The American Booksellers Association’s annual Winter Institute has grown since its launch in Long Beach, Calif., in 2006, as a West Coast alternative to BookExpo America in the East. Just over 300 booksellers attended the first Institute. In the intervening years it quickly reached its cap of 500. This year’s conference, in Kansas City, Mo., to be held February 22–25, continues the trend, in large measure because it has kept its focus on booksellers. “The Institute remains a place where booksellers from all across the country can interact with each other, and learn from each other,” says ABA CEO Oren Teicher.
Educational sessions are designed to reflect particular topics of concern, from the Kobo/ABA/Ingram partnership to working with self-published authors, best practices for genre buying, and marketing that moves the needle. There are no booths or exhibit floors to distract from the convention. The closest thing is a day of consultation stations with publishers and other industry professionals, including, for the first time, Publishers Weekly—and a locked galley room with ARCs of forthcoming books from publishing sponsors.
The 2013 Institute also features two plenary sessions by bookseller favorites. Daniel Pink returns for a third time, to talk about his most recent book, To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others (Riverhead); and Malcolm Gladwell will discuss his upcoming fall release, David and Goliath (Little, Brown, Oct.). Both Pink and Barnett C. Helzberg Jr., founder and chair of the Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program (HEMP), will lead advance seminars. In addition, booksellers will have a chance to meet big-name authors and promising newcomers (see Buzz section below), including Jeannette Walls, whose memoir The Glass Castle was a Booksense Book of the Year Honor Book. Booksellers will be able to participate in a live Q&A with Alex George, whose novel set near Kansas City, The Good American, is this year’s One Institute, One Book pick.
While some things stay the same, the Institute remains “a work in progress,” according to Teicher. “We’ve always believed that experimenting with new things and new approaches makes sense.” That has meant moving the Institute forward by a month so that it can overlap with Campus Market Expo, or CAMEX, which is held at the Kansas City Convention Center from February 22–26, sponsored by the National Association of College Stores. Where the Institute is small and self-contained, CAMEX has been ranked as one of the 250 largest trade shows in the country for the past 10 years. NACS spokesperson Charles Schmidt anticipates attendance of between 2,200 and 2,400 college store buyers, not including Institute attendees, and more than 700 exhibitors with 1,500 booths.
The collaboration is only for this year, but Teicher holds open the possibility of doing it again, based on feedback. “We know from our ABACUS survey,” he says, “that most profitable stores are selling a modest percentage of nonbook merchandise in their inventory. So exposing stores to a wider range of nonbook product makes sense.” Those who place an order of any size from a vendor exhibiting at CAMEX will earn a $100 rebate.
For its part, NACS welcomes Institute attendees. As Schmidt points out, “Both organizations’ members are facing competition in their traditional product lines and being challenged to provide nontraditional products and services while reducing expenses.”
Buzz Books at WI8
With so many noteworthy authors heading to Kansas City for the ABA’s second-biggest bookseller confab of the year (after BookExpo), PW asked a cross-section of large and small presses to pick their most buzz-worthy titles. Below are 16 new and forthcoming adult, children’s, and crossover books, with a heavy emphasis on fiction.
Adult
Title:
Author: Samantha Shannon
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pub month: August
Price: $26 hardcover
First printing: 150,000 copies
Why so excited: “It’s rare for a debut author to write with such assuredness and imagination. Samantha has fully conceptualized a terrifying parallel world populated with extraordinary creatures—and has mapped out seven books in order to tell the story. The idea came to Samantha during her first year at university, and we’re publishing just after she graduates from Oxford,” says West Coast publicity director Sara Mercurio.
Publicity and marketing plans: Rights sold in 16 languages; film rights optioned by the Imaginarium Studios, cofounded by actor/director Andy Serkis; six-figure global marketing campaign that includes targeted Facebook advertising, interactive apps, exclusive content, author participation, and contests, as well as pre-pub meetings with booksellers and a blog tour at publication.
