Countdown to BEA 2

From Bookselling This Week

This is the second of four up-to-the-minute reports on key education sessions, special events, and resources sponsored by the American Booksellers Association at this year's BookExpo America. BEA will be held from Friday, June 1, to Sunday, June 3, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center; ABA programming will begin on Wednesday, May 30, with "Welcome to Brooklyn" events, starting at Hotel ABA.

IMPORTANT: This year, ABA's Day of Education and the Celebration of Bookselling will be held at Hotel ABA, the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, in Brooklyn.

ABA's Day of Education: Thursday, May 31 -- at Hotel ABA

ABA is holding its fifth annual Day of Education, sponsored by Baker & Taylor, at Hotel ABA (the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge) on Thursday, May 31. The day will be jam-packed with education sessions and panels on an array of topics, including expanding your bookstore, staff development, building customer loyalty, public relations, and more. The overall theme of the event, "Adapting to Change," builds on the program begun at ABA's Winter Institute in Portland, Oregon, this past February. The day's programming is open to the owners and staff of all ABA member bookstores at no charge, but those wishing to participate must pre-register, as well as sign-up for the "What Are You Reading?" Breakfast and the ABFFE Lunch.

The "What Are You Reading?" Breakfast

Thursday's programming begins at 8:00 a.m. in Ballroom D/E of Hotel ABA, with the What Are You Reading? Breakfast, hosted by ABA President Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana. The owners and staff of ABA member stores are invited to break bread with fellow booksellers and with editors from publishing houses from around the country for unmoderated discussions about their favorite handsells. Reservations are required.

ABA Thursday Educational Programming

• Following breakfast, Cathie Black -- cited by the Financial Times as "one of the leading figures in American publishing over the past two decades" -- will be the featured speaker at the Plenary Session: Adapting to Change, in Hotel ABA's Ballroom D/E. Black is the president of Hearst Magazines and the author of Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life) (Crown Business, October 2007), a primer on business strategy, with anecdotal tips for everyone from the entry-level employee to the CEO.
  

• Presented twice, from 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. in Ballroom A/B and from 1:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. in Ballroom H, will be the session Expanding Your Bookstore: Why, When, and How. The ABACUS survey consistently shows that stores below a certain sales volume are much less likely to be profitable. One way to grow your sales is to grow your store. ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz will examine the reasons for store expansion and the when and how of remodeling existing space, growing existing space, finding new space, and opening a second location. This session is aimed at owners and managers from stores doing less than $1,000,000 per year.
  

• The session Building and Rewarding Customer Loyalty will be presented twice, from 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. in Ballroom F/G of Hotel ABA, and from 3:30 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. in Ballroom G. Books are sold everywhere, so how do you keep customers coming back to your store? Presented by ABA Education Director Len Vlahos in the morning and by ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz in the afternoon, this session will explore what customers really want, and how you can foster loyalty by responding to consumer needs. An in-depth discussion of the pros and cons of implementing and marketing a customer loyalty program will be featured.
  

• What to Do When the Competition Comes to Town: A Case Study will be presented twice, from 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. in Ballroom H/I and from 3:30 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. in Ballroom H. Presented by ABA COO Oren Teicher and Sarah Pishko of Prince Books in Norfolk, Virginia, this is the first in a series of sessions tracking one store's response to a chain competitor's plan to open a store in her community. This session will set the stage, examining the steps a bookseller needs to take to put together a cohesive plan to address prospective competition. Future sessions will report on the implementation of that plan. (View a short video introduction to this session on YouTube.)
  
  

From 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., booksellers are invited to join their peers for the ISBN-13 Roundtables, a discussion of issues relating to point-of-sale/inventory control systems, particularly how changes related to ISBN-13 are impacting store operations. Discussion groups will be segmented by system: Anthology in Brighton Beach Room (3rd floor); Booklog in Brooklyn Bridge Room (3rd floor); Books-in-Store in Coney Island Room (3rd floor); Computac in Fulton Ferry Room (3rd floor); IBID in Prospect Park Room (3rd floor); and Wordstock in Athletes Room (South Tower).

The ABFFE Lunch

The ABFFE Lunch, from 11:45 a.m. - 1:15 p.m. in Ballroom D/E, will be hosted by American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression President Chris Finan. A short video dramatizing censorship issues that arise in the daily lives of booksellers will be shown. Booksellers will then be invited to discuss with their tablemates how they respond to First Amendment challenges. The program is co-sponsored by the Freedom to Read Foundation and the Freedom to Read Committee of the Association of American Publishers. Reservations are required.

More Thursday ABA Education Programming

• Staff Development: An Overview will be held from 1:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. and repeated from 3:30 p.m. - 5:15 p.m., both times in Ballroom C. Presented by Chuck and Dee Robinson of Village Books, Bellingham, Washington, this session takes a high altitude view of how hiring, training, and managing staff is as much art as it is science. Topics will include hiring people who will add strength to the store, recognizing and building upon an employee's unique abilities, and creating a work environment that motivates staff.
  

