On Demand Education Sessions

Marketing strategy refers to a business’ overall plan for reaching prospective consumers and turning them into customers of your products or services. We will help you learn how to identify your ideal target market and the appropriate marketing mix to drive growth. It will be most productive if you come to the session with the attached documents filled out. However, it is not a requirement.

If you are interested in prioritizing community engagement for societal change, this is a conversation you will not want to miss. A panel of booksellers who represent stores with strong missions will take you behind the scenes of the media coverage and social media posts that reflect the success of their work. They will discuss the very real and substantive processes they have in place to create change. If you want to hear about the actionable steps mission-driven stores take for success, this is the conversation for you!

While 2020 and 2021 were arguably the toughest years in recent memory for stores, 2022 continues to bring challenges. Upheavals in society produced a number of short-term temporary changes for businesses, as well as some lasting ones. What short-term changes have become permanent fixtures in your approach to your business and to bookselling? Come to this roundtable to share your experiences and hear from your colleagues.

There has been a dramatic increase in books by BIPOC and LGBTQIA2S+ authors that feature their experiences being challenged and banned. In this discussion, booksellers will share available resources, effective ways to address challenged books with customers, and how bookstores can support K-12 educators, librarians, and children.

This roundtable is your opportunity to socialize, network, and learn from booksellers who run mobile and pop-up operations. Whether you represent a mobile or pop-up store or are new to this model, this conversation will provide you with valuable insights and new connections.

“...poetry began when somebody walked off of a savanna or out of a cave and looked up at the sky with wonder and said, ‘Ahhh.’ That was the first poem.” —Lucille Clifton
 

Join bestselling author and Grammy Award-winning recording artist Alicia Keys in conversation with Donya Craddock co-owner of The Dock Bookshop in Fort Worth, Texas, as they discuss Keys’ new graphic novel, Girl on Fire; the complex ways race shapes the realities that young people, especially young women of color, face today; and the importance of the written and illustrated word.

With Girl on Fire, Keys shines a light on the challenges of growing up in a world that seems intent on making young Black women feel powerless, and gives voice to a generation ready to stand up for what they know is right.

Alicia Keys is a 15-time Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, musician, producer, an accomplished actress, a New York Times bestselling author, a film/television and Broadway producer, an entrepreneur, and a powerful force in the world of activism. Since the release of her 2001 debut album, Songs in A Minor, Keys has sold over 65 million records, scored six Top 10 singles, and built an unparalleled repertoire of hits and accomplishments. Her eighth album, Keys, was released on December 10, 2021. Girl on Fire was co-written with Andrew Weiner, founder and CEO of Inner Station, a multimedia entertainment company focused on the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and motion pictures, and illustrated by Brittney Williams, a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant recipient and a Luminarts Fellow.

Toni Morrison famously said, “If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.” Join authors Jennifer Egan, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, and Celeste Ng in conversation with author/bookseller Emma Straub for a discussion on how recent shifts in culture, isolation, and technology have affected what they want to read and what they want to write.

Your strategic plan is the business map that leads to the success of your store and staff, and the stability of your business. If you don't have a strategic plan, or if you need to refresh the plan you have, you will benefit from this planning session. Attendees will be guided through the process of stepping back from day-to-day operations to ask where their business is headed and what its priorities should be. This event will include a worksheet for strategic planning to guide attendees and designated time in the session for attendees to begin the process of creating a plan. Additional follow-up sessions will be offered for attendees who want to dig a little deeper into this topic. In addition, private consultations will be available at a cost. More details on this future programming will be announced in Bookselling This Week in the coming weeks.

Guaranteed to be both fun and informative, bookseller moderators will kick off the conversation by sharing their favorite frontlist and backlist genre titles, briefly discuss how the sale of these titles impacts their stores, including marketing and buying, and then invite you to join the conversation. What’s your hottest genre seller? What genre event are you the most proud of? And what titles can you not help but handsell?

This roundtable is your opportunity to socialize, network, and learn from booksellers who run microstore operations. Whether you represent a microstore or are new to this model, this conversation will provide you with valuable insights and new connections.

