On Demand Education Sessions

ABA's Lightning Talk series features booksellers presenting 5-10 minute talks on tech tools, organizational strategies, communication methods, or innovations they’ve made in their stores. On July 11, 2024, Aysia Brown of Protagonist Black (Pomona, CA) discussed supporting indie authors through their Friends of the Shop local author program.

Files & Links

• Slide Deck
• Protagonist Black's Friends of the Shop Email Template

• Slide Deck

• Ron Smithson, Ingram Content Group - La Vergne, TN
• Marsha Wood, Ingram Content Group - La Vergne, TN

• Slide Deck

• Deidre Dumpson, Edelweiss
• Cat VanOrder, Bookmarks - Winston-Salem, NC
• Taylor Carlton, Brazos Bookstore - Houston, TX

• Slide Deck

• Molly Olivo, Child’s Play - Washington, DC
• Lily Taliaferro, Eagle Harbor Book Co - Bainbridge Island, WA
• Marisa Spence, Ballast Book Company - Bremerton, WA
• Kai Burner, Bookworm of Edwards - Edwards, CO

• Slide Deck

• Lauren Savage, The Reading Bug - San Carlos, CA
• Holly Weinkauf, Red Balloon Bookshop - Saint Paul, MN
• Brenna Connor, Circana - New York, NY
• Nicole Brinkley, Oblong Books - Rhinebeck, NY

ABA's Lightning Talk series features booksellers presenting 5-10 minute talks on tech tools, organizational strategies, communication methods, or innovations they’ve made in their stores. On March 14, 2024, Bregette Poore (Child's Play Toys & Books) discussed Buying/Sourcing Toys.

• Jeanne Costello, Maria's Bookshop - Durango, CO
• Jenny Cohen, Waucoma Bookstore - Hood River, OR
• Dan Brewster, Prologue Bookshop - Columbus, OH
• Nicolette Siclare, Edelweiss by Above the Treeline - Ann Arbor, MI

• Slide Deck

• Johanna Hynes, Publishers Group West/ Two Rivers - Louisville, KY
• Leslie Jobson, Ingram Content Group - La Vergne, TN
• Marsha Wood, Ingram Content Group - La Vergne, TN

• Slide Deck

ABA's Lightning Talk series features booksellers presenting 5-10 minute talks on tech tools, organizational strategies, communication methods, or innovations they’ve made in their stores. On August 10, 2023, Dick Hermans of Oblong Books (Millerton & Rhinebeck, NY) discussed Music Retailing.

ABA's Lightning Talk series features booksellers presenting 5-10 minute talks on tech tools, organizational strategies, communication methods, or innovations they’ve made in their stores. On August 10, 2023, Zsamé Morgan (Babycake's Book Stack) discussed Weekly Events Inventory Curation in Niche Model Bookstores.

Indies Introduce is about what independent booksellers do best: discovering exciting debut authors and sharing them with readers across the country. Hear from the booksellers who curated the Summer/Fall 2023 adult list, and the authors whose books were chosen!

Join Ingram for an informative workshop with essential tips and techniques for using ipage®. Whether you’re new to ipage® or an experienced user, gain a clearer understanding of our platform’s full capabilities so you will spend less time navigating and more time selling. In this session, you will learn how to refine your searches and order, understand tracking within ipage®, and learn more about Direct-to-Home ordering.

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 from the bookseller panelists who curated the Summer/Fall 2022 adult list, and many of this season’s debut authors will be present to read a short passage and answer a question posed by a panelist

Edelweiss provides a lot of tools for book industry professionals, but its core purpose is to be a convenient place for booksellers to order frontlist titles from their sales reps. Join Deidre Dumpson, Retail Success Manager for Edelweiss, in a webinar to learn how the ordering process works.

Cosed captioning is available for this session. Please note that it is machine-generated and is not reviewed for accuracy.

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Chat Copy	7.32 KB
Transcript	55.69 KB

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?

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.

NPD BookScan™ reporting retailers receive complimentary access to our Title & Bestseller service. Learn all about NPD BookScan and our flexible, intuitive web-based dashboard by attending the February 10th ABA Technology Meetup. In this one-hour session, you get an introduction to our tools, such as Basic Search, Bestsellers, Collections, and Graphing, to help you measure, predict, and improve performance.

