Children’s programming was an integral part of last month’s New Atlantic Booksellers Association annual conference at the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City (held September 19 to 22)."We’re trying to bring a lot more children’s programming in," said Heather Hebert of Children’s Book World in Haverford, Pa. And it showed, from Jack Gantos’s presentation/standup comedy routine about growing up in Norvelt, the basis for his newest book, Dead End in Norvelt (FSG), at the opening night dinner to Lauren Oliver’s breakfast speech on the last day, where she talked about how grief fueled her first middle-grade fiction, Liesl & Po (HarperCollins).
The longest signing lines were for children’s authors; after hearing Peter Brown speak at the breakfast, booksellers flocked to queue up for him to sign You Will Be My Friend! (Little, Brown) and Children Make Terrible Pets (Little, Brown), for which he received the NAIBA Book of the Year Award at the Awards Banquet later that evening. Lucy Kogler, president of NAIBA and a bookseller with Talking Leaves...Books in Buffalo, N.Y., was forced to go ahead and begin the annual meeting, despite the morning’s long line.
Also at the Awards Banquet, children’s bookseller Ellen Mager was recognized for her handselling talent with the inaugural Drabyak Award, named in honor of Joe Drabyak, past NAIBA president and bookseller at Chester County Book & Music Company in West Chester, Pa. Laurie Halse Anderson and Jennifer Donnelly received Book of the Year awards as well, for Forge (Atheneum) and Revolution (Random House), respectively. Stephen Alcorn’s Odetta (Scholastic) was honored with the second annual Carla Cohen Free Speech Award.
With an exterior wrapped in vinyl and an interior filled with hard-hatted workers, the Trump Marina Hotel turned Golden Nugget was in the midst of both a figurative and literal makeover to regain lost business. A sign in the casino proclaimed: "Out with the old... in with the gold. Watch the transformation." That a similar transition is taking place in the book business was evident throughout the show. As Kogler noted at the banquet, "The book business is under construction — re-construction. The changes [in bookselling] are myriad: some obvious, some occult, the outcome uncertain. But what is certain is that independent bookstores are an essential component of the plan."
It wasn’t not just the preponderance of author programming that pointed up the change or educational sessions like one on alternate business models, and a dialogue between YA authors and booksellers at a panel on how to host successful YA events (see "NAIBA Offers Tips for Holding YA Events"). The show itself was de-constructed to make it more useful. For instance, the annual meeting was shortened and the region’s first Town Hall was held to find out what NAIBA could do better. "Bookselling is becoming increasingly difficult," noted board member Pat Kutz, co-owner of Lift Bridge Book Shop in Brockport, N.Y. "So we want to do everything we can to help you so you’ll be here next year."
The show days, too, were reorganized to encourage booksellers to dive into the exhibits, lunch with reps and get a look at, or be re-reminded about, top books for fall and winter. The educational sessions were held on the second day, which also included a Moveable Feast of both adult and children’s author. In their keynote session, Arielle Ekstut and David Henry Sterry, authors of The Essential Guide to Getting Published (Workman), reminded booksellers that a well-curated bookstore is important, but it’s not enough, and encouraged booksellers to "embrace your inner entrepreneur."
It’s not clear how much the changes contributed to the upbeat mood of the show, which drew 400 attendees, from roughly the same number of stores as in years past. By swapping the exhibit day with the day of education and tweaking rep picks, making them more personal by rotating reps from table to table at lunch, the emphasis of the show moved back to books. In fact the day was dubbed, Bookcentric, and included an editor’s buzz panel, modeled after one at BEA, with Carl Lennertz, the newly appointed head of World Book Night and this year’s Legacy Award winner, as well as speed-dating with children’s authors.
The changes were welcomed by most reps despite a very long day. They had to set up their exhibit booths early in the morning, because the hotel space was not available the preceding evening. NAIBA executive director Eileen Dengler also rearranged the hall to ensure that booksellers stopped at all the booths. “I like the way it flowed,” she said. "I was very pleased with the show. Everyone who was there had a great time." Macmillan sales representative Mike Cutforth agreed. He also gave a thumbs-up to sitting with booksellers to give the rep picks rather than standing at a podium at the front of the room, saying, "I think you connect [with booksellers] a lot better."
The show drew lapsed NAIBA members like Judy and Jerry Heaton, owners of 25-year-old The Bookworm in East Aurora, N.Y., who said they were re-energized by a NAIBAhood gathering earlier in the spring and decided to come, and long-time members like Rob Dougherty, manager of Clinton Book Shop in Clinton, N.J. “I think it was a great show,” said Dougherty. “I liked the bookseller interaction. I enjoy this more than BEA. We’ve scaled down our BEA visits.” He also uses it to get signed books and galleys for his best customers.
For many booksellers the chance to be with “their peeps,” as Susanna Hermans, co-owner and manager of Oblong Books & Music in Rhinebeck, N.Y., referred to it in a tweet, seemed to be the biggest draw. The book pitches did have their intended effect. Christine Onorati, owner of WORD Books in Brooklyn, said that author Kenneth Oppel "really sold it" at a breakfast presentation; she’ll now be pushing his This Dark Endeavor (Simon & Schuster), which was just published.
As for the biggest book for the holiday season, few cared to venture a guess. Children’s librarian and bookstore buyer Susan Kusel, based in Virginia, initially named Brian Selznick’s Wonderstruck (Scholastic), then wondered if the higher price than his earlier The Invention of Hugo Cabret, $29.99vs. $24.99, would deter buyers. Book two of Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series, The Son of Neptune (Disney-Hyperion, Oct.), will also do well, she predicted.
But with so many good books from mainstream publishers this season, as well as new ventures like handmade books by Sallie Lowenstein of Lion Stone Books in Kensington, Md., it’s anyone’s guess which books to gamble on. In which case, Atlantic City was definitely the right place to be, to put money on the holiday hits.
