Education Resources

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Making Numbers Count: Quantifying Success with KPIs

Making Numbers Count: Quantifying Success with KPIs (February 13, 2024)
Content related to the education session Making Numbers Count: Quantifying Success with KPIs, Winter Institute 2024.
Watch video from this event.
Topic:
  • Bookselling Essentials
Tags:
  • 101
Description
You’ve meticulously curated your inventory, designed the perfect displays, and developed an events program for your community — but how will you know if what you’re doing is working? Tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will give you the answer. KPIs are specific outcome-based targets that support your strategic plan and can be measured quantitatively, such as inventory turnover ratios, sales per square foot, and average transaction value. By the time you leave this session, you will: (1) understand the meaning and value of critical retail KPIs and how to track them, (2) understand how to compare your store’s KPIs against financial metrics found in the ABACUS report, and (3) be able to apply this data to create an improvement plan for at least one area of your store’s performance.
 
Speakers
Cynthia Compton, MacArthur Books - Carmel, IN
Melissa DeMotte, The Well Read Moose - Coeur d'Alene, ID
Candice Anderson, Tombolo Books - St. Petersburg, FL
 
Files & Links

Featured Talk: Beyond the Binary

Featured Talk: Beyond the Binary (February 13, 2024)
Content related to the education session Featured Talk: Beyond the Binary, Winter Institute 2024.
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Topic:
  • Bookselling Essentials
Tags:
  • 101
Description
Contemporary fiction increasingly invites the reader to see race, gender, and sexuality not as binary identities, but as a vibrant spectrum of diversity. This year's new fiction is opening up space for new ideas about how we might expand our understanding of identity and what myriad of relational dynamics are possible beyond the normative concepts of race, gender, and sexuality. In this keynote panel, four authors share their thoughts and experiences writing for a world that has moved beyond the traditional binary definitions of identity and belonging.
 
Speakers
Miranda July, author of All Fours (On sale May 14, 2024 from Riverhead Books/Penguin Random House)
Danzy Senna, author of Colored Television (On sale September 3, 2024 from Riverhead Books/Penguin Random House)
LaDarrion Williams, author of Blood at the Root (On sale May 7, 2024 from Labyrinth Road/Penguin Random House)
Maysoon Zayid, author of Shiny Misfits: A Graphic Novel (On sale April 16, 2024 from Graphix/Scholastic)
Anton Bogomazov, Politics and Prose Bookstore - Washington, DC
 
Files & Links

Lunch and Booksellers Present: Indies Introduce Authors

Lunch and Booksellers Present: Indies Introduce Authors (February 13, 2024)
Content related to the education session Lunch and Booksellers Present: Indies Introduce Authors, Winter Institute 2024.
Watch video from this event.
Topic:
  • Bookselling Essentials
Tags:
  • 101
Description
The Indies Introduce program is about what independent booksellers do best: discovering exciting debut authors and sharing the best with readers across the country. Enjoy lunch while learning about the title selection process from the bookseller panelists who curated the Winter/Spring 2024 Indies Introduce list. Many of the Winter/Spring 2024 Indies Introduce debut authors will be present to read a short passage and answer a question posed by one of the bookseller panelists. Authors will be available to sign copies of their debut books following the presentation.
 
Files & Links

Education for Authors: Best Practices for Bookstore Events

Education for Authors: Best Practices for Bookstore Events (February 13, 2024)
Content related to the education session Education for Authors: Best Practices for Bookstore Events, Winter Institute 2024.
Watch video from this event.
Topic:
  • Bookselling Essentials
Tags:
  • 101
Description
Developed for author guests in the early stages of their writing careers, this panel features booksellers who have formulated best practices for creating events that benefit both stores and authors. This session will cover a number of issues, from author publicity to dealing with pre-event nerves.
 
Speakers
Paul Hanson, Village Books - Bellingham, WA
Linda Kass, Gramercy Books - Bexley, OH
Errol Anderson, Charis Books and More - Decatur, GA
Bunnie Hilliard, Brave + Kind Bookshop - Decatur, GA
Javier Ramirez, Exile in Bookville - Chicago, IL
 
Files & Links
 

Mental Health First Aid

Mental Health First Aid (February 13, 2024)
Content related to the education session Mental Health First Aid, Winter Institute 2024.
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Topic:
  • Bookselling Essentials
Tags:
  • 101
Description
Most of us know how to help when we see someone in cardiac arrest — we start CPR, or at the very least, call 9-1-1. But too few of us might know how to respond when we see a customer having a panic attack, or if we are concerned that a co-worker shows signs of alcoholism. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is a training program that takes the fear and hesitation out of starting conversations about mental health and substance use problems. It helps to improve understanding and provides an action plan that teaches people to safely and responsibly identify and address a potential mental illness or substance use disorder. Rich Palmer, a certified MHFA instructor will provide an introduction to basic MHFA skills on how to navigate hard conversations, tackle stigma in the workplace, and address what resilience truly means – with strategies to alleviate burnout.
 