Opening: “I like to imagine there were more of us in the beginning. Not many, I suppose. But more than there are now.”
Title:
Author: Ru Freeman
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Pub month: May
Price: $26 hardcover
First printing: 40,000 copies
Why so excited: “This novel could be Graywolf’s biggest breakout book ever. It has incredible book club and sales potential,” says marketing director Michael Taeckens. “It’s The Kite Runner meets To Kill a Mockingbird meets In the Time of the Butterflies. Freeman’s remarkable story, based partially on her own childhood, depicts the ethnically and religiously diverse families on one lane during the buildup to the Sri Lankan civil war.”
Publicity and marketing plans: Ten-city author tour; online marketing and publicity campaign, national advertising, major bookseller and librarian outreach.
Opening: “God was not responsible for what came to pass.”
Title:
Author: Laura Lee Smith
Publisher: Grove
Pub month: April
Price: $25 hardcover
Why so excited: “Heart of Palm is about one of the funniest, most full-blooded, and occasionally heartbreaking sets of characters: the Bravo family. But it is also a novel of place, specifically, the northern Florida town of Utina, a rundown community about to be swept up in the tide of change that’s transformed all of north Florida. Smith has produced a novel of great beauty and wit, with all the roil and surprise of real life,” says editor Amy Hundley.
Publicity and marketing plans: Author tour of Florida and the Southeast; marketing to Goodreads and book clubs.
Opening: “Most people never understood why Arla went and married a Bravo.”
Title:
Author: Benjamin Percy
Publisher: Grand Central/Hachette
Pub month: May
Price: $25.99 hardcover
First printing: 100,000 copies
Why so excited: “Red Moon is an explosive and deeply layered literary thriller set in the American West. Through strong prose and a fresh perspective on the horror genre, Percy crafts a world both familiar and frightening. Unforgettable characters, grisly action, and gripping storyline will have readers tearing through the pages and relishing the prose,” says associate director of publicity Sonya Cheuse.
Publicity and marketing plans: Three-city presell tour; six-city author tour; print and online advertising; Web marketing, including book trailer and giveaways.
Opening: “He cannot Sleep.”
Title:
Author: Helene Wecker
Publisher: Harper
Pub month: May
Price: $26.99 hardcover
First printing: 75,000 copies
Why so excited: “[This] is an enchanting debut novel, an immigrant tale that combines elements of Jewish and Arab folk mythology. It tells the story of two supernatural creatures that arrive separately in New York in 1899 and try to fit into the Jewish community on the Lower East Side and Little Syria on the Lower West Side, respectively. It’s fresh and original and immediately appealing,” says senior v-p, executive editor Terry Karten.
Publicity and marketing plans: Pre-pub dinner in Northern California; online and social networking campaign; Like to Read Sampler campaign on Facebook; book club outreach; blog tour.
Opening: “The Golem’s life began in the hold of a steamship. The year was 1899; the ship was the Baltika, crossing from Danzig to New York. The Golem’s master, a man named Otto Rotfield, had smuggled her aboard a crate and hidden her among the luggage.”
Title:
Author: NoViolet Bulawayo
Publisher: Reagan Arthur/Little, Brown
Pub month: May
Price: $24.99 hardcover
First printing: 50,000 copies
Why so excited: “Bulawayo has used her own unique experience emigrating to the United States from Zimbabwe to tell the story of Darling, a young African girl transplanted to Detroit. In Bulawayo’s capable hands, Darling’s story is a fresh and honest tale that will ring true for anyone who has ever gone on the search for a better life,” says marketing director and associate publisher Heather Fain.
Publicity and marketing plans: Four-city author tour; national media campaign.
Opening: “We are on our way to Budapest: Bastard and Chipo and Godknows and Sbho and Stina and me. We are going even though we are not allowed to cross Mzilikazi Road, even though Bastard is supposed to be watching his little sister Fraction, even though Mother would kill me dead if she found out; we are just going.”
