Best Practices

At the Winter Institute 11 education session “Event Management for the Very Small Store,” owners and event coordinators from self-defined very small stores took home actionable tips on managing time, resources, publicity, and budgets for in-store and off-site events.

ABA President Betsy Burton shares her method of facing the “problem” of returning to her bookstore from the Winter Institute with so many ideas to implement.

Dayton Literary Peace Prize accepting entries; Villarosa Media to publish first book; Bookstore café specialist joins Paz & Associates; Survey by children’s publisher correlates lack of diverse books to lack of diverse staff; Ella Boureau named Lambda Literary’s awards administrator; 2016 PEN Literary Awards shortlists announced

Dr. John Sherlock, director of the Master of Science in Human Resources Program at Western Carolina University, led a discussion at Winter Institute 11 focusing on HR essentials for small businesses.

Kicking off the first full day of educational programming at Wi11, author and brand-building expert Martin Lindstrom delivered a breakfast keynote based on his upcoming book, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends.

A Wi11 education session led by Total Computing Solutions’ Jim Hammons will review data security and PCI compliance standards to show booksellers how they can better protect their customers’ credit card data and their own businesses from liability.

Here, booksellers who will be featured on the Winter Institute 11 panel “How to Keep Seasonal Customers Year-Round” share some of their best practices for keeping engaged with local customers and seasonal visitors to spur sales during slow months.

Joe Foster, Edelweiss/Treeline education and outreach coordinator, explains how booksellers can ensure they’re not missing out on crucial titles by choosing to allow publisher sales reps access to their Treeline data to look for gaps in the store’s inventory.

Here is BTW’s annual holiday preparations checklist, offering reminders to help smooth day-to-day operations at your store during the upcoming season.

Top online communities for small business owners; National Reading Group Month’s 2015 Great Group Reads; Ingram to distribute Humanoids Inc.; Consortium adds seven distribution clients; Svetlana Alexievich wins Nobel Prize in Literature; Keen Communications acquires Adventure Publications

The Small Business Administration website offers an in-depth guide to help small business owners navigate the complex issue of human resources management.

Joe Foster, Edelweiss/Treeline education and outreach coordinator, shows booksellers how to avoid missing a big drop-in title by using Treeline Analytics to find those titles other booksellers are buying the most.

Dr. John Sherlock, who will be leading two ABA Human Resources Workshops this fall, discusses why it is imperative for bookstore owners and managers to implement a human resources strategy. His session on HR at this year’s Winter Institute was very highly praised by booksellers.

Joe Foster, Edelweiss/Treeline education and outreach coordinator, offers a case study showing two stores of basically equal size but with significantly different sales and turn levels.

In response to enthusiastic feedback from booksellers who participated in Winter Institute 10’s Advanced Learning Session on Human Resources, ABA has invited the session’s presenter, Dr. John Sherlock, to lead two Human Resources Workshops this fall.