Registration Open for BEA Prospective Booksellers School

The popular ABA-sponsored Booksellers School for prospective and novice booksellers will be presented at BookExpoAmerica (BEA) 2005 in New York, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. The school, which has helped hundreds of new booksellers learn the fundamentals of the business, will run from Wednesday, June 1 - Friday, June 3, and includes free admission to the trade show, which runs from June 2 - 5. Participants will also have access to the ABA Annual Meeting, the Celebration of Bookselling, and myriad networking opportunities both in the Book Sense Lounge and during session breaks.

The school, facilitated by Donna Paz Kaufman and Mark Kaufman of Paz & Associates, is part of ABA's comprehensive education programming at BEA, and Thursday morning sessions will be facilitated by ABA staff.

Running from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and from 9:00 a.m. until noon on Friday, school sessions offer an industry overview and examine the key elements every bookseller needs to understand in order to run a successful bookstore -- marketing, finance, inventory, design, and merchandising. Seasoned booksellers will provide reality-based directives for school participants. The program is most useful for those who are considering opening or buying a bookstore and those who have recently opened and are new to the business side of bookselling.

Laura Ziock, owner of the nearly two-year-old Altamont Books in Livermore, California, told BTW that the Booksellers School, held in 2003 in Los Angeles during BEA, was "incredibly helpful ... it organized all the information about how to run a bookstore. When I decided to buy the store, I felt I had an intuitive sense about ordering and selling books, but no clue as to how to handle the paperwork."

Also attending the 2003 School at BEA in Los Angeles was Dinah Paul, owner of A Likely Story, a children's bookstore in Alexandria, Virginia. Although Paul had experience working in the bookstore before she and her husband purchased it, she said, "I got a lot of benefit out of all the sessions. Josh, my husband, went to the sessions with me, and he found them as interesting as I did.

"Learning about strategies for inventory, from experienced booksellers, has been really valuable. And so has the detailed explanation of co-op [advertising]. I made some really good friends that I still meet with. The most significant lesson overall was that we all know books are great, but running a bookstore comes down to making money."

Margaret Osondu, co-owner of Osondu Booksellers in Waynesville, North Carolina, termed the Booksellers School, which she attended during BEA 2004 in Chicago, "excellent and very helpful." She told BTW, "Everything was explained in great detail; presenters were very supportive but realistic. I highly recommend the school -- I realize now how much more confident I felt [buying an established store] after attending. There weren't so many surprises.

"The store we bought had been open for 23 years, with two owners. We transitioned [into ownership] really well, partly due to our experience at the school."

For a detailed course description and a registration form, go to www.bookweb.org/read/7649. --Nomi Schwartz