“Adaptation is the Name of the Game,” proclaimed the page 3 headline in the conference registration brochure the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association mailed out last month to its 256 members (down from 320 members in 2010). The necessity of adapting to the new realities of bookselling and book publishing was the first order of business for more than 200 booksellers who gathered in Dearborn, Mich. on Oct. 14-16 for GLiBA’s 22rd annual conference.
Kelly Gallagher, Bowker’s vp of publisher services, kicked off things by laying it on the line in Friday afternoon’s common session. “It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times for booksellers these days,” Gallagher said, paraphrasing Charles Dickens.
“It’s all about strategy,” he explained, using statistics to back up his argument that booksellers could turn issues into opportunities by understanding market trends and providing at least two of five core value propositions (price, service, convenience, selection, and relationship or experience).
Survival is all about strategy, and GLiBA is strategizing mightily to keep the organization viable when it’s lost 20% of its membership in the past year. Associate director Joan Jandernoa’s position has been eliminated as of October 31, and GLiBA has arranged with the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association to hold a joint trade show . During Saturday morning’s annual meeting, GLiBA treasurer Ann Storan of Paragraph Books of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, and board president Cynthia Compton of 4 Kids Books in Indianapolis officially informed the membership that GLiBA and MIBA will hold at least two joint shows. The first combined show will be held in Minneapolis Oct. 4-5, 2012, and the next is tentatively set for Chicagoland in 2013.
“We need your ideas, we need your feedback,” Compton said, prompting Peter Moore, the owner of Blue Marble bookstore in Covington, Kent. to shout, “See you in two years!” During a lively discussion, Blue Marble bookseller Dave Richardson took a cue from Gallagher’s talk and proposed that GLiBA run buses from Michigan and Indiana to Minneapolis, with reps onboard pitching their wares to booksellers. Shirley Mullin of Kids Ink in Indianapolis suggested that GLiBA also make the buses “rolling advertisements,” with publishers footing that bill.
While most booksellers PW later queried expressed concerns over the time and expense involved in traveling to Minneapolis next year, more than half disclosed that they intend to go, as networking and brainstorming with their colleagues is that essential to them. “Once people get used to it, they’ll take it in stride,” Diana Koelher of Forever Books in St. Joseph, Mich. said, “The more people you bring together, the more ideas.”
Despite the fact that GLiBA kicked off with a jolt, this show is still really all about books and their authors. Booksellers focused on what approximately 40 vendors representing hundreds of companies had to offer as soon as the exhibit hall opened.
If there was a common theme to the books that most appealed to booksellers, it was tales about the Indian subcontinent and its diaspora, such as Leela’s Book by Alice Albinia (Norton, Jan. ’12); The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar (HarperCollins, Jan. ’12); American Dervish by Ayad Alchtar (Little Brown, Jan. ’12); and Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo (Random, Feb. ’12), described by Sue Boucher of Lake Forest Books in Lake Forest, Ill., as “Slumdog Millionaire written by Tracy Kidder.” Benjamin Busch’s memoir, Dust to Dust (HarperCollins, Mar. ’12) which included his recollections of two combat tours to Iraq, also resonated with booksellers, with Bill Cusumano of Nicola’s Books in Ann Arbor, Mich., calling it “beautiful,” eager for a conversation between Karl Marlantes and Busch. “Wouldn’t that be interesting?” he asked.
On the children’s side, two novels for teens especially got booksellers talking: Ashfall by Mike Mullin (Tanglewood Press, Oct.), son of the owner of Kids Ink, and Prairie Evers by Ellen Airgood (Putnam, Aug. ’12). Bess Bleyaert of McLean & Eakin in Petoskey, Mich., complained that it “killed” her to go out Saturday evening, she wanted to read Airgood’s novel instead.
Even though GLiBA is going through difficult times, already losing Jandernoa, a 16-year employee, and perhaps losing its unique annual conference after more than two decades, the booksellers attending the show this year still had reason to celebrate, and celebrate they did. Tom Lowry of Lowry’s Books in Three Rivers, Mich., said it best, pointing out at Saturday’s luncheon: “authors are still creating books, and publishers are still presenting us with those titles.”