Session Follow-up:

During this session, a question about how to report your online sales, specifically if you're using the IndieCommerce service came up.  The answer is yes, you should be reporting your online sales, from IC or any other ecommerce system.The IndieCommerce team has created a facility for exporting online sales data for IndieCommerce and IndieLite stores. Booksellers can find instructions for combining online and in-store sales here. IndieCommerce and IndieLite members will find the new option in the Admin menu under Store > Reports > New York Times Bestseller Report (this works for both BookWeb and New York Times). Detailed instructions for reporting all sales can be found here. 

Cosed captioning is available for this session. Please note that it is machine-generated and is not reviewed for accuracy.

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Chat Copy	1.83 KB
NPD BookScan Presentation	1.61 MB
Benefits of Reporting to NPD BookScan	689.29 KB
NPD BookScan Title and Bestseller Service	251.15 KB

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.

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.

Enjoy a storytime interlude with Kate DiCamillo, as she reads from her newest middle grade novel The Beatryce Prophecy (Candlewick Press). Storytime is a reprieve from a busy day and a time to recall the joy and comfort we all experience when someone reads to us.

Enjoy a storytime interlude with Max Greenfield, as he reads from his upcoming release I Don't Want to Read This Book (G.P Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers). Storytime is a reprieve from a busy day and a time to recall the joy and comfort we all experience when someone reads to us.

This video features the Rep picks presentations from Two Rivers, Beacon Press, Wiley, ECW Press, Other Press, as seen at Wi16 on February 20, 2021. Rep picks packets are available here: https://www.bookweb.org/wi16-rep-picks-packets

This video features Rep Picks presentations from Candlewick Press, Ingram Publisher Services, Orca Book Publishers, Cameron Kids, and NorthSouth Books.

Rep picks packets are available here.

This video features the Rep picks presentations of Andrews McMeel, Plough Publishing House, Diamond Book Distributors, The Quarto Group, and And Other Stories/Coffee House

Rep picks packets are available here.

This video features Rep Picks presentations from Sterling, University of California Press, Arcadia Publishing, Coach House Books/Scribe, and Baker & Taylor Publisher Services.

Rep picks packets are available here.

This video features the Rep picks presentations from W.W. Norton & Company, University of Toronto Press, Europa Editions, Two Lines Press, House of Anansi, as seen at Wi16 on February 20, 2021. Rep picks packets are available here: https://www.bookweb.org/wi16-rep-picks-packets

This video features the Rep picks presentations from BOOM! Studios, Soho Press, Disney Publishing Worldwide, Biblioasis, Independent Publishers Group, as seen at Wi16 on February 20, 2021. Rep picks packets are available here: https://www.bookweb.org/wi16-rep-picks-packets

The romance genre has been a longtime reader favorite and can often turn a romance reader into a repeat customer for bookstores that invest in curating a romance selection for their stores. This session will celebrate LGBTQ+ romance with some of today’s essential young adult and adult LGBTQ+ authors, who will discuss the importance and value of creating stories about love, talk about the importance of representation, and look at how everyone can work to expand readership of these titles outside of the LGBTQ+ community to drive sales.
Panelists: Mariana Calderon, Second Star to the Right Children’s Books (Denver, CO); Jenny Cohen, Waucoma Bookstore (Hood River, OR); Rebecca Speas, One More Page Books (Arlington, VA); Amanda Toronto, WORD Bookstores (Brooklyn, NY); Dahlia Adler, author of Cool for the Summer (Wednesday Books); Alyssa Cole, award-winning and bestselling author of How to Find a Princess (Avon); David Levithan, VP, Editorial Director, Scholastic Press and author of bestselling queer YA novels; Casey McQuiston, author of the bestseller Red, White, & Royal Blue and the upcoming One Last Stop (St. Martin’s Griffin); Paul Rudnick, award-winning play and screenwriter and author of Playing the Palace (Berkley); Phil Stamper, author of The Gravity of Us and As Far as You’ll Take Me (Bloomsbury); Aiden Thomas, Indies Introduce and bestselling author of Cemetery Boys (Swoon Reads);

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All You Need Is Love: LGBTQ+ Romance Chat Takeaways	258.1 KB

This video features the Rep picks presentations of Sourcebooks, Consortium, Bloomsbury Children's Books, House of Anansi, and Andrews McMeel as seen at Wi16 on 2/19/2021. Rep picks packets are available here.