Title:
Author: Mark Slouka
Publisher: Norton
Pub month: August
Price: $24.95 hardcover
First printing: 50,000 copies
Why so excited: “Brewster is a departure for Slouka; here he returns to his hometown roots and has written, perhaps, the novel of a career. Rarely has a friendship between two teenagers on the brink of manhood been delineated as beautifully and powerfully, and rarely are the stakes as high. Jon and Ray are fighting for their lives in this novel set against the Vietnam War era,” says v-p, executive editor Jill Bialosky.
Publicity and marketing plans: Six-city author tour; early outreach and giveaways on Goodreads; co-op available.
Opening: “The first time I saw him fight was right in front of the school, winter.”
Title:
Author: Edoardo Nesi
Translator: Antony Shugaar
Publisher: Other Press
Pub month: May
Price: $19.95 hardcover
First printing: 20,000 copies
Why so excited: “[This] book is a cri de coeur about the devastation globalization has wrought on the local economies and industries that Nesi grew up with. It’s a must-read for all those who value ‘local’ and ‘sustainable’ and abhor the ‘creative destruction of capitalism.’ But that is only part of the story. This screed, this confession of having to give up the family business, is also a literary work of the highest order,” says associate publisher Paul Kozlowski.
Publicity and marketing plans: First nonfiction book to win the 2011 Strega Prize.
Opening: “In September 2004—on September 7, 2004— sold my family’s textile company.”
Title:
Author: Jeannette Walls
Publisher: Scribner
Pub month: June
Price: $24.95 hardcover
First printing: 500,000 copies
Why so excited: “We are thrilled that Walls will be attending Winter Institute, because it represents a bit of a homecoming,” says v-p, director of publicity Brian Belfiglio. “Independent booksellers were early and eloquent champions of The Glass Castle…. The Silver Star affirms [Walls’s] remarkable evolution from bestselling memoirist to exceptional novelist.”
Publicity and marketing plans: Ten-city author tour; national print and online advertising; outreach to book clubs.
Opening: “My sister saved my life when I was just a baby.”
Title:
Author: Cathie Pelletier
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Pub month: May
Price: $24.99 hardcover
Why so excited: “Cathie is a rare talent, and The One-Way Bridge shows her at her best. Cathie has the ability to satirize any circumstance and at the same time draw the reader deeply into the characters and their lives, which are anything but tranquil. Fans will be thrilled to return to their beloved Mattagash; new readers will delight in the dynamic, true-to-life folks of this rural Maine village. Readers of writers such as Elizabeth Strout and Richard Russo will surely feel at home with this exquisite novel,” says v-p, editorial director Todd Stocke.
Publicity and marketing plans: Ten-city tour of New England and the Southeast; advertising; online marketing; book club outreach.
Opening: “There is something in the northern Maine air that speaks of the first snowfall hours before it arrives.”
Children’s
Title:
Author: Stephan Pastis
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Pub month: February
Price: $14.99 hardcover (middle grade)
First printing: 200,000 copies
Why so excited: “It’s exciting to debut Pastis as a children’s author to booksellers familiar with his wildly popular cartoon strip, Pearls Before Swine. It is a reintroduction of sorts to a very talented artist, writer, and comedian, who, through the evolution of his own life, and especially through his own children, has discovered that he has something valuable and very funny to share with kids in this different kind of storytelling medium,” says publicist Tracy Miracle.
Publicity and marketing plans: Twelve-city author tour; $250,000 marketing campaign; pre-pub tour; online and social media campaign; consumer ad campaign with Poptropica and Funbrain, among others; nine-month teaser campaign that began at BEA.
Opening: “It’s harder to drive a polar bear into somebody’s living room than you’d think.”
