Scholarship Winners Look to Recharge at Winter Institute

Over 30 bookseller scholarship winners will attend the American Booksellers Association's first annual Winter Institute, to be held in Long Beach, California, on January 26 and 27. Twenty-two of the scholarships, covering airfare and hotel costs, are sponsored by 11 Book Sense Publisher Partners. Additional scholarships are sponsored by ABA.

The Winter Institute is a free two-day program for ABA member booksellers that will feature ABA's popular education sessions from this past year's BookExpo America (BEA), as well as new sessions developed in response to bookseller input. The program is being presented by an impressive lineup of veteran independent booksellers, representatives from Book Sense Publisher Partners, and ABA senior staff. Of special interest are new sessions including "Creating a 'Buy Local' Campaign/Forming an Independent Business Alliance," "Rep Picks," and "Using Your Website to Effectively Promote Your Store and Generate Sales."

Several Winter Institute scholarship winners recently told BTW that they were "thrilled," "tickled," and "elated," when they received notification. Both Bridget Rothenberger of Nomad Book House in Jackson, Michigan, and Mary Suelflow of Bound to Read in Marshall, Minnesota, admitted that the mid-winter escape from their frigid home environs to balmy Southern California, albeit just for a few days, was icing on a very delicious cake.

Rothenberger, whose scholarship is sponsored by Grove/Atlantic, just this past week moved the kiosk-style bookstore she and her husband opened last April to a 2800-square-foot location in the historic, downtown area of Jackson. The two attended the fall Great Lakes Booksellers Association show in Chicago and were impressed by the structure and content of ABA's education offerings. "The 2% Solution was very helpful, even though we had reviewed it online beforehand," she told BTW. "We attended other sessions as well. I loved the up-close attention of ABA's speakers and the casual nature of each program. And I gained lots of insights from other bookstore owners at each of them.

"We are looking forward to the Winter Institute and are so excited about the opportunity to visit as many of the sessions as we can get to. Not to mention it's a trip to California in the dead of Michigan winter," she continued. "I am interested in learning more about budgeting and accounting specific to bookselling, controlling payroll, handling employees in general, the bookstore as a third place -- that's what we are all about, and the list goes on."

Suelflow, of Bound to Read, entered the scholarship drawing at the Midwest Booksellers Association (MBA) 25th annual trade show this past September. She dropped off her business card at the ABA booth and won the ABA-sponsored scholarship awarded at the show.

"I am thrilled and consider myself very, very lucky," she said. "First, because I'm from Minnesota, and I'm so happy to be going to Southern California. I have been to MBA twice and to BEA in Chicago two years ago, where I attended the Booksellers School and "The 2% Solution." We've only been in business for two and a half years, but I have found [these programs] to be extremely helpful."

Suelflow wants to cover a lot of ground at the Winter Institute. "I'm interested in all of [the sessions]. We have wanted to start up a store e-mail newsletter and had hoped to get it off the ground already, so that information will be most helpful."

Danny Givens of Givens Books in Lynchburg, Virginia, is no newcomer to the world of bookselling. The 16,000-square-foot store, founded by his late father, has been around for almost 30 years. He told BTW that he was elated to receive the news of his scholarship, sponsored by Hyperion. "I had wanted to go after attending [the Southeast Booksellers Association trade show]," he said, "But I wondered if I had the time -- January is usually our month to rest and recoup.

"When the e-mail came informing us that I'd won it -- I cheered and decided to go with my wife. We are going to split the schedule up so we can cover two classes at each time slot. Although we've been members of ABA for 20 or 25 years, we have not taken more advantage of its many benefits. Like most store owners, wearing too many hats, poor delegation, and getting bogged down in the quagmire of details in running a business have all been stumbling blocks -- not just to attending more of the education sessions, but to implementing them more.

"I now have a list of 12 goals on my office bulletin board taken from a recent ABA workshop that I'm checking off one by one as I complete them. They range from sending thank you cards to 20 businesses in town that have done great business with me in the last year and contacting the top publishers about their Business-to-Business policies, to reading Alpha Dogs. The payroll session I attended at [the Southeast Booksellers Association show], where I found out about the scholarships, was immensely helpful."

Givens is most enthusiastic to learn more about "Buy Local" campaigns. "I'm extremely involved with the 'buy local' concept. On every receipt, we have information about the percentage of each dollar spent at the store that goes into our local economy ... We're putting it on everything to educate the public. I feel energized by the prospect of going to the Winter Institute."

For more information and to register for the Winter Institute, go to www.bookweb.org/education/institute/. --Nomi Schwartz