The New England Independent Booksellers Association (NEIBA) hosted its 51st Fall Conference at the Boston Marriott Newton Hotel, September 11–13. The event gathered together 325 booksellers and 63 exhibitors, who collectively brought along 200 staffers, as well as 91 authors who participated in the show’s events and signings.

“Anytime booksellers are in a room together, it’s always magic,” Beth Ineson, NEIBA’s executive director, said. “This year’s NEIBA Fall Conference was no exception. Our guiding principle for the event is always ‘by booksellers, for booksellers’ and this year, the authors chosen by our bookseller board were fascinating, the education executed by our bookseller-led education committee had something for everyone, and the energy from the booksellers in attendance was contagious. We’re already looking forward to our Spring Forum in May.”

The conference also benefited from the growth in NEIBA membership. NEIBA added 23 stores this past year, in addition to the 18 stores that were added the previous year. Today, NEIBA has 213 member stores.

At a session focusing on seasonal buying and preparing for tourist traffic during beach and ski seasons, Steve Iwanski, owner of of Charter Books in Newport, R.I., observed that seasonality isn’t quite as marked as it has been in the past; homeowners who relocated to second homes in resort communities during the pandemic have opted stay and work remotely, resulting stronger year-round business. Now in its fourth year of operation, the 2,300-sq-ft. store is located in the heart of Newport's historic district, where it has developed strong partnerships with the local community. “I knew when I opened the store that we had to have a year-round [clientele],” Iwanski said. “It wasn't gonna work on the tourist trade [alone].”

Regarding industry trends, Iwanski noted that he was concerned about price inflation. "We're alarmed by the price changes of a lot of books—what used to cost $18, now costs $20 and so forth,” he said. At the same time, he added, "When I first started in books about 10 years ago, we'd get a lot of 'Well, it's $14 on Amazon.' You don't hear that anymore."

Looking to the fall, Iwanski, like many New England booksellers, is excited about the release of Rick Atkinson's The Fate of the Day, the second volume in a trilogy about the Revolutionary War. The release of The Fate of the Day, combined with the broadcast of Ken Burns’s six-part documentary The Revolutionary War on PBS next July, should be a boon to booksellers in the region he added.

Alex Schaffer, community engagement coordinator at Brookline Booksmith, concurred with Iwanski that inflation was impacting sales. The fact that a paperback is more likely to be $20 than $15 makes a difference to people, especially if their wages haven't risen, Schaffer said. The political climate is also influencing the store's business: “Politics always affects business in general, not least of all bookstores, where people's values really play into what they're buying and even play into the fact that they're shopping in an independent store.” In terms of book trends, Shaffer reports that genre fiction is particularly popular, with "horror and romance, the two sides of the same coin in their way," seeing significant interest.

Christina Pascucci-Ciampa, founder of All She Wrote Books, a queer, feminist bookstore in Somerville, Mass., said that current events, not historical events, were driving customers into the store. “What’s happening in Gaza right now is drawing a lot of interest from our readers, who are trying to understand the history of what has happened there,” she said. The bookstore recently celebrated its fifth anniversary, and has become a third place for the queer, feminist community in Boston, she added: “People seek refuge, people seek understanding, people seek belonging, and I know when they walk in, they're going to find total acceptance from us.”

At NEIBA’s show, Pascussi-Ciampa was particularly interested in news titles from Interlink Publishing, the Palestinian American publishing house based in Northampton. The store is also currently carrying a lot of nonfiction from such publishers as AK Press, Beacon Press, Feminist Press, Row House Publishing, and Seven Stories Press, she added.

Programming at the conference kicked off with an opening keynote by Tamara K. Lanier, author of the forthcoming book From These Roots: My Fight with Harvard to Reclaim My Legacy (Crown, January 2025), who spoke about legacy and institutional accountability, and included a good deal of panels designed to help booksellers boost their bottom line. Education sessions focused on preorders, handselling, institutional sales, and remainders, among other topics.

The conference also offered separate breakfast events featuring adult and children's authors. The adult author breakfast featured Riley August, Sarah Chihaya, Nicole Galland, Torrey Peters, and Dava Sobel, while the children's author breakfast showcased Winsome Bingham, Christopher Denise, Gayle Forman, Adam Gidwitz, and Lamar Giles.

Editor buzz panels provided insights into forthcoming titles, with separate sessions for adult and children's book editors. NEIBA also offered affinity group breakout sessions, providing tailored discussions for various roles and communities within the industry. These sessions offered a chance for booksellers to connect with peers who share similar experiences and challenges.

"It was a very busy show, great traffic all day in the booth, and we had several new and prospective stores seeking advice,” Keith Arsenault, a New England sales rep for Chesapeake & Hudson, said. “In general, it's an exciting time to be in books in New England, with so many new stores finding their way in communities large and small throughout the region.”

NEIBA board president Emily Russo, the co-owner of Print: A Bookstore in Portland, Me., said that 2024 has been “fantastic" for bookselling, noting the palpable energy at industry gatherings: “I think people are excited to be back together again.” Russo also emphasized NEIBA's focus on education as a key strength. “We are really for booksellers, by booksellers,” she said, pointing to recent education sessions on everything from rising credit card fees and climate change concerns to a virtual session on organizing children's nonfiction sections and a panel featuring Palestinian writers of children's books.

Asked what she learned at this year’s conference, Russo said that she picked up tips on managing cash flow during the busy holiday season—"order more books earlier, so when the bills come due, it will be in the period when you have cash on hand during the holidays, rather than the slow period in March”—and how to efficiently run a preorder campaign. Russo’s advice: “Use Pirate Ship for fulfillment—its priced fairly and efficient.”

Russo also shared a memorable anecdote from a panel in which a coastal bookstore used tide charts to predict busy periods. “When the tide is high, people are actually at the beach,” she explained. “When it's low tide and the tide is really far out, people won't go to the beach, because it takes about a mile to get to the water, so more people will likely be coming to shop at the bookstore.”

Laurel Rhame, adult book buyer at Phoenix Books in Burlington, Vt., said that the fall meeting summed up how many booksellers in the region feel getting together. “For me, the fall conference is about community and connection—with fellow booksellers, with publisher colleagues, and with the authors who so generously offer up their art,” she said. “I do this work because reading is the great passion of my life, and it’s a privilege to be among people who feel the same way. I’m leaving the conference with energy, optimism for the months ahead, and more books than I can comfortably carry. I can’t wait to come back next year.”

Award winners

The conference also hosted the New England Book Awards Banquet, celebrating regional literary excellence. This year’s winners were as follows:

  • Fiction: North Woods by Daniel Mason (Random House)
  • Nonfiction: Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson (Penguin)
  • Poetry: The Wonder of Small Things by James Crews (Storey Publishing)
  • Picture Book: Small Things Mended by Casey W. Robinson and illustrated by Nancy Whitesides (Rocky Pond Books) for children’s picture books
  • Middle Grade: Chinese Menu by Grace Lin (Little, Brown) and Timid by Jonathan Todd (Graphix)
  • Young Adult: Gather by Kenneth Cadow (Candlewick)