Dear Booksellers,

The 16th annual Winter Institute is happening now! We’ve just about finished two of the three days, but there’s still so much more to go. Tomorrow we’ll have the keynote session “What Now?!” with Dr. Brené Brown (rescheduled from its original slot on Thursday), a poetry interlude with Chris Martin, two more education sessions, a round of rep picks, an author social, and a trivia night to benefit Binc!

And keep an eye on Bookselling This Week for news about the recordings we’re making available in the coming days. We’ll be posting as much as we can from Winter Institute for you to revisit or catch if you missed it. We’ll also be covering the key points from each education session and highlights from the chat, and we’ll share the many, many book recommendations coming from our panelists and keynote speakers!

Booksellers Video Montage

In the meantime, here’s a fun look at what’s happened so far, starting off with what we’re calling the “tearjerker video” that sent more than a few booksellers reaching for the tissues.

President Barack Obama video message

President Barack Obama welcomed booksellers with a special video message.

ABA CEO Allison K Hill and futurist Brian David Johnson talked about the future of bookselling, which booksellers seem pretty well prepared for, according to our expert guest speaker.

Amanda Gorman, Warsan Shire, and torrin a. greathouse brought the house down with incredible poems.

Booksellers learned about hand-selling and upselling in a hybrid world, as well as creating a work environment that embraces access, equity, and justice.

And the Virtual Hangouts were a hit, with the genre rooms overflowing — both Romance and Sci-Fi/Fantasy proved to be the bookseller favorites!

This morning, we kicked off with the keynote “Novelist as Citizen,” a panel that many booksellers begged not to end. Authors Lauren Groff, Viet Thahn Nguyen, and Colson Whitehead chatted with moderator Michelle Malonzo of Changing Hands.

More poetry interludes brought Ross Gay and Warsan Shire to the stage. For all of you asking if we’ll keep doing these at future institutes — we hear you!!!

Education sessions were held on financial planning for a successful year, managing online sales growth, and LGBTQ+ romance.

Many of you chimed in on social media, and we thank you for the shout-outs!!

And after all that, we’re off to tonight’s virtual author social. See many of you tomorrow morning for the final day of Wi16!

American Booksellers Association
333 Westchester Ave., Suite S202 
White Plains, NY 10604 | 800-637-0037 
info@bookweb.org • www.BookWeb.org

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