2023 Year in Review Webinar is Bigger and Better with a New Partner-- NoveList

Some of you may have already seen the announcement but just in case you did not, here it is:

Webinar: Keeping Up With Books

Event date: 13 February 2024

Keeping up with the seemingly countless books published each year can feel impossible. Trying to feel "in the know" is overwhelming with so many books in so many genres. That's why we're bringing you a new webinar: Keeping Up with Books: 2023 Year in Review.

Our panelists are here to give everyone who works with books a better grasp of 2023's publishing and library trends. If you feel like the year flew by, and you barely got a chance to look at everything published, can't get enough of the Best Of lists, or want to know how to use these trends to provide better service to your readers, this webinar is for you.

Join Becky Spratford, Readers' Advisory Specialist at RA for All, and Yaika Sabat, Manager of Reader Services at NoveList, as they discuss:

• 2023 bestsellers and Best Of lists
• The books and authors library patrons searched for and checked out
• Library and publishing news and trends
• How to use this information to help your readers
• What you can expect in 2024

Be there on Tuesday, February 13, 2024, at 2 pm EST

A free recording of the webinar and bonus content will be made available for a limited time to all registrants. Afterward, an interactive recording will be available for a small fee on the Learn with NoveList website, along with additional bonus content.

Sign up!

Meet the panelists: 

Becky Spratford [MLIS] is a Readers' Advisor in Illinois specializing in serving patrons ages 13 and up. She trains library staff all over the world on how to match books with readers through the local public library. She runs the critically acclaimed RA training blog RA for All and is the author of The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror, Third Edition [ALA Editions, 2021]. You can follow Becky on Twitter @RAforAll.

Yaika Sabat [MSLS] comes from a background in public libraries and now manages the Reader Services team at NoveList, where she trains library staff on helping readers. As a member of the Horror Writers Association’s Library Advisory Council, she works to help librarians understand and embrace the horror genre. Her other passions include writing, film, folklore, and diverse representation in books and media.

I have done a version of my Year in Review program going back to 2015 on different platforms. Here are the links to the last few year's slides from when I did this for PCI:

• 2022 Year in Review
• 2021 Year in Review
• 2020 Year in Review

I love doing this presentation because spending the time to look back at all of the data from the publishing world and libraries as a year wraps up is fascinating in and of itself, but in the act of crunching the data and looking at it in all together, leads to exciting revelations. I love that someone pays me to do this necessary work for you because I have seen first hand, for almost a decade, how this annual recap leads to better service going forward. 

For example, I have seen Colleen Hoover's slow take over of publishing, gained an even bigger appreciation for the importance of the backlist, and have been more prepared for new genres such as Romantasy. [All of this will be discussed in the presentation on February 13th.]

But I want to be clear, about 2 points. One, doing this annual program is a lot of work and two, it is lonely. However, it is more than just lonely, doing it alone every year, gathering the articles, year end reports, and leaves me worried I will miss something. I want to make sure all angles are covered and concerned.

Back in late summer, I approached NoveList to see if they would want to partner with me on this annual project so I could get some help and we could bring it to even more people. Enter Yaika Sabat and the team behind Learn with NoveList. 

Yaika and I have been gathering information to create this brand new webinar since October. We are both veteran presenters and trainers. As we have sifted through the pages of information and have begun to assess it all, we have been geeking out with actual joy at how it is all coming together. You do not want to miss this FREE event. It is the best version of this program I have even done and that is precisely because of working with Yaika and the Learn with NoveList team. Even if you cannot make the live event, you will get the handout and recording as long as you click here and register.

Sign up right now. I promise you it will be worth your time. Yaika and I have already had some revelations simply from prepping the slides and we have been thinking about it since October. I know it will be valuable to you as well.