Bookstore Development
Deepen and Strengthen Your Practices with PBS
PBS is expanding! In addition to our bookstore role-based courses, we're adding tools for staff development and courses that are deep-dives into growing your business, taught by industry experts.
Basic Bookselling Store Subscription for Staff Training
Training new staff members in basic bookstore skills such as handselling, customer service, display building, and writing shelf-talkers, takes valuable time - and that doesn't include the background work of explaining how the bookstore industry works, introducing key terms, and gaining insight from owners and staff with decades of experience.
We have a great tool for you! With a Store Subscription to our Basic Bookselling for Independent Study course, your entire staff can access all nine classes for an entire year. The subscription includes handouts, and a document with the homework assignments for you adapt into training assignments.
This program is only $350/year, with discounts available from NAIBA, SIBA, MIBA, GLIBA, MPIBA, CALIBA, and PNBA.
These nine videos introduce booksellers to:
- The Independent Bookstore industry, including the ABA, Regional Trade Associations, BINC, Edelweiss, Ipage, Bookshop.org, Libro.fm, and more
- Daily life in bookstores, including different jobs and roles
- Why and how stores choose the books that they stock, and how these connect to a store's mission statement and/or customer base
- The traits, skills, and practices that make a frontline bookseller successful, including understanding where to find information on books, customer service skills, and how effective hand-selling works
- How a store's layout, inventory displays can drive and increase sales
- How bookstores operate financially, including margins, COGS, turns and sidelines
Purchase Basic Bookselling Store Subscription
Profitability Course
Registration Opens January 26th
The next project at the Professional Booksellers School is an 8-session course on Profitability, led by Erin Matthews of The Last Word in Mt. Airy, MD. Booksellers will learn new strategies for increasing income, decreasing expenses, and improving margin. This workshop is hands-on; each class will include actionable weekly steps designed to be implemented and measured over the eight weeks of the course. Students will be working on changes within their stores, then returning to reflect and discuss with peers and instructors.
Each meeting is 90 minutes and contains a mix of instruction and independent work time (aka study hall) to allow students to put what they learn to immediate action.
Classes will be Mondays at 12:00 pm ET / 11:00 am CT / 10:00 am MT / 9:00 am PT starting March 23rd. The cost will be $400, with discount codes available from most Regionals.
Registration will open Monday, January 26 at 1:00 pm ET / 12:00 pm CT / 11:00 am MT / 10:00 am PT.
Schedule
Class 01 / March 23 - Introduction to Profitability Terms, Tools & Resources
Class 02 / March 30 - Increasing Income Part One: Passive Income, Inventory Mix, Increasing Impulse Sales
Class 03 / April 6 - Decreasing Expenses Part One: Calculating Your Break Even Number, Negotiating Rates and Discounts
Class 04 / April 13 - Improving Margins Part One: Returns, Ordering Direct
No class April 20 or 27
Class 05 / May 4 - Increasing Income Part Two: Review of Strategies, Novel Income Streams
Class 06 / May 11 - Decreasing Expenses Part Two: Review of Strategies, Bulk/Pre-Pay Accounts, Outsourcing, Profit First
Class 07 / May 18 - Improving Margins Part Two: Review of Strategies, Using Promos, Co-op, Diversifying Inventory
No class May 25
Class 08 / June 1 - Review/Reflect: What's Working?, Creating and Planning for Long-Term Goals, Building Safety Nets
Your Brand/Your Story: Advanced Display and Marketing
The course will return again in late spring 2026
Learn to tell the story of your store with instructors Lisa Uhrik and Steve Wax, specialists in branding, marketing, and understanding that bookstores are providing experiences, not only selling products.
Registration is $400 with discounts available for members of NAIBA, SIBA, GLIBA, MPIBA, PNBA, and CALIBA. Find out what support your Regional Trade Association offers on our website.
Registration is limited to 30 students, and to stores that are already open, with no more than one employee from each store.
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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.