On Demand Education Sessions

 

This panel session, led by Andy Hunter of Bookshop.org, will feature a panel of booksellers discussing how they use digital platforms to sell books, build an online audience, and drive in-person and online sales. The panel will discuss selling with e-commerce, highlighting events and community through social media, reviewing and acting on website traffic to increase the visibility of your store with search engine optimization (SEO), and engaging customers through Edelweiss to create email marketing.

 

Speakers

Veronica Liu, Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria - New York, NY

Amanda Lepper, Dog-Eared Books - Ames, IA

Evisa Gallman, Uncle Bobbie's Coffee and Books - Philadelphia, PA

Andy Hunter, Bookshop.org - Brooklyn, NY

 

Files & Links

Slide Deck

 

Join this bookseller-led panel for a discussion on supporting trans and nonbinary staff and colleagues. With LGBTQIA2S+ (particularly trans) rights under constant siege, it is more important than ever to have procedures in place that protect our staff and colleagues. Panelists will discuss what active allyship means for all employees, and will review best practices for responding to anti-trans legislation and community hate.

 

 

Speakers

Gretchen Treu, A Room of One's Own Bookstore - Madison, WI

Kai Burner, Bookworm of Edwards - Edwards, CO

Linda Sherman-Nurick, Cellar Door Bookstore - Riverside, CA

Brein Lopez, Children's Book World - Los Angeles, CA

 

Files & Links

Slide Deck

Active Allyship Checklist

 

Description

Michele Norris is one of America’s most trusted voices in journalism, earning numerous honors over a long career, including Peabody, Emmy, Dupont, and Goldsmith awards.  As founding director of The Race Card Project, a Peabody Award–winning narrative archive where people around the world share their reflections on identity—in just six words, she ignited the conversation with the seemingly simple prompt: Race. Your Thoughts. Six Words. Please Send. The responses she received have been challenging and complicated, intimate and candid, revealing fear, pain, triumph, and humor. Her transformative new book, OUR HIDDEN CONVERSATIONS (Simon & Schuster) and her work with The Race Card Project reminds us that even during times of great division, honesty, grace, and a willing ear can provide a bridge toward understanding and maybe even empathy.

 

Speakers

Michele Norris, author of Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think about Race and Identity (available now from Simon & Schuster)

 

Files & Links

Live Captioning

Slide Deck

YouTube Video

 

Used books can meet a variety of needs for you and your customers. They offer customers a deeper selection with more accessible pricing, they reduce your cost of goods, and they reduce your carbon footprint. This panel will feature experienced booksellers from used bookstores who understand the process of curating used books and will walk you through best practices for buying, pricing, managing, and marketing used books. Specifically, this panel is designed for booksellers from used bookstores or for stores that curate a used section.

 

Speakers

Danielle King, Left Bank Books - St. Louis, MO

Pete Mulvihill, Green Apple Books - San Francisco, CA

Amy Hall, Hudson Valley Books for Humanity - Ossining, NY

 

Files & Links

Slide Deck

 

In an industry with such slim margins, direct ordering can make all the difference to your bookstore’s bottom line. In this session, Ted Hill of Pubnet/Pubeasy, Deidre Dumpson of Edelweiss, and a bookseller panelist will guide you through the key elements of creating a direct ordering strategy, and show you how to use Edelweiss to order frontlist and Pubnet/Pubeasy to order backlist directly from publishers and distributors. If you’re a new bookstore who has primarily sourced your inventory from wholesalers and are now looking to diversify your ordering, this session is for you! You’ll leave this session with the ability to: understand the importance of balanced ordering from both wholesalers and publishers; create a customized ordering strategy; leverage the technology of Edelweiss, Pubnet, and Pubeasy to streamline direct ordering; and build lasting publisher relationships.

