American Booksellers Association Announces Lineup for 2019 Winter Institute

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Winter Institute 14 logo

The American Booksellers Association has announced the full program for the 14th annual Winter Institute (Wi14), to be held January 22–25, 2019, at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

ABA is providing the schedule ahead of registration to help booksellers be better prepared to book their travel plans when registration opens at 1:00 p.m. EDT on Monday, September 17.

Winter Institute programming begins on Tuesday, January 22. The day’s programming will include a variety of organized and self-directed cultural and historical tours of the area as well as the IndieCommerce Institute, the Paz Introduction to Bookselling Workshop, and small business management seminars on human resources, design, and used bookstores.

The Tuesday evening opening reception is set for 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and events continue through Wednesday, January 23; Thursday, January 24; and Friday, January 25.

This year’s keynote and featured speakers are:

  • Bestselling author Margaret Atwood, who will appear in conversation with Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus (Anchor)
  • Hanif Abdurraqib, a poet, essayist, and cultural critic who is the author of the forthcoming Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest (University of Texas Press)
  • Reshma Saujani, the founder and CEO of Girls Who Code and the author of the forthcoming Brave, Not Perfect: Fear Less, Fail More, and Live Bolder (Currency)
  • Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff, hosts of the hit comedy podcast My Favorite Murder and authors of the forthcoming Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide (Forge Books)

Dozens of educational sessions throughout Wi14 will cover a range of topics, including lowering your cost of goods, maximizing and marketing pre-orders, mastering publisher event grids, selling children’s books, managing a multi-location business, creating dazzling in-store displays, and much, much more.

Booksellers can also expect to attend ABA’s annual Winter Institute Town Hall, the always-popular author reception, rep picks speed dating lunches, bookseller and publisher focus groups, and publisher-sponsored socials and networking events. In addition, booksellers will have the opportunity to talk with vendors at the Consultation Station and meet one-on-one with representatives from Batch and IndieCommerce.

See the full Winter Institute program on BookWeb.

Registration for the 2019 Winter Institute opens at 1:00 p.m. EDT on Monday, September 17. The registration fee is $139.

There are four hotels serving Winter Institute attendees at a rate of $129 per night: the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Albuquerque, the Embassy Suites by Hilton Albuquerque Hotel & Spa, Hotel Andaluz, and the Hyatt Regency Albuquerque.

The ABA hotel rate will become available at these hotels beginning Monday, September 17, at 1:00 p.m. EDT. To receive the rate, hotel reservations must be made through Albuquerque-based housing bureau HBC Event Services; neither the bureau nor ABA staff will be able to apply the ABA rate to reservations made before 1:00 p.m. on September 17.

Visit BookWeb.org on Monday, September 17, at 1:00 p.m. EDT to register for the 2019 Winter Institute. Winter Institute 14 is sponsored by Ingram Content Group and publishers large and small. Questions about Wi14 can be sent to [email protected].