• How to Be the Story: Developing and Implementing a Public Relations Plan will be held twice, from 1:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. and from 3:30 p.m. - 5:15 p.m., both times in Ballroom F. On average, independent bookstores spend two percent of their annual budget on advertising. But what is the budget for public relations? What's the difference between advertising and PR? Presented by ABA Membership Director Meg Smith, this session will show how a comprehensive public relations plan can have a greater impact on a store's visibility than advertising -- and at a much lower cost. Learn how to formulate and execute a PR plan. Booksellers will break into groups to tackle hypothetical PR problems.
  

• Improve Efficiency to Achieve Success, presented by ABA Information Director Dan Cullen, will be held from 1:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. in Ballroom G. This seminar will show booksellers how to use their time more effectively, make their staff more productive, and implement efficiencies throughout the store. Intended for owners and senior staff of bookstores of all sizes, the session will focus on how to streamline routine functions so that more time and energy can be devoted to achieving the goals you have set for your store.
  

• From 1:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. in Ballroom A, the director of BookSense.com and of ABA's education program, Len Vlahos, will present Participating in the Digital Revolution: High Altitude. Everyday in the news are features stories about how technology is changing the way people interact and acquire information, and especially about the way they consume it. How are phenomena like digitization of content, social networking, print-on-demand, and distributed computing affecting independent booksellers today? What will be their effects in the near future? This session will explore the latest developments in the technosphere and how they impact booksellers.
  

• Participating in the Digital Revolution: Low Altitude will be held from 3:30 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. in Ballroom A. Presented by ABA Director of BookSense.com and Director of Education Len Vlahos, this session follows "Participating in the Digital Revolution: High Altitude" by providing hands-on information on why and how booksellers should, and can, create MySpace pages and blogs. Includes live demonstrations.
  

• Book Clubs: A Panel will be presented twice, from 1:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. and again at 3:30 p.m. - 5:15 p.m., both times in Ballroom B. This session, moderated by Barbara Mead of Reading Group Choices, will feature panelists Mark LaFramboise of Politics and Prose Bookstore & Coffeehouse, Washington, D.C.; Jennifer Laughran of Books Inc. in San Francisco; Amy Baker, associate director of marketing for Harper Perennial and Ecco; and Roz Parr, sales and marketing director for Vintage, Anchor, and Everyman's Library. This panel of bookselling and publishing experts will discuss the value of promoting, hosting, and working with book clubs. Booksellers are encouraged to bring their own best book club ideas to discuss in breakout sessions.
  
  

• Getting More Out of Your Children's Section: Managing Selection, Service, and Store Environment for Category Growth will be held from 1:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. and repeated at 3:30 p.m. - 5:15 p.m., both times in Ballroom I. Moderated by Kristen McLean, executive director of the Association of Booksellers for Children, this panel will feature Carol Chittenden, children's buyer for the wholesaler Bookstream and owner of Eight Cousins Children's Bookshop, Falmouth, Massachusetts; Elizabeth Bluemle, chair of the New England Children's Bookseller's Association and co-owner of The Flying Pig, Shelburne, Vermont; and Erin Taylor, owner of Wonderland Books & Toys, Rockford, Illinois, the winner of the 2007 Pannell Award Children's Store winner. Three important areas that need to be addressed to grow a children's book business will be explored: building a kid-friendly environment, picking the right books, and finding and training charismatic kids' book specialists. This session, designed specifically for children's booksellers, is presented in conjunction with the Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC).
  

The Celebration of Bookselling

• Don't forget! This year, ABA's Celebration of Bookselling, sponsored by Ingram Book Company/Ingram Publisher Services, will held on Thursday evening, May 31, and in Ballroom D/E of Hotel ABA, the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge. Everyone is invited to snack, drink, and share in the celebration of the 2007 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards. The winning authors in all four categories -- Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Children's Literature, and Children's Illustrated -- will be present to receive their awards. Publishers Weekly's Bookseller and Rep of the Year awards and the Pannell Awards will also be presented. Live music will be provided by Putumayo World Music artists the Eliza Lynn Trio. Open to all BEA attendees.

Other Thursday Programming

Additional programming for children's booksellers, sponsored by the Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC), and for college store booksellers, sponsored by the National Association of College Stores (NACS), is also on the schedule at Hotel ABA on Thursday.

For Children's Booksellers:

The ABC Annual Meeting & Luncheon for children's booksellers will be held on Thursday, from 11:45 a.m. - 1:15 p.m. at Hotel ABA. Other programming for children's booksellers will be held at different venues on Friday and Saturday. (Read more.)

For College Store Booksellers:

NACS College Store Programming will be offered concurrently with the Day of Education on Thursday at Hotel ABA.

• The College Store Literary Luncheon, sponsored by NACSCORP, will be held from 11:45 a.m.-1:15 p.m. Speakers include Elizabeth Gilbert, whose latest book, Eat, Pray, Love, published by Penguin, has been a top Book Sense bestseller, and Charles London, author of One Day the Soldiers Came, to be published by HarperCollins in October 2007.
  
  

• College Store Success Strategies & Idea Exchange will be held from 1:30 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. The series of presentations and discussions will focus on trends, categories, and strategies that can help booksellers make their store more profitable and more valuable as a resource in the campus community. The session will feature speaker Jon Bibo, vice president, sales and marketing, NACSCORP.

For African-American Book Industry Professionals

Programming for African-American book industry professionals will also be held on Thursday; however that programming, sponsored by African-American Booksellers Committee, will be offered at the Javits Convention Center. (Read more.)