Join Danny Caine, bookseller, poet, owner of Raven Bookstore (Lawrence, KS), and ABA Board Member, as he moderates a conversation with celebrated poets: Linda Gregerson, Ecco at HarperCollins; Saeed Jones, Coffee House Press; Ada Limón, Milkweed Editions; Paul Tran, Viking Press; and Amber McBride, Feiwel & Friends at Macmillan Children’s Publishers.

Join a panel of booksellers as they examine the intersections of race, literature, and entrepreneurship. The panelists will explore the importance of their contributions to the bookselling ecosystem, activism, and what is required to create diverse, equitable environments.

As a bookseller, you want to easily discover, order, and track the books your customers want most, but you don’t have unlimited time for the process. That’s where ipage® Essentials comes in. Join Ingram Content Group for an informative conversation that gives you essential tips and techniques for using ipage® beyond the basics. Whether you’re new to ipage® or an experienced user, you’ll gain a clear understanding of the platform’s full capabilities, so you can spend less time navigating and more time selling. The workshop will walk through foundational tools that make it easier to do business, and will explore using ipage® for Just In Time and Direct to Home ordering, among other topics. Get updated on the latest and upcoming ipage® enhancements, share your feedback during our Q&A, and discover new ways of growing your bookstore.

This roundtable is your opportunity to socialize, network, and learn from booksellers who run nonprofits and employee owned co-ops. Whether you currently represent a nonprofit and employee owned co-op or are new to this model, this conversation will provide you with valuable insights and new connections.

This conversation is for stores of all sizes and designed with your questions in mind. PK Sindwani, former bookseller and current ABA CFO, and Cynthia Compton, owner of 4 Kids Books & Toys (Zionsville, IN), will spend the majority of the session taking financial questions from the audience. No question is too big or too small! This interactive group discussion will take into account a variety of business models, and practical advice will be given about how to integrate what you’ve learned to assist with making sound business decisions.

Bookstore-branded merchandise is an important way to capitalize on the story and personality of your store. If you have had success with various vendors or specific merchandise, come share your experiences with your colleagues! And if you are considering offering branded merchandise, but aren’t sure where to start, this is the perfect space to ask for recommendations. Come prepared to crowdsource ideas, best practices, and resources — and to learn.

This will be a candid and balanced information session on the nuts and bolts of unions from both an employer and employee perspective by attorneys with experience with both sides of this issue. Booksellers who would like to send questions in advance can access this form. All responses received will remain anonymous–even ABA staff won’t be able to see who filled in the form. This session is being set up as a Zoom webinar to maintain attendees' anonymity; The participant tab will not be available. Q&A during the event will be anonymous as well. Access this Zoom webinar by attending Snow Days. (Zoom link will be shared periodically in the chat on the Hopin platform.)

Jon Hiatt is a union-side labor lawyer. From 1995 to 2017 he was General Counsel and then Chief of Staff at the AFL-CIO. Previously he served as General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union, and before that he represented a variety of local unions while practicing in Boston, Massachusetts. He currently serves as counsel to the International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW) Network at the Solidarity Center in Washington, DC, and is a visiting scholar at the University of California's Berkeley Labor Center.

Mark R. Reiss represents and counsels clients in a range of labor and employment matters, with particular emphasis in collective bargaining and labor arbitrations. He practices before various federal, state and local labor and employment agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the New York State Division of Human Rights, the Connecticut Human Rights and Opportunities Commission and the Department of Labor (DOL).

Post-COVID-19, how do we start planning for the future? Especially when it feels impossible to predict what the world will be like next week, let alone next year or in the next decade. And how do we find a way to face that future with optimism? Join future forecaster, New York Times bestselling author, and designer of alternate reality games, Jane McGonigal, as she discusses her new book, Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything—Even Things that Seem Impossible Today. McGonigal draws on the latest scientific research in psychology and neuroscience, as well as gaming strategies, to show us how to train our brains to imagine the unimaginable and to offer us new tools to help us recover our confidence, creativity, and hope. McGonigal’s work designing future simulations of world problems like climate-change weather events, helps participants imagine and prepare for the world's future. McGonigal joins us today to help us start imagining and preparing for the future of bookselling.

