Podcast

Join four new genre authors as they come together in conversation to discuss how they use and subvert different genre tropes to reimagine worlds past, present, and future.
Moderator: Calvin Crosby, Owner, The King’s English Bookshop (Salt Lake City, UT)
Panelists: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Chain Gang All Stars, Pantheon; Chloe Gong, Immortal Longings, Gallery/Saga Press; Taj McCoy,Zora Books Her Happily Ever After, MIRA; Andrew Joseph White,The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, Peachtree

Bookstores are places that go beyond merchandising — they transport readers to other worlds. The physical environment of your store should do the same and evoke the transportive experience of reading. Curate delight through all five senses! Partner with local candlemakers to create scent marketing for your store; bring in signature sweets; learn how to use cinematic color palettes that capture the mood of your store; create playlists that set the vibe and show off your booksellers’ personalities; even unique textiles tell a story. Find the magic ingredients that can be used to curate the unique experience of being in YOUR store. In this workshop, you will reimagine your store as a garden of earthly delights, and come up with a plan to curate delight in your store.

This Winter Institute keynote conversation between Cory Doctorow (co-author of Chokepoint Capitalism) and Stacy Mitchell (Director of the Institute for Local Self Reliance) will explore the threats posed by corporate consolidation, and far-reaching strategies for fighting back. Corporate monopolies are as powerful as ever, making it harder and harder for American small businesses to thrive. The explosive growth of monopolizers like Amazon has implications beyond booksellers, too, impacting creative workers, privacy advocates, the environment, and American labor. But with a new antitrust movement already claiming important victories, incremental progress is being made. Bookstores now have an opportunity for bold action to tell our story and resist corporate consolidation. In this discussion between three leading anti-monopoly thinkers, learn about the risks posed by capitalist chokepoints, and gain strategies for how to fight back.

Independent bookstores’ online sales have increased over 600% since 2019. We’ve made incredible progress, but it’s clear we need to do more to lock in our gains and keep growing. The indie channel sells only about 2% of the books bought online versus roughly 10% of physical retail. Our goal is to increase indie channel e-commerce sales by 5x so that local, independent bookstores capture our share of online sales.
Presented by Andy Hunter, founder and CEO of Bookshop.org, and Phil Davies, ABA’s Director of Ecommerce/IndieCommerce, this session will discuss strategies to increase consumer awareness of the importance of supporting local businesses when shopping online. We will review how to increase online sales for all stores — no matter what platform you use — by looking at digital marketing, audience growth, conversion rates, and other best practices for e-commerce.
We’ll also examine how online consumer behavior has dramatically changed in the post-COVID world, including trends we are seeing on IndieCommerce sites and how stores are adapting. Together, we can leverage our combined market power to capture our fair share of online book sales, safeguard our future, and be a model for how local businesses can hold their own against giant monopolist e-retailers.

Whether you have owned a store for many years and are considering exiting a much-loved business, are planning for your store’s long-term future, or are a bookseller exploring options for keeping a business viable for many years to come, this is the session for you. This seminar will cover store valuation, alternate models for succession, how to raise capital, the importance of an emergency plan, and more!

Led by a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) facilitator, this workshop will address current conflicts in retail spaces. Participants will have practice opportunities with real-life scenarios. (All)

There are many factors that go into publisher decisions for author visits and tours, and bookseller event grids help them make those choices. In this session, publishers will provide sample event grids, explain how they use them to determine author tours, and share info on what has changed in their approach to events since 2020. Booksellers will learn:
- The number one thing publishers are looking for in potential events
- How to make your event proposal stand out
- How to make your grids more specific
- Important ways to follow up after you submit the grid
- The ways in which publishers determine virtual vs in-person vs hybrid events

This financial modeling workshop will help you evaluate potential new initiatives for your business. Whether you think it’s time to expand your space with another physical or pop-up location, you want to begin or increase your offering of used books or non-book items, or you’re considering adding a cafe or bar, this workshop will walk you through the financial analysis to help you make sound business decisions. Preliminary work in the Strategic Planning Series: Part I, Part II, and Part III will benefit attendees of this session.

Regular and honest communication creates stronger teams and stronger customer connections. However, our current age is one of great volatility and great change, making successful communication harder than ever. But don’t despair! Marjorie Ingall and Susan McCarthy, authors of Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies (Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster) will offer you insight on how to improve your communication skills. You will learn principles of psychology and human behavior that you can leverage to effectively and empathetically communicate with your team and customers. You will learn how to apologize when needed, and why good apologies are essential, powerful, and restorative. Even in the face of large ideological conflicts, good communication is possible! Join us for this important conversation!

A good hiring process will help you attract and retain high-quality booksellers who are passionate about your mission. Onboarding new employees, while time consuming, can make or break that employee’s successful transition from a new employee to an involved and productive employee. If it’s been a while since you took some time to think about hiring and onboarding in a strategic way, then this session is for you! Booksellers who have developed processes around these critical bookstore procedures will share hiring and onboarding strategies for bookstores of all sizes. (Managers)

Join Native authors Cynthia Leitich Smith, Traci Sorell, and Danielle Greendeer in a conversation about how reader awareness and shifts in publishing have affected the way they create new stories with native characters at the center, and share stories of the past.