New Ideas/Stronger Leadership
PBS Supports Booksellers & Bookstores
PBS Supports Booksellers & Bookstores
Read to Lead
Our PBS Leadership Book Club works with publishers, leadership pros, and our own instructors to explore new ideas from inside and outside of the bookstore industry.
Each book club includes a copy of the book provided by our publisher partners. Meetings happen over Zoom.
2026
stay tuned!
2025
October 2025
"Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine" by Mike Michalowicz, sponsored by Hachette
A two-hour discussion led by Erin Matthews, owner of The Last Word in Mt. Airy, MD, Candice Huber of Tubby & Coo's in New Orleans, LA and Jill Hendrix of MVB.
June 2025
Empowered Productivity with Maura Thomas, sponsored by Sourcebooks
Productivity expert Maura Thomas joined us for three one-hour sessions to help booksellers learn to take back our time through information management, to spend less time on communication clutter and more on the work we want to do, and learn to move tasks from "to do" to "done.
Thanks to generous support from Sourcebooks, attendees received:
- Attention Management: How to Create Success and Gain Productivity - Every Day
- From To-Do to Done: How to Go from Busy to Productive by Mastering Your To-Do List
- The Happy Inbox: How to Have a Stress-Free Relationship with Your Email and Overcome Your Communication Clutter
2024
In 2024, PBS partnered with Whole School Leadership for a series of 3 multi-session workshops with national leadership experts:
Course 1 The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. Hone your communication skills to build trust and positive relationships with both staff and customers.
Course 2 Leading with Dignity by Dr. Donna Hicks Create the foundations for diversity, equity and Inclusion as well as healing conflicts and challenges that come our way in work life or with customers.
Course 3 Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity by Peggy Holman. Learn effective principles and practices for working with change and the unexpected.
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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.