Led by author and expert Jason Thompson, this session will help stores be effective in their commitment to representation, equity, and access. A DEI audit checklist will help stores look at every aspect of their business — from hiring and training to signage, social media, and inventory — through a DEI lens, and a discussion of goals and metrics will help ensure measurable success. Jason Thompson is a successful and experienced diversity officer that has developed and led diversity programs in higher education, sports, healthcare, and tech. He has been quoted by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, USA Today, and CNN. His education session for the ABA Board was extremely well received with some directors calling it the best session on this topic they’ve participated in.

Download the handouts for the session here.

This session follows the format of an Open Forum: the opinions expressed are those of the individual participants, not of the ABA. Information discussed is reflective of the time of the recording. This recording includes the conversation in the main room followed by the Small(ish) Stores and Nontraditional Model breakout rooms.

Linktree allows you to create a personalized page, that houses all the important links you want to share with your customers. It is most commonly used on social platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or LinkedIn and can save you time when marketing to customers by providing once space to update instead of several. This session will include a short demo of creating a Linktree and examples of how other bookstores use it.

A full transcription and closed captioning are available for this session. Please note that both are machine-generated and are not reviewed for accuracy.

This session follows the format of an Open Forum: the opinions expressed are those of the individual participants, not of the ABA. Information discussed is reflective of the time of the recording. Please see the most recent ShopTalk for the most current information.

A full transcription and closed captioning are available for this session. Please note that both are machine-generated and are not reviewed for accuracy.

This session follows the format of an Open Forum: the opinions expressed are those of the individual participants, not of the ABA. Information discussed is reflective of the time of the recording. Please see the most recent ShopTalk for the most current information.

A full transcription and closed captioning are available for this session. Please note that both are machine-generated and are not reviewed for accuracy.

This Technology Meetup will not have any specific guest speakers. Instead, booksellers are invited to partake in an open conversation about the results of the feedback survey, the technologies that improve their business operations on a daily basis, and what they might look into during 2022.

A full transcription and closed captioning are available for this session. Please note that both are machine-generated and are not reviewed for accuracy.

This session follows the format of an Open Forum: the opinions expressed are those of the individual participants, not of the ABA. Information discussed is reflective of the time of the recording. Please see the most recent ShopTalk for the most current information.

A full transcription and closed captioning are available for this session. Please note that both are machine-generated and are not reviewed for accuracy.

Our New Member Series:Store Ownership 101 provides new and prospective bookstore owners with an opportunity to ask questions of seasoned bookstore owners/staff. 

The opinions expressed are those of the individual participants, not of the ABA. Information discussed is reflective of the time of the recording.

A full transcription is available for this session. Please note that it is machine-generated and not reviewed for accuracy.

Gift bundles, mystery bundles, themed subscription boxes, and sidelines are a strategic way to drive sales. Booksellers attending this discussion can share how they have used the idea of bundles to increase sales. Examples of discussion topics are how bookstores are balancing the number of items in a bundle, how they are marketing the bundle as a product they have to offer, and the variety of sidelines and non-book items they are including.

Non-traditional bookstore models push against boundaries and challenge the industry’s perception of what a bookstore is. During this session, pop-ups, mobile bookstores, and other non-traditional models can share the inspiration for their format and how they utilize the assets bred from their innovation to leverage the market and influence their communities.

Any single virtual event is available to any one person anywhere, so how does a store measure a virtual event’s success? Is it pre or post sales, attendance, post-event hits on YouTube, increased engagement on social media channels, or repeat attendance? In this discussion, booksellers will be able to share how they are measuring ROI on virtual events during a time of hybrid experiences.

As children return to school, bookstores are in a position to assist young people in reaching academic goals after months of remote learning and less formal instruction due to the world health crisis. During this discussion, booksellers can share ideas for less formal education materials that can help kids learn.