Title:
Author: Linda Urban
Publisher: Harcourt
Pub month: March
Price: $15.99 hardcover (middle grade)
First printing: 35,000 copies
Why so excited: “Linda will be a familiar face to many booksellers, as she began her career working at Vroman’s in Southern California. Her forthcoming title is a quiet story with a powerful impact. The Center of Everything explores a girl’s grief and regrets following her grandmother’s death. Set in a quirky small town that hosts an annual celebration of the invention of the donut hole, [the book] is itself like a perfectly cooked donut: just the right amount of sweetness and substance,” says publicity director Jennifer Groves.
Publicity and marketing plans: Author tour; featured in Middle Grade Mania Campaign; consumer print and online advertising; educator discussion guide.
Opening: “In the beginning, there was the donut.”
Title: )
Author: Ally Carter
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Pub month: February
Price: $17.99 hardcover (YA)
First printing: 200,000 copies
Why so excited: “Carter has mastered the art of giving readers exactly what they want while leaving them on the edge of their seats. She doesn’t disappoint in Perfect Scoundrels, the third book in her New York Times–bestselling Heist Society series. Hale has always been a fan favorite, and this time Kat has to save him from being the mark,” says senior editor Catherine Onder.
Publicity and marketing plans: Multicity author tour; Heist Society/Gallagher Girls free novella e-book, Double Crossed, released January 22; movie theater ad campaign; featured title in Hyperion Teen Design Challenge cover promotion.
Opening: “Of all the people who knew about the big house in the middle of Wyndham Woods, very few had ever been inside.”
Title:
Author: Alaya Dawn Johnson
Publisher: Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine
Pub month: March
Price: $17.99 hardcover (YA)
First printing: 50,000 copies
Why so excited: “Johnson is the personification of what’s so exciting about The Summer Prince: a swift, sharp intelligence, a palpable warmth, and style to spare,” says publisher Arthur A. Levine about this story of love, death, technology, and art set in the lush tropics of a futuristic Brazil. “Booksellers better read this in pairs, ’cause if you’re like me you’ll be dying to have someone to talk about it the minute you’re through.”
Publicity and marketing plans: Appearances at TeenBookCon and select events in the New York area; national advertising and social media campaigns; promotions and contests on thisisteen.com/books.
Opening: “When I was eight, my papai took me to the park to watch a king die.”
Title:
Author: Shannon Messenger
Publisher: SimonPulse
Pub month: March
Price: $17.99 hardcover (YA)
First printing: 75,000 copies
Why so excited: “In the YA publishing world, we’ve seen a large number of books focusing on a teen girl who falls for a guy with some kind of special power. Then along comes Let the Sky Fall, where it’s the girl who’s got the kick-butt power and the guy who’s desperately in love with her. Even better, in this story, the characters are wind sylphs, with abilities that are ‘grounded’ in a world that feels familiar and accessible,” says executive editor Liesa Abrams.
Publicity and marketing plans: Author appearances; online chat postpublication; countdown widget; Pulse IT feature title; dedicated Windwalkers series microsite.
Opening: “I’m lucky to be alive.”
Title:
Author: Sharon Draper
Publisher: Atheneum BFYR
Pub month: March (YA)
Price: $17.99 hardcover
First printing: 100,000 copies
Why so excited: “Sharon came up with the idea for Panic because of a mini-experiment she’d been conducting. She’d been disturbed by how much she’d been reading about kids making really bad decisions when it came to trusting strangers they had no business trusting. It’s a novel about a teen who says ‘yes’ when she should have said ‘no,’ a novel that is harrowing and haunting, yet hopeful,” says v-p, editorial director Caitlyn Dlouhy.
Publicity and marketing plans: Seven-city tour; blogger, and book club outreach; Pulse It feature title
Opening: “‘Hey, dance boy!’ Sixteen-year-old Justin Braddock, wearing his favorite Timberland boots, tromped down the rain-slicked sidewalk, book bag slung over his left shoulder, heading to the bus stop. He did not turn around—he knew who trailed him.”
