Inaugural Events Institute Meets With Success

More than 75 booksellers took part in the American Booksellers Association’s inaugural Events Specialty Institute last Wednesday, October 3, in Minneapolis, prior to the Great Lakes and Midwest independent booksellers associations’ Heartland Fall Forum. The institute’s overall focus and four breakout session topics, three roundtable discussions, and special morning and lunchtime plenaries were developed as a direct result of bookseller input, including recommendations from ABA’s Educational Task Force and Booksellers Advisory Council.

“ABA is very grateful to the bookseller attendees, the presenters, and our publishing colleagues and authors, who all helped make the first Events Specialty Institute a success,” said ABA Content Officer Dan Cullen. “Our initial feedback has been very positive, and we will be sending out a follow-up survey to attendees as well.  All thanks in advance to booksellers for responding to the online survey when it goes live, for your feedback and comments will help us strengthen all of ABA’s educational content.”

The sponsors of the institute were the Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group USA, Random House, Sourcebooks, and Workman.

ABA President Becky Anderson of Anderson’s Bookshops in Naperville, Illinois, welcomed booksellers on Wednesday morning to the Events Institute, which kicked off on Tuesday evening, October 2, with an Author Reception, featuring 12 indie favorites.

Educational programming began on Wednesday morning with an entertaining, and informative, plenary session featuring bestselling author Kate DiCamillo, who talked to ABA Board member Sarah Bagby, the owner of Watermark Books & Café  in Wichita, Kansas, about many facets of indie bookstore events from the author’s perspective.

Over lunch, booksellers learned about best practices for raising a bookstore’s profile with publishers from a trio of publicity executives at a panel moderated by Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona. Jynne Dilling Martin, director of publicity at Riverhead Books; Jason M. Wells, executive director of publicity and marketing at Abrams Books for Young Readers, Amulet Books, and Abrams Appleseed; and Karen Fink, assistant director of publicity at Random House, Spiegel & Grau, Dial Press, and Modern Library, provided valuable insights to booksellers looking to attract publisher support and authors for store events.