Speakers
Rich Palmer, Mental Health America of Northern KY and Southwest OH - Blue Ash, OH
 
Files & Links

Increasing Book Sales and Building Community Online

Increasing Book Sales and Building Community Online (February 13, 2024)
Content related to the education session Increasing Book Sales and Building Community Online, Winter Institute 2024.
Topic:
  • Bookselling Essentials
Tags:
  • 101

 
This panel session, led by Andy Hunter of Bookshop.org, will feature a panel of booksellers discussing how they use digital platforms to sell books, build an online audience, and drive in-person and online sales. The panel will discuss selling with e-commerce, highlighting events and community through social media, reviewing and acting on website traffic to increase the visibility of your store with search engine optimization (SEO), and engaging customers through Edelweiss to create email marketing.
 
Speakers
Veronica Liu, Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria - New York, NY
Amanda Lepper, Dog-Eared Books - Ames, IA
Evisa Gallman, Uncle Bobbie's Coffee and Books - Philadelphia, PA
Andy Hunter, Bookshop.org - Brooklyn, NY
 
Files & Links

Starting a Worker Owned Co-op

Starting a Worker Owned Co-op (February 13, 2024)
Content related to the education session Starting a Worker Owned Co-op, Winter Institute 2024.
Watch video from this event.
Topic:
  • Bookselling Essentials
Tags:
  • 101
Description
According to the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC), “Worker cooperatives are values-driven businesses that put worker and community benefit at the core of their purpose. Worker members…participate in the profits, oversight, and often management of the enterprise using democratic practices.” If you are interested in opening a worker-owned co-op bookstore or transitioning to one, this conversation is for you. In this session, a representative from USFWC will talk about the benefits of a worker-owned model as well as the drawbacks. They will review legalities of incorporation, decision making, financial operations, and more. Leave this session with the knowledge you need to evaluate if this shift is the right fit for you.
 
Speakers
Cullen Nawalkowsky, Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse - Baltimore, MD
Talia Whyte, Rozzie Bound Books - Boston, MA
Ellen Vera, Co-op Cincy - Cincinnati, OH
 
Files & Links

Breakfast Keynote with Michele Norris: Race. Your Thoughts. Six Words. Please Send.

Breakfast Keynote with Michele Norris: Race. Your Thoughts. Six Words. Please Send. (February 13, 2024)
Content related to the education session Breakfast Keynote with Michele Norris: Race. Your Thoughts. Six Words. Please Send., Winter Institute 2024.
Watch video from this event.
Topic:
  • Bookselling Essentials
Tags:
  • 101
Description
Michele Norris is one of America’s most trusted voices in journalism, earning numerous honors over a long career, including Peabody, Emmy, Dupont, and Goldsmith awards.  As founding director of The Race Card Project, a Peabody Award–winning narrative archive where people around the world share their reflections on identity—in just six words, she ignited the conversation with the seemingly simple prompt: Race. Your Thoughts. Six Words. Please Send. The responses she received have been challenging and complicated, intimate and candid, revealing fear, pain, triumph, and humor. Her transformative new book, OUR HIDDEN CONVERSATIONS (Simon & Schuster) and her work with The Race Card Project reminds us that even during times of great division, honesty, grace, and a willing ear can provide a bridge toward understanding and maybe even empathy.
 
Speakers
 
Files & Links

Financial and Environmental Sustainability Through Used Books

Financial and Environmental Sustainability Through Used Books (February 12, 2024)
Content related to the education session Financial and Environmental Sustainability Through Used Books, Children's Institute 2024.
Topic:
  • Bookselling Essentials
Tags:
  • Used Books
 
Used books can meet a variety of needs for you and your customers. They offer customers a deeper selection with more accessible pricing, they reduce your cost of goods, and they reduce your carbon footprint. This panel will feature experienced booksellers from used bookstores who understand the process of curating used books and will walk you through best practices for buying, pricing, managing, and marketing used books. Specifically, this panel is designed for booksellers from used bookstores or for stores that curate a used section.
 
Speakers
Danielle King, Left Bank Books - St. Louis, MO
Pete Mulvihill, Green Apple Books - San Francisco, CA
Amy Hall, Hudson Valley Books for Humanity - Ossining, NY
 
Files & Links

Your Store, Your Story: A StoryBrand Workshop

Your Store, Your Story: A StoryBrand Workshop (February 12, 2024)
Content related to the education session Your Store, Your Story: A StoryBrand Workshop, Winter Institute 2024.
Watch video from this event.
Topic:
  • Bookselling Essentials
Tags:
  • 101
Description
Independent bookstores are unique — your story, history, values, causes, and specialties are what differentiate you from others. Your “About Us” section on your website should be unlike anyone else’s too! It’s the easiest way, and one of the most important ways, to promote your store. Join this workshop on how to shift from a generic description about community and curation to one that reflects your store’s personality, makes loyal customers, entices new customers, and helps ABA pitch your store to the media, publishers, and others.
 
Speakers
Matt Banker, Banker Creative - Saint Paul, MN
 
Files & Links

About ABA

The American Booksellers Association, a national not-for-profit trade organization, works with booksellers and industry partners to ensure the success and profitability of independently owned book retailers, and to assist in expanding the community of the book.

Independent bookstores act as community anchors; they serve a unique role in promoting the open exchange of ideas, enriching the cultural life of communities, and creating economically vibrant neighborhoods.

Contact

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