At this year’s Southern California Independent Booksellers Association show, held over the weekend at the Beverly Garland hotel in Los Angeles, a slight dip in attendance proved to be a positive development. With booksellers relishing a marked increase in sales--and the organization welcoming a handful of new stores into its ranks, a slight downturn in attendance was credited to the fact that many booksellers had to stay away for good reason: to deal with the demands of a busy store.
Andrea Vuleta, executive director of SCIBA, said attendance was roughly even with last year but that the number of member stores at the show had gone up. “This year, even with locations closing and moving, we have netted a few extra,” she said, noting that the figure increased from 61 to 63. Additionally, SCIBA added seven new publisher members this year including Albicaulis Press, DoppelHouse Press, Babalu, Unnamed Press and Breathing Books.
Although Vuleta was pleased with the attendance figures, she thought the uptick in sales meant a number of booksellers had to stay away in order to oversee events at their own stores. "This was definitely a commuter show," she noted.
SCIBA president Maureen Palacios, who owns Once Upon A Time Books in Montrose, Calif., said increased sales among stores, while a plus, often translates into more events. And those events, she feels, may have impacted attendance. She, for example, intended to have three staff members attend the conference, but couldn’t because she needed to staff offsite events.
Based on requests, SCIBA implemented a few program changes for this year’s show adding a sidelines rep picks session along with a session dedicated to adult and children's rep picks. In the latter, adult coloring books were touted as “being cool again.”
Vuleta said SCIBA is also focused on new goals, which include developing an accessible public presence through a new website and social media outreach. As it happens, NCIBA is working on the same thing, and Vuleta said she hopes to partner with the other California bookselling organization on the effort.
A much-lauded education session, which was also a hit at other regionals, was “The Economics of Publishing and How They Impact Booksellers.” In the session, John Evans at Diesel Bookstore moderated a discussion by Perseus' Matty Goldberg in which he walked the audience through the profit and loss statements of several titles.
Other education sessions focused on Independent Bookstore Day, how to sell high-end gift books for the holidays, and the topic of diversity.
