#1 Indie Next List Authors, New E-Newsletter Featured at Wi12 Talk

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The American Booksellers Association is inviting booksellers to a featured talk at Winter Institute 12 that will showcase six #1 Indie Next List authors — Kate DiCamillo, Alice Hoffman, Joshilyn Jackson, Ann Patchett, Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, and Ben Winters — as well as information about the new Indie Next List e-newsletter for store customers, created in partnership with Shelf Awareness. The program will be moderated by booksellers Josh Christie of Print: A Bookstore in Portland, Maine, and Erica Luttrell of Chevalier’s Books in Los Angeles, California.

The Indie Next List Authors Featured Talk will take place from 10:25 a.m. to 11:25 a.m. on Monday, January 30, in the Hyatt Regency’s Northstar Ballroom.

In addition to hearing from some of their favorite authors, booksellers will learn about the partnership between ABA and Shelf Awareness that enables ABA members to provide a free, monthly store-branded e-newsletter version of the Indie Next List to their customers. A sample of the e-newsletter can be seen here.

To date, approximately 100 stores are using this service and the results have been very encouraging.

Kenny Brechner of Devaney, Doak & Garrett Booksellers in Farmington, Maine, who was among the first to send his customers the Indie Next List e-newsletter, said, “We had several customers stop by the store just to tell us how much they enjoyed receiving the newsletter and to see some of the books. It had clearly introduced them to the idea of a handselling community of independent booksellers. The newsletter strongly succeeded in its twin missions of helping to establish the Indie Next List brand and of selling books.”

“I got a great response from the first e-newsletter,” Val Stadick of Main Street Books in Minot, North Dakota, said. “Within an hour someone ordered Michael Chabon’s book online and someone else came in to buy it and bought about $60 worth of extra books. I do my own weekly newsletter and link to my website but don’t get that immediate reaction.”

Booksellers who are interested in learning more about the Indie Next List e-newsletter are encouraged to stop by the Shelf Awareness table in the Wi12 Consultation Station and ask for Neil Strandberg or talk to ABA Senior Program Officer Joy Dallanegra-Sanger.

The Consultation Station will be open in the Hyatt Exhibit Hall at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis as follows:

  • Sunday, January 29, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (with a break for lunch from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.)
  • Monday, January 30, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:35 a.m. and from 1:35 p.m. to 5:20 p.m. (with a break for lunch from 11:35 a.m. to 1:35 p.m.)