In this spotlight on Black publishers Cheryl Willis Hudson (Just Us Books), Kwame M'Balia (Freedom Fire), and Bria Ragin (Delacorte Press) candidly discuss what inspired them to pursue careers as publishers of children's books and their journeys to success in the publishing industry. It is a frank conversation about the history and experiences of Black publishers and the responsibility of all bookstores to invest in Black publishers, authors, illustrators, and children.

Session Resources

Recorded June 12, 2024 at Children's Institute 2024 in New Orleans, LA

Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

Theme song by Constant Companion

Virtual book fairs and teacher wishlist fulfillment are practical ways to support schools and students. Learn the fundamentals of planning, marketing, running, and fulfilling virtual book fairs and wishlists.

Session Resources

Recorded June 11, 2024 at Children's Institute 2024 in New Orleans, LA

Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

Theme song by Constant Companion

Free Expression Friday is an interview series from ABA's American Booksellers for Free Expression celebrating the amazing work of booksellers, organizers, and book people in general fighting for the right to read.

With a background in social work, Tayler Simon is passionate about helping people. But when she saw anti-DEI and anti-CRT measures targeting higher ed spill over into book bans, she saw another way to help. She started Liberation is Lit as a social media presence and it soon became an online and pop-up bookstore. Now, she is getting ready to open a physical space for organizing and bookselling in her community. She spoke with ABFE's Philomena Polefrone about Liberation is Lit, rampant but under-emphasized book censorship in South Carolina, and how she's using bookselling to make a difference. Read the interview on ABA's Blog.

Recorded August 13, 2024

Follow the American Booksellers for Free Expression on Instagram at @ABFEFreeExpression to keep up with ABFE's advocacy efforts and tune into their Free Expression Friday series. Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

Theme by Constant Companion

ABA's Lightning Talk series features booksellers presenting 5-10 minute talks on tech tools, organizational strategies, communication methods, or innovations they've made in their stores. On August 8, 2024, Lyn Ciurro of Bound to Happen Books (Stevens Point, WI) discussed being a Blue Dot in a Red State.

Session Video & Resources

Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

Theme by Constant Companion

Edelweiss provides a suite of tools that will allow everyone in your team to contribute to sustaining your children's literature sections. In this session we will cover core, analytics, community, and 360 Edelweiss tools that you can leverage for discovery, building out, and boosting your store sections. Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of Edelweiss tools for the purposes of knowledge sharing, previewing, and handselling.

Session Resources

Recorded June 12, 2024 at Children's Institute 2024 in New Orleans, LA

Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

Theme song by Constant Companion

Can a bookstore be a Rube Goldberg machine? Realistically? Probably not, but here booksellers will apply the geometric law of syllogism ("If this, then that") to demonstrate how to automate processes or develop systems to follow a consistent pattern or trigger a chain reaction of "this, then that." Attendees will learn about low code/no code automation, and have the chance to examine and re-evaluate systems that can be streamlined to create an outcome that follows a chain reaction pattern — whether it's an Excel formula or a standard procedure for fluid store operations.

Session Resources

Recorded June 12, 2024 at Children's Institute 2024 in New Orleans, LA

Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

Theme song by Constant Companion

Presented by ABA and the League of Women Voters (LWV), "Local Voter Engagement in 2024 and Beyond" was designed to help independent bookstores mobilize and empower voters in their communities. Recorded July 25, 2024.

Session Video & Resources

Follow the American Booksellers for Free Expression on Instagram at @ABFEFreeExpression to keep up with ABFE's advocacy efforts and tune into their Free Expression Friday series. Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

Theme by Constant Companion

ABA's Lightning Talk series features booksellers presenting 5-10 minute talks on tech tools, organizational strategies, communication methods, or innovations they've made in their stores. On April 11, 2024, Liz Whitelam of Whitelam Books (Reading, MA) discussed using Slack for staff communication.

Session Resources

Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

Theme by Constant Companion

With consideration to the thousands of children who have transitioned from learning to read to reading to learn during the pandemic, how have the events of the last four years impacted reading comprehension and the middle-grade readers' experience of reading? This session will investigate the rise of sales in graphic novels, manga, licensed character novels and stories, and comic books in relation to the drop in sales of the traditional middle-grade novel. We will also critically examine the independent bookstore's relationship with licensed characters and media property tie-ins in terms of competing businesses like Walmart and Target and our own implicit bias against licensed character novels and stories.

Session Resources

Recorded June 12, 2024 at Children's Institute 2024 in New Orleans, LA

Additional bookstore education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

Theme song by Constant Companion

ABA's Indies Introduce interview series spotlights debut authors handpicked by booksellers from around the country. In each episode, a bookseller from the Indies Introduce panel interviews an author featured in the program to celebrate the release of their book.

In this episode, Preet Singh of Eagle Eye Book Shop (Decatur, GA) interviews Danica Nava, author of The Truth According to Ember, available August 6, 2024 at your local independent bookstore.

Theme by Constant Companion