Live From Long Beach -- ABA Winter Institute, Day 1

Beginning with an 8:30 a.m. session on "Budgeting & Monitoring," and continuing for almost 10 hours of programming, Day 1 of the first-annual American Booksellers Association Winter Institute kicked off on Thursday in Long Beach, California. More than 360 independent booksellers from approximately 200 stores are attending 25 educational sessions designed to offer a wide range of programming for booksellers at different levels of experience, as well as other meetings and social events. The Institute features panels from ABA's 2005 BookExpo America programming and new sessions developed in response to bookseller input collected in the association's 2006 education survey.

"Our members have told us loud and clear that education is a critical priority," said ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz, "and we believe that the Winter Institute is providing even more booksellers an important opportunity to hone their skills to create successful and profitable businesses."

ABA President Mitchell Kaplan of Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida, told BTW, "We couldn't be happier with this turnout of booksellers from all over the country. Their participation makes clear just how strongly they believe that continuing education is crucial to the profitability and survival of independent bookstores."

At "Budgeting & Monitoring," ABA's Domnitz presented a three-hour overview of the budgeting process, highlighting a system of financial controls that allow booksellers to forecast performance and, then, to monitor actual operations against those benchmarks. The session at the Winter Institute was newly revised to focus on issues pertinent to small- and medium-size stores. Among the materials booksellers received was a series of Excel worksheets, which can be integrated into their business planning.

Approximately 150 booksellers attended the session. Barbara O'Grady, the new owner of Adventures for Kids in Ventura, California, described the session as "really helpful -- I'll be able to go and use it right away in the store." Laura Lucy of White Birch Books in North Conway, New Hampshire, who was the recipient of a scholarship sponsored by Random House, said, "This is a great tool to start the budget and monitoring process.... Knowing what your sales are is not going to make you profitable if you don't know what your expenses are."

Two other sessions on Thursday were also tailored for new booksellers: "The 2% Solution," moderated by Chuck Robinson of Village Books in Bellingham, Washington, which focused on the key factors of bookstore profitability, and "Cost of Goods Sold 101," led by Len Vlahos, director of BookSense.com, who discussed the "retail inventory method" of calculating the cost of goods sold.

Julie Norcross of McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Michigan, praised the day's sessions and noted, "This is a great time of year to be able to come here. I would love to bring more booksellers next year."

Both the seasoned and less-experienced booksellers at the Winter Institute noted that, in addition to the educational sessions, affordability was an important factor in their decision to attend. The institute is open to all ABA member booksellers -- owners and staff -- free of charge. In addition, ABA negotiated a special rate with the Long Beach Hilton, the site of the Institute's sessions and special events, that was further subsidized by the event sponsors to make the final cost $89 per night. Sponsors of the Winter Institute are BookExpo America, Baker & Taylor, Ingram Book Group, HarperCollins, Hyperion, Penguin Young Readers Group, Perseus Books Group, Random House, Scholastic, Time Warner Book Group, and Workman. Booksellers from 44 states and the District of Columbia are here in Long Beach, as are booksellers from Canada and Bermuda.

Among the registrants are 37 booksellers who are the recipients of scholarships (for hotel and travel expenses) supported by ABA or one of 11 Book Sense Publisher Partners -- Grove/Atlantic, HarperCollins, Hyperion, Penguin Group for Young Readers, Perseus, Random House, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, Thomson/Peterson's, Time Warner Book Group, and Workman.

The scholarship total also includes two booksellers affected by this year's hurricanes in the Gulf Coast -- Michele Lewis of the Afro-American Book Stop in New Orleans and Barbara Lynn Roberts of Calico's House of Books in Diamondhead, Mississippi -- who are attending on scholarships supported by ABA's Bookseller Relief Fund. Lewis told BTW, "I'm just so thankful and glad to be here," adding, "I'm always trying to pull in more information that's useful and to put it to work."

Today's afternoon schedule featured three new one-hour sessions: "Creating Effective Newsletters," "Creating a 'Buy Local' Campaign/Forming an Independent Business Alliance," and "Using Your Website to Effectively Promote Your Store and Generate Sales." The newsletter session was moderated by Random House Director of Independent Bookselling Ruth Liebmann and included panelists ABA Board member Linda Ramsdell of Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick, Vermont; Bob Sommer of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona; and Margie Scott Tucker of Books Inc. in San Francisco.

At the "Buy Local" session, moderated by ABA COO Oren Teicher, attendees heard from panelists Betsy Burton of The King's English in Salt Lake City; ABA Board member Carla Jimenez of Inkwood Books in Tampa, Florida; and Dee Robinson of Village Books in Bellingham, Washington, about the key role bookstores play in creating independent business alliances, and in convincing more consumers to shop locally.

"There's now a compelling body of evidence that shows that not only do locally owned businesses have a much greater economic impact on their communities than do national chains," said Teicher, "but there is also growing evidence that when booksellers work together with other independently owned businesses in their cities and towns they become more profitable stores. It was great to have three experienced booksellers here who could tell their success stories firsthand."

At the website session, ABA's Vlahos and Michael Tucker of Books Inc. in San Francisco presented some essentials on employing a store website as an effective marketing tool, as well as 10 tips on how to market a website to increase traffic and sales. Among the other sessions held today were "It's in the Payroll," "Increasing Margin," "The Bookstore as a Third Place: Making Your Store a Community Center Through Innovative Events," "Outside Sales," and "Reducing Occupancy Expense."

The jam-packed day also included an "ABACUS Lunch," where more than 300 booksellers heard an overview of the latest ABACUS results presented by ABA's Domnitz and David Walker, ABA director of special projects. And, as this special edition of BTW was going to press, booksellers were concluding their day at an evening reception, where they are being joined by 20 authors from nine publishers.