From romantasy to cozy horror to the emerging young teen lit category bridging middle grade and YA, bookstores are rethinking how to organize their shelves to reflect how readers actually read. Today’s audiences — especially younger and crossover readers — are drawn to stories that blur genre lines and center emotion, identity, and imagination. This session explores how these evolving trends are reshaping curation, merchandising, and reader engagement. We’ll discuss how to identify and support new or hybrid genres, create sections that reflect your store’s values and audience, and help staff and customers navigate shifting boundaries in ways that spark discovery and delight.
At each of the 2019 spring forums, ABA presented “ABACUS and Pre-Orders: Two Programs You Can’t Do Without,” an update on two initiatives critical to the success of any independent bookstore: an active pre-orders campaign and participation in the annual ABACUS financial survey. This educational session will focused on best practices for increasing pre-orders — including the latest on accurately reporting and tracking — based on in-store experiences and feedback from the Pre-Order Booksellers Task Force.
ABACUS and Pre-Orders was presented by ABA at the 2019 Regional Spring Forums.