Video

The ABACUS benchmarking report is designed to provide easy-to-understand guidelines for identifying independent bookstore business performance improvement opportunities. If you have never participated in the survey and would like to learn more about reporting to ABACUS-19, which will open in spring 2020, this session will teach you:

• The importance of reporting to ABACUS
• Information you need to prepare to complete the report
• Best practices from booksellers who reported their store's numbers to the 2018 ABACUS
• Actionable steps to take when you return home to prepare for ABACUS-19

Indies Introduce is about what independent booksellers do best: Discovering exciting debut authors and sharing the best with readers across the country. You will hear about the title selection process from the bookseller panelists who curated the list and many of this season’s debut authors will be present to read a short passage and answer a question posed by one of the panelists.

This year, the American Booksellers Association is partnering with Well-Read Black Girl founder Glory Edim to bring book club meetings to independent bookstores nationwide with the goal of amplifying diverse voices and supporting emerging writers of color. Booksellers are invited to sign on to serve as ambassadors and host Well-Read Black Girl book clubs in their stores throughout the year. Learn more about the partnership.

Everyone wants to be a book influencer on social media, but it takes more than logging in and sharing a photo. Instagram influencer and debut author Hafsah Faizal will teach attendees:

• What it means to have an Instagram persona and how to establish a unique voice
• How to gain followers
• Best practices for targeted messaging
• How to effectively use hashtags
• Tips to curate beautiful, attention-grabbing photos
• How to establish profitable partnerships with other businesses and organizations

Pre-registation required; $45 fee per person; space is limited and lunch is provided. Hosting events in-store and offsite is a great way to strengthen a customer base, build goodwill within your community, and make money. But tackling the ins and outs of events, no matter how large or small, is daunting, time-consuming, and, let’s face it, overwhelming. This full-day, two-part workshop led by aces in bookstore event management will teach attendees:

• Best practices for in-store author events
• Tips for navigating events in a small space
• Best practices for off-site author events, including partnering with schools and libraries, hosting large-scale events, and using alternate venues
• Best practices for ticketing events and anticipating turnout
• How to launch a book festival in your community

Events University is open to all booksellers, including those who are not registered for Children’s Institute.

Bookstores are important fixtures in every community. They serve as places to gather, to find and research new ideas, to explore new worlds, and to find refuge. But bookstores can also be intimidating for people who are underrepresented by the makeup of a store's staff That’s why it is important for a store to not only reflect its immediate community but also the larger community. In this session, HR leaders will share with attendees:

• The importance of hiring a diverse staff
• The impact a diverse staff has within the store and on the greater community
• How to find great bookstore employee candidates outside your store’s community

There’s nothing like walking into your favorite bookstore and being on a first-name basis with the staff. Why not say, “Thank you for being a friend,” and reward customers’ loyalty with a frequent buyer card, membership subscription, or other benefit program that will keep them coming back over and over again? A panel of booksellers with robust customer loyalty programs will share:

• Background on their store’s customer loyalty programs
• How to create a program that rewards the customer but also the store
• How to onboard customers
• How to market the program
• How to integrate a new program into your store’s culture

Representation matters. #OwnVoices matters. As bearers of knowledge and information for children, it is imperative that a bookstore’s inventory reflects the experiences of all kinds of people to cultivate cultural awareness and engender empathy in youth. One step toward a more inclusive collection of books is to conduct a diversity audit on your store’s inventory. This session will teach attendees how to:

• Assess their inventory
• Conduct an audit
• Identify where attention needs to be focused
• Use an audit to inform the ordering process

Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales, The Little Prince, Pippi Longstocking, Asterix — what do they all have in common? They are all beloved classics that have been translated from the authors’ original languages and have enriched the U.S. children’s book landscape as well as readers of all ages. In this informational session, publishing personnel will share with attendees:

• An overview of the translation and rights process
• Why translated books are important
• How to promote and sell these books to U.S. audiences
• How books can be used in outreach to schools and community groups
• How translated books can foster diversity, cultural awareness, and cross-cultural understanding

You know you want to bring authors to your store and into area schools, but how do you begin to ask publishers? Two words: “Author Grids.” In this session, panelists who have mastered the author grid will share with attendees:

• Tips for a perfect pitch
• The power of your sales rep
• How to create a stellar general event profile
• How to anticipate attendance
• How to request access to grids

Recently, children's literature has been the subject of debate as readers respond to content related to race, class, culture, individuality, and identity. Authors are self-selecting to delay publication of their books, publishers are canceling titles, and review outlets are retracting starred statuses. There is immense pressure from all sides of the industry to do the right thing, but what is the right thing? This session is designed to be a discussion led by bookselling peers that will begin with a contextual overview of the issues surfacing in kids' books. Attendees will discuss the implications of these issues and how booksellers can productively talk about race, class, culture, individuality, and identity without alienating customers, authors, and each other.

Ann Patchett, the author of eight novels and three works of nonfiction, is the winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, England’s Orange Prize, and the Book Sense Book of the Year, and was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. Her work has been translated into more than 30 languages. She is the co-owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville, where she lives with her husband, Karl, and their dog, Sparky.

The 101-level seminar, led by ABA CFO Robyn DesHotel and Cynthia Compton of 4 Kids Books & Toys in Zionsville, Indiana, covers the fundamentals of budgeting, understanding cash flow, business financing, bookkeeping, and financial statements. The seminar concentrates on bookstore finances as opposed to bookstore accounting and deep financial experience is not required.

This video is available to logged-in, ABA bookseller members only.

The Principals of Bookstore Finance Seminar was presented at the 2018 Fall Regional Shows. 

Creating and nurturing relationships with publishers is key to building a thriving business. Panelists in this session will provide an overview of how publishers work with independent bookstores and discuss steps booksellers can take to capitalize on and grow these relationships. Booksellers will learn:

• Best practices for networking with publishers at industry events
• What publishers look for in event proposal and how to land the A-List author
• Best practices for pitching events in person
• How to keep your relationships moving forward