Bookselling

PNBA Returns Triumphantly
Barbara R ther -- 10/2/00
Celebrating new authors, jam-packed seminars and active buying
marked this Seattle trade show


The lighthearted mood for the PNBA show was set when Seattle author Paisley Rekdal's upcoming book of p try, A Crash of Rhinos (Univ. of Georgia Press), was mistakenly introduced as "A Crash of Winos" at Powell's City of Book's Friday night Celebration of Authors. Eden Robinson, a First Nations woman from BC and author of Monkey Beach (Houghton), somehow made her tribe's stories about death by drowning seem profoundly funny, while Teri Hein, author of Atomic Farmgirl: The Betrayal of Chief Qualchan, the Appaloosa and Me (Fulcrum), shocked the audience with her story of growing up in eastern Washington on farmland tainted by radioactive waste. The Celebration focused on newer writers and reaffirmed the central importance of author events to the Northwest show's success.
Nearly 600 booksellers attended the PNBA Fall Show, which returned to Portland's convention center this year after forays to Eugene and Spokane in 1998 and 1999. Overall attendance was up over the previous two years, although not as high as the last Portland show in 1997. Attendance at author events was higher than ever.

Two author breakfasts and a Saturday night banquet each attracted over 225 people, among the largest audience for writers at any of the regional shows. A number of New York-based authors took advantage of the numbers including Myla Goldberg, author of Bee Season (Doubleday), and Lemony Snicket with The Austere Academy (HarperCollins), the latest book in his Series of Unfortunate Events. According to Scott Le Pine, an Oregon rep for Random House, "An enormous amount of handselling is generated when booksellers actually meet an author. [PMBA executive director] Thom Chambliss has a great knack for finding authors who will interest area booksellers, whether they are local or not."

Three days of educational seminars also attracted standing-room-only crowds. Seminars included several focused on children's book sales, promotion and Book Sense strategies. With multiple events running concurrently in different rooms, over 200 attendees
PNBA president Russ Lawrence (second
from right) at the Saturday night banquet
with (l. to r.) authors Daniel Handler (a.k.a.
Lemony Snicket), Mary Clearman Blew
and Susan Vreeland.
were able to focus on their specific interests. Consultations for bookstore owners with industry finance specialist Willard Dickerson was a popular new offering. Informal roundtable meetings on sharing successful strategies continued to draw widespread participation.
Since ABA officers were also meeting in Portland, BookSense.com and related matters were at the forefront of many discussions. At the PNBA annual meeting ABA president Neal Coonerty announced the upcoming increase in the association's membership fees (see News), while PNBA announced a healthy surplus of funds.

The Pacific Northwest has become the first area to be served by a Book Sense rep-at-large, a position occupied since June of this year by Diana Wells, former owner of Traveller's Bookstore. (See Wells Discovers Northwest Territory in this week's Booknews.)

According to Russ Lawrence, owner of Chapter One Bookstore in Hamilton, Mont., and PNBA president, the fires that spread through huge areas in the West this year smoked out the tourist trade for several stores in Montana and Idaho, while widespread staffing shortages, a hot topic of conversation on the floor, prevented some smaller stores from attending the show.

For those who did attend, active was the keyword as buyers took advantage of show discounts and in-person reps to place substantial orders. With publishers' reps on the endangered-species list in the West, many booksellers, who often live more than a day's drive from a major metropolitan area, have no other hands-on opportunity to review new books. "I liked this" and "Why is there no great children's book for Christmas?" were often-heard phrases on the floor as attendees vocally shared favorites and predicted hidden successes.