Inventory Management

View our Inventory Management Independent Study options

Registration Is Open

This course is designed for those who are employed by or who own a retail bookstore (this includes a mobile or pop-up shop) that has been in existence for at least 1 year and has 25%+ new book inventory; the skills and strategies taught in the course are designed for the new book trade. The course is not intended for used-only stores or online-only stores.

The course will teach owners and/or store buyers to create buying strategies and routines that get the best discounts, maintain cash flow, work within budgets, and integrate with the store’s marketing and merchandising. The skills students learn will help them analyze and improve their buying process.

Our 2026 Instructors

Dean Carol Price, Former owner, BookPeople of Moscow, Moscow, ID

Josh Christie, Co-owner, Print: A Bookstore, Portland, ME

Erin Caudill, Buying Manager, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Latonia, KY

Melissa DeMotte, Owner, The Well-Read Moose, Coeur d’Alene, ID

Kate Reynolds, Book Buyer, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY

Candice Huber, Owner, Tubby & Coo's, New Orleans, LA

Karen Ugarte, Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore, Sylmar, CA

Lily Clay, Eagle Harbor Books, Bainbridge Island, WA

Luis Correa, White Whale Bookstore, Pittsburgh, PA

Preview the 2026 Syllabus

Membership

Being an active member of the bookselling industry is a critical step in growing a bookstore and shows commitment to your chosen profession. Stores with students in all Professional Booksellers School courses are required to be current members of their regional trade association and/or the American Booksellers Association. To enroll, students must also create a PBS account, which is free.

Course Components & Cost

This course consists of live classes via Zoom, two video classes, homework, breakout room discussions, and the main course takeaway, the personalized Inventory Management System (IMS). Homework is assigned for each class. Students are expected to attend the live classes, turn in all homework, and pass their IMS to be certified. (More details provided upon registration.)  The course is $395, with discounts available from their regional trade associations.  Find out what support your Regional Trade Association offers on our website

Course Objectives

The Professional Booksellers School Inventory Management Course provides buyers with the skills and tools to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of your community, store identity, and demographics

• Set and/or document your store’s buying criteria

• Create/document your store’s special order promise, procedures, and workflow

• Establish and/or improve communication channels between the buyer and other staff/departments as well as customers for marketing and merchandising

• Centrally track vendor information (including publisher promotional offers and co-op policies) and your store’s buying systems and procedures

• Determine the distributor for a small press

• Know the value of a good sales rep and how to request and work with one

• Tune your Ingram account settings to match your sales volume and to minimize freight charges

• Use key tools on iPage (search, selection lists, stock check) and import from Ingram into your POS, if possible

• Create a direct publisher frontlist order using an Edelweiss rep markup and import it into your POS, if possible

• Use Edelweiss features such as tags, filters, notes, and custom exports

• Understand industry children’s book terms like F&G or middle grade 

• Understand what the IndieNext list is and how to nominate a book you loved to it

• Price sidelines to achieve a desired profit margin

• Create schedules and criteria for restocking and returning

• Determine the appropriate publisher to return books to

• Generate a publisher overstock return pull list and develop a returns schedule

• Understand the publisher promo and co-op system and how they affect a store’s bottom line

• Set buying performance goals and know how to track and analyze your performance

• Be aware of the benefits of advanced tools like Pubnet, PubEasy, and Edelweiss Analytics

• Understand different types of budgets and which might work best for your store

• Calculate inventory turns, as well as cost of goods sold for inventory purchased at different terms, and understand how to use these formulas to analyze and improve your buying performance and the store’s bottom line

• Personalize the techniques you learned in class to apply to your store’s specific situation

Classes

Class 1 -  Book Buying Overview

Class 2 -  Using Wholesalers & Ingram Tips & Tricks

Class 3 -  Special Orders & Website Orders

Class 4 - Buying Criteria

Class 5 - Buying Frontlist

Class 6 -  Buying for Children

Class 7 -  Building the Buzz to Customers & Staff

Class 8 - Managing & Buying Non-Book Inventory

Class 9 -  Restocking Backlist

Class 10 -  Wrangling Returns

Class 11 -  Buying Smarter

Class 12 -  Understanding Book Buyer Math

Class 13 -  Taking Advantage of Publisher Promos & Co-op

Class 14 -  Budgeting for Buyers

Independent Study