This video features the Rep picks presentations of Disney Publishing Worldwide, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Kids, Holiday Housem Penguin Young Readers, and Inkyard Press as seen at Wi16 on 2/19/2021. Rep picks packets are available here.

This video features the Rep picks presentations from Penguin Random House, Tin House, Harlequin Trade Publishing, Ingram Publisher Services, and Bloomsbury as seen at Wi16 on February 20, 2021.

This video features the Rep picks presentations of Chronicle Books, Publishers Group West, HarperCollins Children's Books, Abrams, and Quirk Books as seen at Wi16 on 2/19/2021.

This video features the Rep picks presentations of Seven Stories Press, Bloomsbury Adult (A), W.W. Norton & Company (A), Milkweed Editions, and Penguin Random House Adult (A) as seen at Wi16 on 2/19/2021. Rep picks packets are available here.

This video features the Rep picks presentations of HarperCollins Adult (1 of 2), Dundurn, Simon & Schuster Adult (A), Graywolf Press, and Grove Atlantic as seen at Wi16 on 2/19/2021 Rep picks packets are available here.

This video features the Rep picks presentations of Hachette Book Group, Sourcebooks, Annick Press, Consortium, and Arcadia Publishing as seen at Wi16 on 2/19/2021 Rep picks packets are available here.

This video features Rep Picks presentations from Chronicle Books, Publishers Group West, Abrams, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Algonquin and Workman, as seen at Wi16 on February 19, 2021. Rep picks packets are available here: https://www.bookweb.org/wi16-rep-picks-packets

This video features Rep Picks presentations from HarperCollins Children's Books, Macmillan Children's Publishing, Random House Children's Books, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, as seen at Wi16 on February 19, 2021. Rep picks packets are available here: https://www.bookweb.org/wi16-rep-picks-packets

This video features Rep Picks presentations from Blackstone Publishing, DK, Scholastic, Oni Press, Rare Bird, as seen at Wi16 on February 19, 2021. Rep picks packets are available here: https://www.bookweb.org/wi16-rep-picks-packets

Publisher presentations of upcoming Fall 2020 and Winter 2020-20201 titles as presented at Virtual Children's Institute in combinations of 4-5 different publishers per session room. Publishers in this video: Groundwood, Simon & Schuster, Quirk, Ingram IPS. Rep Picks packets of title information are available for download here:  https://www.bookweb.org/virtual-ci8-rep-picks-packets. 

Publisher presentations of upcoming Fall 2020 and Winter 2020-20201 titles as presented at Virtual Children's Institute in combinations of 4-5 different publishers per session room. Publishers in this video: Blue Manatee, Andrews McMeel, Hachette, Triangle Square, PGW. Rep Picks packets of title information are available for download here:  https://www.bookweb.org/virtual-ci8-rep-picks-packets.

Publisher presentations of upcoming Fall 2020 and Winter 2020-20201 titles as presented at Virtual Children's Institute in combinations of 4-5 different publishers per session room. Publishers in this video: Sourcebooks, Chronicle, Harper Kids, Consortium. Rep Picks packets of title information are available for download here:  https://www.bookweb.org/virtual-ci8-rep-picks-packets.

Publisher presentations of upcoming Fall 2020 and Winter 2020-20201 titles as presented at Virtual Children's Institute in combinations of 4-5 different publishers per session room. Publishers in this video: Simon & Schuster, Groundwood, Phaidon, PGW. Rep Picks packets of title information are available for download here:  https://www.bookweb.org/virtual-ci8-rep-picks-packets.

