A Letter From ABA’s President

Dear Fellow Booksellers:

I hope 2015 is getting off to a good start for you all. 2014 was such a good year that it seemed 2015 could not really be better — but for the first two months it certainly has been (at least here at BookPeople). We have already had our best January and February in store history and are well on our way to our sixth consecutive best year ever.

I do understand that if there were several feet of snow in Austin it might have an impact on my exuberance. So I want to temper this enthusiasm with the reality of the crazy weather that many of you have experienced. In spite of that, I still predict another great year.

I credit two things especially for this success. One is our years of work in educating our customers about the value of shopping at locally owned businesses. And the other is taking advantage of the terrific opportunities to educate ourselves provided by ABA. While you are settling into 2015, don’t forget the upcoming ABA Booksellers Forums and ABC Children’s Institute. These are your next chances to soak up some of that education I mention. Education is ABA’s top priority. Remember that smarter booksellers make better booksellers, so please attend if you can. Information on the first several forums can be found here and here, and the complete schedule is here.

At each of them, ABA will be presenting the education session “Exploring New Markets.” Here is the session description: Thoughtful innovation, combined with organized planning and execution, is key to successfully tapping new — and profitable — markets. A number of opportunities in both customer demographics and proven sales and marketing initiatives will be reviewed, emphasizing the practical steps necessary to implement appropriate programs in your store.

Information on the complete Children’s Institute schedule is here. This is almost sold out, so act soon!

For those of you who didn’t make it to Winter Institute 10, I can only report that it was the best so far. Of course, we had a fabulous venue, but we also had some incredible plenaries and education sessions. A number of the session handouts are now available on BookWeb, and more will be added soon.

We also held our first Winter Institute Town Hall meeting. The attendance was among the largest we ever had at a Town Hall, and the topics brought up were insightful, helpful, and will stir further discussion among us all, particularly among ABA Board members at future meetings. Thank you all for your input.

So that’s it for now. I hope those of you in colder climes thaw out and sell some books. Everyone else can just sell books.

Steve Bercu
President, American Booksellers Association
BookPeople
Austin, Texas