On Thursday, July 25, at 11:00 a.m. EDT, the American Booksellers Association will host the first of two Marketing Meetups focusing on multi-store events. Booksellers can sign up now to participate in the upcoming Marketing Meetups [8].

The upcoming meetups are:

July 25: Organizing and Marketing Multi-Store Events (Bookstore Crawls/Passports), Part 1: In the first of two meetups on how multi-store events are organized and marketed, bookseller speakers will focus on Independent Bookstore Day [9] and how regional businesses put together bookstore crawls and passports. Guest speakers will be Clarissa Murphy of Silver Unicorn Bookstore [10]; Katie Eelman of Papercuts J.P. [11]; Eric Lorberer of the literary organization Rain Taxi [12]; Tom Nissley of Phinney Books [13]; and Jessica Stockton Bagnulo of Greenlight Bookstore [14].

August 8: Organizing and Marketing Multi-Store Events (Bookstore Crawls/Passports), Part 2: In the second of two meetups on how multi-store events are organized and marketed, bookseller speakers will continue to discuss Independent Bookstore Day in addition to other shop-local events, such as Find Waldo Local [15], Here’s Harry (a Harry Potter version of Where’s Waldo), and more. Guest speakers will be Beth Stroh of Viewpoint Books [16]; Jessica Palacios of Once Upon a Time [17]; and Laurie Gillman of East City Bookshop [18].

The American Booksellers Association now offers two opportunities for live online education [19]: a twice-monthly Marketing Meetup and a monthly Technology Meetup. All member booksellers are invited to participate in these online discussions; subscribe to the mailing list here [19] to receive invitations for the Technology Meetups, Marketing Meetups, or both. Booksellers must register to attend the Marketing or Technology Meetups; to attend both types of meetups, booksellers will need to register for each. Booksellers who sign up through Zoom will be added to ABA’s Marketing and/or Technology Meetup mailing list.