Dear Booksellers,

Thank you to everyone who joined us over the past two days for the virtual Children’s Institute. We’ve missed you! And it felt great to be together. I love that your energy and enthusiasm wasn’t dampered a bit by this digital format. The conversations on chat were lively, and it was great to see everyone in the hangout rooms and in the booths. It was an amazing two days celebrating children’s books, authors, and bookselling. I’m still jazzed by it and bursting with pride over what the ABA team accomplished in creating our first virtual conference.

Here are a few highlights from Ci8:

Thank you to authors Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, Dhonielle Clayton, and Tracy Deonn for the session on Representation in Science Fiction & Fantasy in Young Adult and Middle Grade books. One bookseller in the chat called this session “brilliant” and “vital,” and I think everyone who attended would agree. Publishers, take note of the call (from the authors and booksellers in the chat) for BIPOC characters on covers, marketing dollars to support authors from the BIPOC community, and the demand for more books (and books made into movies!) from these three amazing writers! (photo credit: City of Asylum)

So many good ideas were shared by booksellers talking about capturing new customers and driving website sales in a panel on store voice, online sales, and profitability. Thank you to the booksellers who shared their time and expertise: Hannah Oliver Depp, Javier Ramirez, Kathy Burnette, and Danny Caine.

Author Isaac Fitzgerald’s keynote was joyful and filled with mutual love between booksellers in the chat and this indie bookstore champion, who focused on how the indies inspire him. It was wonderful to hear Isaac read and analyze Where the Wild Things Are and his own children’s book, How to be a Pirate. Issac’s most memorable line for me: “Bookstores are rooms filled with dreams rendered in paper.” (Thank you to Cathy Berner from Blue Willow for introducing Isaac!)

Booksellers gathered in virtual hangout rooms at the end of day one to talk about the day’s events and anything else that came to mind, including their favorite books and authors and their newly discovered quarantine hobbies (gardening, embroidery, and baking were top of the list). Bonus of a virtual event: we were privy to views of beautiful bookcases and landscapes around the country, met quite a few pets (shout out to Sophie the snake!), and were introduced to colleagues’ roommates and families. We also were able to meet some booksellers who had never been able to travel and attend an ABA event before!

Bestselling authors Kwame Alexander and Jerry Craft talked about their upcoming projects, reminisced about their meeting at Hue-Man Bookstore in Harlem in 2012, and reflected on the many Black bookstores and authors that have inspired them over the years. They also shared what reading meant to them as children, and the experience of growing up to be among only a handful of Black authors to have won the Newbery Medal. As Alexander said, “Words are powerful and meaningful, and necessary to help us imagine a better world. I think books can do that for us. I know they did it for me.”

Thank you to the Indies Introduce Authors who joined us! We’re so excited about these books! Thanks, Leah Johnson, Lora Beth Johnson, Chris Negron, Ash Van Otterloo, Caroline Brooks DuBois, Aiden Thomas, Sophie Escabasse, Tracy Deonn, Karah Sutton, and Dante Medema.

 

And a big thanks goes to our sponsors. This event wouldn’t have been possible without you, and we’re very grateful for your support:

Thank you to the publisher reps who presented and to our publisher sponsors:

Thank you to our industry partner sponsors:

Thank you to our exhibitors:


Thank you to those who attended the White Anti-Racist Allyship workshop and a special thank you to our workshop sponsors:


Thank you to Handwriter Ink, which provided American Sign Language interpreting services, our fabulous interpreters Brian Truitt and Jennye Kamin, and the sponsors who contributed to make these services possible:

Again, thank you to the entire ABA team for the many brainstorming conversations, negotiations, troubleshooting, and communications; for the platform research, the planning meetings, the sponsorship fundraising, the partner and exhibitor work, the budget management, execution sessions, and rehearsals ahead of time; for designing our wonderful Ci8 logo and platform; for moderating the hangout rooms and chat areas, coordinating Expo booths, creating the galley room, setting up IndieCommerce one-on-ones, reporting on the event, providing tech support and more troubleshooting, answering questions, and all the other work during the conference; and the behind-the-scenes ABA support, direct and indirect — paying bills, accounting, preparing mailings, reporting bestsellers, overseeing advocacy, supporting members, and keeping the everyday IndieCommerce and ABA machines running during this busy week. Amazing.

And a final thank you to all of you for attending, for sharing your time and your passion, and, as always, for doing what you do in the world. 

Watch next week’s BTW for recaps and links to videos of the recorded sessions. In the meantime, ABA is here for all of you. Please reach out if there is anything we can help with. Members can contact me directly or email the Membership, Advocacy, or IndieCommerce teams.

Best,
Allison

Allison Hill (she/her/hers)
Chief Executive Officer

American Booksellers Association
333 Westchester Ave., Suite S202 
White Plains, NY 10604 | 800-637-0037 
[email protected] • www.BookWeb.org

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