Publisher presentations of upcoming Fall 2020 and Winter 2020-20201 titles as presented at Virtual Children's Institute in combinations of 4-5 different publishers per session room. Publishers in this video: Harper Kids, Chronicle, Charlesbridge, Two Rivers. Rep Picks packets of title information are available for download here:  https://www.bookweb.org/virtual-ci8-rep-picks-packets.

Publisher presentations of upcoming Fall 2020 and Winter 2020-20201 titles as presented at Virtual Children's Institute in combinations of 4-5 different publishers per session room. Publishers in this video: Sleeping Bear, Candlewick, Diamond, Bloomsbury. Rep Picks packets of title information are available for download here:  https://www.bookweb.org/virtual-ci8-rep-picks-packets.

Indies Introduce is all 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 the debut authors will be present to read a short passage and answer a question posed by one of the panelists.

This session focuses on using Ingram’s iPage for book orders and features a demonstration from Ingram’s Marsha Wood.

In the first of two meetups on how multi-store events are organized and marketed, bookseller speakers will focus on Independent Bookstore Day and how regional businesses put together bookstore crawls and passports. Guest speakers will be Clarissa Murphy of Silver Unicorn Bookstore; Katie Eelman of Papercuts J.P.; Eric Lorberer of the literary organization Rain Taxi; Tom Nissley of Phinney Books; and Jessica Stockton Bagnulo of Greenlight Bookstore.

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Brooklyn IBD Postcard front (JPG)	39.23 KB

Attendees will hear how bookstores are using Google Analytics, what type of information they are tracking, best practices and tips, and how to set up Google Analytics “Goals.”

This session’s guest speakers will be Jason Jefferies of Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, North Carolina; Justin Hennequant of Hudson Booksellers, which has headquarters in Georgia and New Jersey; and ABA’s Matt Supko.

Booksellers can sign up for future Google Analytics Technology Meetups here by filling out the form on the right-hand side of the page and selecting “Technology” for the meetup type.

Bookstores that sell direct to schools are an invaluable resource to the local community and have made use of a successful strategy for increasing cash flow and profits. Bookseller panelists who have worked closely with their school districts will share with attendees how they, too, can foster a relationship with school districts and add to their store’s bottom line. In this session, booksellers will learn:

• Creating teacher wish lists and classroom requests
• Tips on book fair distribution
• How to manage in-school author visit orders
• Best practices for orders
• How to establish and manage subscription services with schools
• Best Practices for working with educational publishers

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Selling Direct to Schools Presentation (PDF)	1.67 MB

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

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Favorite Translated Titles (PDF)	477.15 KB
Books in Translation Presentation (PDF)	2.01 MB

At each of the 2019 spring forums, ABA presented “ABACUS and Pre-Orders: Two Programs You Can’t Do Without,” an update on two initiatives critical to the success of any independent bookstore: an active pre-orders campaign and participation in the annual ABACUS financial survey. This educational session will focused on best practices for increasing pre-orders — including the latest on accurately reporting and tracking — based on in-store experiences and feedback from the Pre-Order Booksellers Task Force. 

ABACUS and Pre-Orders was presented by ABA at the 2019 Regional Spring Forums.

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ABACUS and Pre-Orders: Two Programs You Can’t Do Without 2019 Spring Forum PDF	6.15 MB

Graphic novels can be a useful springboard into reading for reluctant readers, but they can also serve as a vehicle to launch readers into the symbiotic relationship between text and visuals. In this session, attendees will learn from booksellers and experts:

• How the role of graphic novels has evolved in the bookstore and literacy
• How to have a productive conversation with staff and customers about graphic novels
• Types of programming that highlight and elevate the genre
• The importance and impact of the representation of diverse characters in graphic novels
• What the current educational terrain looks like and how bookstores can work with school libraries to incorporate graphic novels into the curriculum

Edelweiss+Analytics is excited to present the new Shelf Report, created to help bookstores succeed against competitive pressures by providing unique decision intelligence. This new tool provides benchmarks for your store’s inventory, using the aggregate performance of hundreds of other independent bookstores on four key measures of sales and inventory health – across genres. Join us to learn more about how this tool can help you view your store from the outside-in and point to where you can focus your attention to make sure your inventory is working its hardest for you.