Winter Institute 2023

Whether you have owned a store for many years and are considering exiting a much-loved business, are planning for your store’s long-term future, or are a bookseller exploring options for keeping a business viable for many years to come, this is the session for you. This seminar will cover store valuation, alternate models for succession, how to raise capital, the importance of an emergency plan, and more!

Led by a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) facilitator, this workshop will address current conflicts in retail spaces. Participants will have practice opportunities with real-life scenarios. (All)

There are many factors that go into publisher decisions for author visits and tours, and bookseller event grids help them make those choices. In this session, publishers will provide sample event grids, explain how they use them to determine author tours, and share info on what has changed in their approach to events since 2020. Booksellers will learn:
- The number one thing publishers are looking for in potential events
- How to make your event proposal stand out
- How to make your grids more specific
- Important ways to follow up after you submit the grid
- The ways in which publishers determine virtual vs in-person vs hybrid events

This financial modeling workshop will help you evaluate potential new initiatives for your business. Whether you think it’s time to expand your space with another physical or pop-up location, you want to begin or increase your offering of used books or non-book items, or you’re considering adding a cafe or bar, this workshop will walk you through the financial analysis to help you make sound business decisions. Preliminary work in the Strategic Planning Series: Part I, Part II, and Part III will benefit attendees of this session.

Regular and honest communication creates stronger teams and stronger customer connections. However, our current age is one of great volatility and great change, making successful communication harder than ever. But don’t despair! Marjorie Ingall and Susan McCarthy, authors of Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies (Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster) will offer you insight on how to improve your communication skills. You will learn principles of psychology and human behavior that you can leverage to effectively and empathetically communicate with your team and customers. You will learn how to apologize when needed, and why good apologies are essential, powerful, and restorative. Even in the face of large ideological conflicts, good communication is possible! Join us for this important conversation!

In this interactive workshop, booksellers will have the opportunity to practice service leadership skills. Service leaders turn the traditional “power leadership” model upside down by focusing on empowering instead of commanding. Managers who practice service leadership have found that this method supports potential, creativity, and purpose in their employees. If this approach is different from what you practice and you want to learn more, come join the conversation! And if you are already practicing servant leadership, you will enjoy the opportunity to refresh your skills. (Managers)

A good hiring process will help you attract and retain high-quality booksellers who are passionate about your mission. Onboarding new employees, while time consuming, can make or break that employee’s successful transition from a new employee to an involved and productive employee. If it’s been a while since you took some time to think about hiring and onboarding in a strategic way, then this session is for you! Booksellers who have developed processes around these critical bookstore procedures will share hiring and onboarding strategies for bookstores of all sizes. (Managers)

“...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)
Take a moment to experience the “ahhh.” Stop by the Poetry Theater to watch a video of poets reading their work.

Used and remaindered books provide an opportunity to improve a store’s cost of goods and grow sales while providing unique titles that add to discoverability. In the first part of this session, a panel of booksellers will discuss the art of buying and selling used and remaindered books. Attendees will then have the opportunity to join a breakout discussion on either subject. Led by the panelists, these discussions will be an excellent opportunity to ask questions and increase your knowledge of sourcing, evaluating, buying, displaying, and marketing used or remaindered books. (Buyers)

IndieCommerce 2.0 (IC 2.0) is ABA’s newest e-commerce platform, designed and built specially for independent bookstores. IC 2.0 is a full-service e-commerce solution as well as a powerful marketing tool for bookstores to drive online customers into their stores. Whether you are already an IndieCommerce or IndieLite store, or looking for an e-commerce solution for your store, this session is for you.

Presented by Geetha Nathan, Senior IndieCommerce Manager, this session will highlight the powerful feature set available on IC 2.0, plans for the future, and success stories from new IC 2.0 bookstores. Current IndieCommerce and IndieLite stores can walk away with a clear understanding of the migration process, how their current site will be migrated over to the new platform, and what they can do to prepare for it.

All children who pass through the doors of a bookstore are potential lifetime customers. In this session, John Schu author of This Is a Story(Candlewick Press) will educate booksellers on the fundamentals of literacy and development during the critical years of early childhood education, and equip stores with the tools and language needed to help young readers forge a path toward a lifelong love of reading. Presented by the ABC Children’s Group for all booksellers. (All)

In this session, frontline booksellers will discuss the issues of our time. Come to this session to share meaningful solutions with your colleagues on day-to-day business operations and personal concerns that you deal with in the bookstore: Use of masks, free speech conversations, mental health emergencies with customers, shoplifting, DEI best practices, and more. (All)

Publishing colleagues are invited to gather for conversation and education on a topic to be announced.

Join us as we welcome you to Seattle and celebrate W. W. Norton’s 100th Anniversary! Enjoy cocktails, snacks, and the company of your colleagues from around the country. The reception will be co-sponsored by W. W. Norton.

Whether this is your first ever Winter Institute or you have attended many times before, plan to join your colleagues for a brief orientation and the opportunity to meet old and new colleagues. Come in for a 20–30 minute presentation on how to get the most out of your Winter Institute experience, followed by an opportunity to meet other booksellers like you. The ballroom will be set in round tables devoted to affinity and subset groups so that you can meet booksellers with shared interests. You can connect with other Mission-Driven Stores, then head over to your LGBTQIA2S+ affinity group table before joining the conversation at the Pop-up Stores table! Join one table for the entire hour or hop from table to table to meet as many folks as you can.