, Mary Oishi, and Doug Preston, focusing on New Mexico as the inspiration for their work. The authors will discuss the land, the people, the energy, and the culture of the state, which we should all easily identify with by that time.

5 pm to 6 pm   Following a quick Wi14 Debrief (4:15 pm to 4:45 pm), the institute nears the end with the grandly titled Mariachi & Murder Wi14 Grand Finale! What do mariachi and murder have in common? Not much, really, but with hosts Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, of the true crime/comedy podcast My Favorite Murder and authors of Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide on board, it’s bound to be fun and memorable!

6 pm to 7 pm   We don’t want to leave, either! Let’s spend a bit more time together at the Closing Reception and Author Signing, featuring the fun Binc Heads or Tails Fundraiser winner round, as well as the authors of New Mexico and the sexy murderinos, Karen and Georgia.

As you are packing your bags and loading up your phone or device with reading and realize you need just one more hit of Wi14 juice, check out the Publishers Weekly special supplement.

Safe travels, and we’ll see you soon in the Land of Enchantment, at Winter Institute 2019! Find us on the app, and at #Wi14 on Twitter and Instagram.

Best wishes,

Meg Smith
and everyone at ABA