 

Speakers

Jill Hendrix, Fiction Addiction - Greenville, SC

Ted Hill, Pubeasy & Pubnet - Brooklyn, NY

Alison Langlois, Edelweiss by Above the Treeline - Ann Arbor, MI

 

Files & Links

Slide Deck

Direct Ordering on Edelweiss for Booksellers

Bookseller Tips and Tricks for Effective Direct Ordering

Developing a Strategy for Ordering Direct

How to Get Your Very Own Book Representative

 

Description

Independent bookstores are unique — your story, history, values, causes, and specialties are what differentiate you from others. Your “About Us” section on your website should be unlike anyone else’s too! It’s the easiest way, and one of the most important ways, to promote your store. Join this workshop on how to shift from a generic description about community and curation to one that reflects your store’s personality, makes loyal customers, entices new customers, and helps ABA pitch your store to the media, publishers, and others.

 

Speakers

Matt Banker, Banker Creative - Saint Paul, MN

 

Files & Links

Slide Deck

Description

In this interactive session, as a follow-up to his morning keynote, James Rhee will lead a discussion on measurements and operational processes enhancing balance, agility, and goodwill as it relates to the business of life and the life of business.

 

Speakers

James Rhee, author of red helicopter—a parable for our times : lead change with kindness (plus a little math) (On sale April 9, 2024 from HarperOne/HarperCollins)

 

Files & Links

Slide Deck

Description

How can we survive—and even thrive—in this age of conflict? Negotiation expert William Ury, coauthor of the best-selling Getting to YES, introduces a transformative mindset in his upcoming book, Possible: How We Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict (to be published by Harper Business on February 20, 2024). Drawing on 45 years of experience, Ury presents an actionable framework, a “Path to Possible”, for navigating conflicts of any scale—from boardroom battles to large-scale international conflict —by sharing a range of personal stories intermixed with practical takeaways. Whether you’re facing a family feud, a workplace dispute, or a political crisis, Possible will help you turn any challenge into an opportunity. Equal parts memoir, manual, and manifesto, Possible empowers us all to be “Possibilists”: those who believe in the human potential to transform today’s toughest conflicts creatively and constructively.

 

Speakers

William Ury, author of Possible : How We Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict (Available now from Harper Business)

 

Files & Links

Live Captioning

Slide Deck

Description

During this session, we will explore various use cases and best practices for using spreadsheets in your bookstore. Whether you use Excel or Google Sheets, you will come away from this session with new ways to analyze, evaluate, and apply information. This session will provide an overview of the basics of spreadsheets and formulas, before delving into more advanced functionalities that are particularly useful for bookstores.

 

Speakers

Hannah Oliver Depp, Loyalty Bookstores - Washington, DC

Emma Kaas, The Norwich Bookstore - Norwich, VT

Beth Seufer Buss, Bookmarks - Winston-Salem, NC

Maddie Ciliotta-Young, Watchung Booksellers - Montclair, NJ

 

Files & Links

Slide Deck

 

This information session hosted by the ABA team and your bookseller colleagues will answer questions like: What is Batch? What is license plate receiving? What are event grids? And more!  ABA will begin the discussion by reviewing industry opportunities you may not know about like RISE scholarships for booksellers and bookstore owners to visit international conferences and bookstores; Books Across Borders opportunities; the Professional Booksellers School; ABA opportunities like the Board, Nominating Committee, Audit Committee, Governance Committee, Indies Introduce, Education Task Force, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, Booksellers Advisory Committee, ABA Children’s Group Advisory Council, etc. No question is too basic — come as you are and leave a little more enlightened!

 

Speakers

Christine Bollow, Loyalty Bookstores - Washington, DC

Tegan Tigani, Queen Anne Book Company - Seattle, WA

Camden Avery, Booksmith - San Francisco, CA

Ryan Quinn, American Booksellers Association

Joy Dallanegra-Sanger, American Booksellers Association

 

Files & Links

Slide Deck

Welcome to Bookselling Handout

ABA's Bookstore Resource Library