Education

Registration is now open for IndieCommerce Institutes to be held in San Francisco and New Orleans in conjunction with the fall regional trade shows. Each institute will feature two breakout tracks: a Main Session that will address the needs of most users and an Advanced Seminar appropriate to very experienced users.

ABA will be offering an IndieCommerce Institute on September 18 and 19, just prior to the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Fall Show in New Orleans, and on October 1 and 2, before the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Trade Show in San Francisco.

BISG asks for input from book industry professionals; Raw BEA numbers announced; Small Business Week begins June 17; British booksellers seek government’s help in fighting Amazon; Lambda Literary Award winners announced; Akashic Books launches Infamous Books

Don’t miss out on any of ABA’s programming at BEA. Here’s an overview of education sessions, plenaries, author signings, special events, and bookseller-related BEA programs running from Tuesday, May 28, through Saturday, June 1. 

ABA offers booksellers a range of resources to help them operate their businesses in a professional and profitable manner, including educational programming and supporting handouts, financial benchmarking tools, unique marketing materials, and more. The newly redesigned BookWeb’s Professional Bookselling section puts all these tools at members’ fingertips.

Several independent bookstores have created pop-up shops and kiosk locations, including Vroman’s Bookstore, Village Books, Mysterious Galaxy, and Greenlight Bookstore. Some had better-than-expected success and others found that the cost of the shop outweighed the benefits. 

The American Booksellers Association will be hosting one-day IndieCommerce Institutes in conjunction with two of this fall’s regional trade shows.

ABA bookseller members and non-members alike are invited to a Spring Forum to be held in conjunction with the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance on Tuesday, April 30, at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
 

This season’s schedule of 11 ABA Booksellers Forums will come to an end on Wednesday, May 8, in Maplewood, New Jersey.

Publishers request dismissal of booksellers’ lawsuit; BEA Blogger Conference to feature Will Schwalbe, Randi Zuckerberg; SBA and AARP host National Encore Entrepreneur Mentor Month; National Book Awards judges include indie booksellers; University of Nebraska Press acquires Potomac Books; Arthur Frommer takes brand back; Penguin lessens restrictions on eBooks for libraries; Hugo Award finalists announced

ABA will travel to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on Thursday, April 25, and Tuesday, April 30, respectively, to host Booksellers Forum programs. Each will feature an open discussion of industry issues, a Kobo eReader training program, and the ABA education session “The 10 Things You Must Do Now!”

The ABC Children’s Group at ABA is once again partnering with the Children’s Book Council to host several events at BookExpo America that are open exclusively to ABC Group member booksellers. Designed to promote networking and education, the events all have a special focus on children’s books and bookselling.

John Sargent, Macmillan CEO, will be the featured speaker at the opening plenary session, kicking off Bookselling Today & ABA Education at BEA on Wednesday, May 29. He will be joined by ABA President Becky Anderson for a discussion about the challenges facing the book industry.

Whether you’re testing the waters or already a new owner, the May workshop retreat “Owning a Bookstore: The Business Essentials” will provide critical retail fundamentals and indie bookstore best practices for establishing a competitive business.

At the Winter Institute session “Beyond the Traditional Author Event,”panelists sweet pea Flaherty of King’s Books, Lacey Dunham of Politics and Prose, and Lauren Savage of The Reading Bug addressed the logistics of planning successful and creative events to increase traffic and drive sales.