Sign Up for Publishers by Appointment at Winter Institute
- By Liz Button
The new Publishers by Appointment programming initiative at Winter Institute 2020 in Baltimore will allow booksellers to sign up for 15-minute slots to meet with participating publishers of their choice. This new program will take place on Tuesday, January 21, 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.
Booksellers can sign up now to book an appointment with one of the 19 publishing companies that have signed on to take part. Currently the list of participating publishers is as follows:
- Abrams Books
- Akashic Books
- Arcadia Publishing
- Beacon Press
- BOOM! Studios
- Europa Editions
- Hachette Book Group
- HarperCollins
- Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- Macmillan
- Milkweed Editions
- Rutgers University Press
- Scholastic
- Simon & Schuster
- Sourcebooks
- Sterling Publishing
- University of Toronto Press
- Wiley
- Workman Publishing
Andrew Pineda of 27th Letter Books in Detroit, Michigan, told BTW that the 2020 Winter Institute in Baltimore will be the store’s first, so he and his colleagues are really looking forward to a week of connection and community within the bookselling industry, including an appointment with publisher Akashic Books.
“We're excited for Publishers by Appointment because it lets us prioritize making a personal connection with publishers that we admire,” said Pineda. “We can imagine that the time to make those connections could easily slip amidst all of the activity: the trade show, education sessions, the impromptu meetings. However, the appointment times give us peace of mind knowing that we've got time set aside. As a store, we have admired the works Akashic has put out, as well as their aesthetic/mission: 'reverse gentrification of the literary world.’ As a bookstore, we're drawn to publishers and other businesses that are assured in their roles as they share stories.”