As I write this it is 4:27 p.m. on Wednesday in Albuquerque, the first full day of Winter Institute 14. It is true that I’ve been here since Saturday doing clandestine activities for the ABA Board but we’re not going to discuss that or even acknowledge it. Our mission here is succinct. It’s all about today.

The official day started with meeting my three mentees before the Breakfast Keynote by Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani. Following her keynote, booksellers separated into 11 groups for a discussion based on the address. The discussions were each led by an ABA Board member.
Reshma’s new book is Brave Not Perfect: Fear Less, Fail More and Live Bolder. It was expected that the discussions would be centered on a general application of that principle to bookselling; however, the keynote was based strongly on gender-specific character development with boys trained to be brave and learn from failure while girls are trained to be handcuffed by perfectionism and a counter-productive adherence to empathy at the cost of progressive personal engagement and development.
I decided to take Reshma’s advice and go with bravery over sterile perfectionism and brought forward a topic I have thought about for many years: the gender divide in children’s bookselling. If you spend time working in elementary schools you will be aware that there are very few male teachers in the building. The same is certainly true of engaged male children’s booksellers. This is so despite the vital importance of children’s books as an economic driver to bookstore sales and customer loyalty.

Why is this so? It is hard to cast aside the obvious conclusion that children’s bookselling, like elementary school teaching, is considered women’s work and treated as secondary to the more serious pursuit of adult bookselling.
In 2009, when I was co-chair of NECBA with my pal Vicky Titcomb, I had made this Men of NECBA Calendar for a presentation at the NEIBA regional show to accompany a discussion as to why my appearance on every page was perhaps less than ideal. Things haven’t changed since then, alas.
In any case Reshma’s advice turned out to be good. I think we had a very substantive discussion involving gender, class and race issues as they pertain to our engagement with staff and customers with children’s books. Though the risks of over-simplification when dealing with complex aspects of personal identity are omnipresent, thoughtfulness, introspection, and constructive criticism are always productive and I really appreciated the group’s mindful participation.
After the discussion group I attended the Industry Trends and Analytics, put on by representatives from BISG, Abacus, and NPD. It was interesting to see that nonfiction was broadly up in many categories of both kids’ and adult books. Lifestyle books, religion, political, and kids’ nonfiction of all stripes were all up, while fiction sales were largely static or down. One can only assume that the turmoil around us is having a marked effect.

After the time honored obligation of the Rep Picks Speed Dating Lunch, it was time for a panel that I had put forward for the institute, ABC Group Presents: Selling Direct to Schools. This is a subject which I think is of great importance and we had a stellar panel composed of myself, the charming and indefatigable Emily Hall of Main Street Books, the tenaciously grounded Cindy Dach of Changing Hands, and that tower of wisdom and perspective, Heather Hebert of Children’s Book World. Did we deliver the goods on establishing school contacts, creating efficient systems, managing competitive challenges and turnover of key school partners, running book fairs and in school author events, subscription services and working with specialty educational publishers? Absolutely we did!
And now? Well, I thought I would finish this up before it was time for the Abrams dinner this evening. And what am I looking forward to most tomorrow? Is it perhaps hearing Erin Morgenstern speak of her forthcoming second novel The Starless Sea? Well it is, yes. I interviewed Erin way back in 2011 before The Night Circus was published. It contained the following exchange.
Kenny: If the Night Circus were the first move in a contest made by your opponent what sort of book would you respond with?
Erin: I am finding myself with a similar conundrum in approaching my next novel, only that involves competing with myself. So I’ll answer with something I am trying to keep in mind while I’m writing: a book that is completely different, but still fantastical.
Did she emerge triumphant? I can’t wait to find out!