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The American Booksellers Association's Children's Institute, scheduled for June 22-24 at the Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa in Tucson, Ariz., has been cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The next Children's Institute, Ci9, will be held June 16-18, 2021, at the same location.
All registered booksellers will be refunded their $139 registration fee, and booksellers are asked to cancel their hotel reservations for this year. Booksellers attending the 2021 Children's Institute will need to make new hotel reservations when the block opens next year. The hotel will offer a lower nightly hotel rate of $99 (plus tax), which includes the resort fee.
Booksellers who received a scholarship for this year's Children's Institute will have the right of first refusal to participate as a scholarship recipient next year. The ABA emphasized, though, that "scholarships are ultimately awarded to ABA member stores (not individual booksellers), and the attendee must have permission from the store owner(s) to use that scholarship next year."
The ABA added that it is "exploring the possibility of bringing us all together virtually this June" and is seeking ideas for how to do so. It's also going to offer additional children's-focused programming at the 16th annual Winter Institute, to be held February 7-10, 2021, in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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Hachette Book Group has a newly configured operating model in its Lebanon, Ind., warehouse that incorporates social distancing, extensive cleaning and other safety measures while enabling it to ship more than 90% of demand to accounts that order directly from HBG.
HBG is partnering with Ingram to pick, pack and ship additional orders submitted to HBG that should allow it to fulfill more than 95% of demand. The orders picked by Ingram will still be billed at HBG's standard terms by HBG, so this should be largely unnoticeable to accounts ordering from HBG.
HBG added that it's been monitoring "the impacts to our accounts across the country, putting an operational hold on customers in areas where shelter in place and other restrictions have been mandated. Because accounts may have mitigating circumstances in their area in general and to their business specifically," it's launched a website for retailers to see how the company has coded their shipping status with HBG. Accounts are encouraged to visit the site, and can let the company know if their shipping status should be changed via e-mail.
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Online sales at IndieCommerce stores have increased by more than 1,000% as bookstore customers move online to buy books. The ABA noted yesterday in Bookselling This Week that as a result, IndieCommerce is processing more than 10 times its normal number of customer support inquiries from bookstores. In response, "the IndieCommerce team has added additional staff and everyone is working longer hours. The IndieCommerce team is available for booksellers with IndieCommerce or IndieLite websites that need customer support assistance, though it may take longer than usual."
The IndieCommerce team has many tips for booksellers seeking assistance.