Basil Presents
Basil, in cooperation with the Professional Booksellers School, is providing you with access to these classes drawn from PBS courses.
Basil supports the Professional Booksellers School because we support booksellers. We are proud to provide you with free access to these PBS Independent Study classes. We know you'll find information to help you and your staff up your buying skills.
PBS offers courses and classes on Inventory Management, Event Management, Store & Operations Management, Basic Bookselling and Bookstore Finances, as well as master classes and special education events. All of our instructors are experienced booksellers, here to help you find the best answers for your needs.
View the Classes
Scroll down the page to view all the content, or click the title of each class to jump directly to the class
Basics of Bookstore Finance + Batch
Intro to Inventory & Curation
Bookseller Tools & Resources
Bookstore Financial Literacy (3 videos)
Book Buyer Math
Special Orders, PreOrders & Website Fulfillment
Returns (Class and 3 Training Videos)
Establish Terms & Save Money (free to you from PBS Sponsor MVB)
To begin each video, click the blue "play" button. If classes have handouts, you can download them from links under the video.
If you have any problem with these videos or handouts, please e-mail PBS.
Basics of Bookstore Finance + Batch
This class from our Store & Operations Management Course will give you an overview of the financial tools necessary for understanding how your store is operating, including:
- Chart of Accounts
- Profit & Loss Statement
- Cash Flow
- Balance Sheet
Intro to Inventory & Curation
This class from the PBS Basic Bookselling Course introduces the concepts of inventory and curation and discusses key concepts including:
- how inventory is the brand/personality of the store
- how layout defines a store
- how and why frontline booksellers work with sales reps and buyers
- how bookstores curate their collection
- how to deal with challenges from customers
Bookseller Tools & Resources
This class from our Basic Bookselling Course introduces you to the bookselling industry.
Download Bookseller Tools & Services Handout
Bookstore Financial Literacy
This class of three short videos from Bookstore Finances Dean Candice Huber were created as the best way to begin to understand your store's finances and how to manage them. The topics are:
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Cost of Goods Sold
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Managing Cash Flow
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Understanding Profit & Loss
Cost of Goods Sold
Managing Cash Flow
Understanding Profit & Loss
Book Buyer Math
This class from our Inventory Management Course introduces you to the central formulas necessary to book buying - how to calculate COGS (cost of goods sold). We believe everyone in the book industry should know how to calculate COGS, but as a buyer you absolutely have to master this concept as it informs everyday decisions of where you should order titles: directly from the publisher or indirectly from a wholesaler.
Download: Book Buyer Math Terminology
Download: Book Buyer Math Formulas
Download: COGS Discussion Questions
Download: More COGS Information
Special Orders, PreOrders & Website Fulfillment
The class from the Inventory Management Course will help you establish systems to handle sales of special orders, pre-orders, and website orders.
Download Special Orders Handout
Returns
This class from our Inventory Management Course helps you build systems for determining what to return, and when, as well as walking you through the process, from pulling to packing to receiving credits.
This class also has three short videos to help you master returns skills. You'll find them below the class recording.
Download Colgate Bookstore Trade Returns Information
Download Fiction Addiction Business Review
Download Ingram Open to Return Calculation
Download Reporting Ingram Discrepancies
Training Video: Using Pubeasy to Check Returnability
Training Video: Packing a Return
Training Video: POS Hacks for Returns
Establish Terms & Save Money
From a PBS sponsor MVB, this seminar will hep you learn more about how your store could be saving money by switching to terms with publishers and with Ingram.
Speakers include
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Jill Hendrix of MVB, former PBS Dean of Inventory Management
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Jason Rice of Ingram
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Emanuel Figueroa, Co-owner of Snug Books, Baltimore, MD
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Valerie Pierce of Sourcebooks
Download MVB Electronic Ordering Handout
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Donate to Support PBS
In her own words: Erin Chervenock of Village Books & Paper Dreams in Bellingham, WA discusses the power of PBS
Booksellers Say:
Audrey Beatty
River Bend Bookshop
The Basic Bookselling Certification Course is truly anything but "basic!" The material covered is comprehensive and the instructors were invaluable fountains of knowledge and experience. I've been a bookseller and shop manager for over three years--I both wished this course was available to me when I started AND I felt like I gained so much from the coursework even though I'm no longer brand new to the business! I couldn't recommend it more highly to anyone that is a frontline bookseller, regardless of the number of years under your belt.
Amani Jackson
The Ivy Bookshop
The Inventory Management class I took through PBS made me confident enough to take on a managerial role at my bookstore and introduced me to career booksellers from across the country. I hope more and more booksellers have the opportunity to take classes and open their minds to what a career in books can look like.