Special Winter Institute Hotel Offer Ends November 15

Booksellers who want to take advantage of the special $89 hotel room rate at the Long Beach Hilton, the host hotel of the American Booksellers Association's inaugural Winter Institute, must register by next Tuesday, November 15. The Winter Institute will be held on Thursday, January 26, and Friday, January 27, 2006, and for booksellers who are traveling to Long Beach, California, ABA has arranged the special $89 rate, available for three nights: Wednesday, January 25, through Friday, January 27. To receive the special rate, however, hotel reservations must be made by November 15.

Reservations may be made by calling (800) 445-8667 and asking for the "ABA Education Institute" block of rooms or through Hilton's online reservation form, available through the Winter Institute registration page at www.bookweb.org/institute. (The three-letter group/convention code -- "ABA" -- must be used to receive the $89 room rate.)

Open to all ABA member booksellers -- owners and staff -- and free of charge, the Institute's comprehensive program includes ABA's education sessions from this past June's BookExpo America, as well as several new sessions developed in response to bookseller input, including: "Creating a 'Buy Local' Campaign/Forming an Independent Business Alliance"; "Using Your Website to Effectively Promote Your Store and Generate Sales"; "Communicating With Your Customers to Grow Your Sales"; and "Rep Picks," a special session where frontline booksellers can hear sales reps discuss their favorite spring titles. For the newly revised Winter Institute schedule (in PDF format), click here.

For more information about the Winter Institute, go to www.bookweb.org/education/institute. Questions and comments should be addressed to ABA's associate director of programming, Kristen Gilligan, at (800) 637-0037, ext. 6613 or at Kristen@bookweb.org.