Among the last of this year's fall regional book shows, the Great Lakes Booksellers Association and the New England Booksellers Association both held their gatherings over the October 8—10 weekend.
NEBA: Taking a Que from Reality Shows
If there was a theme at this year's 31st annual New England Booksellers Association Trade Show, held in Boston's World Trade Center, it was "extreme makeover." From the educational panel led by bookstore consultant Kate Whouley on creating store ambiance to the lunch that followed with keynote speaker Sam Tanenhaus, who has been engaged in a makeover of his own as the new editor of the New York Times Book Review, to an open forum on changing NEBA, it was clear that the need to refresh and renew underpinned the show.
ABA CEO Avin Domnitz's traveling workshop, "The 2% Solution," emphasized the need for change. Domnitz's presentation offered ways that booksellers could return their stores to profitability, given that the 2003 ABACUS study found that most stores were down 1.67% in 2002—and the unofficial tally for 2003 shows no improvement. Some of Domnitz's suggestions were especially sobering, including one that stores should begin lowering expenses by laying off an employee.
If there were no big books going into the show, there were none at the end, either. As Alan Fowler, co-owner of Village Square Booksellers in Bellows Fall, Vt., observed, "There was no buzz at BEA except for Clinton, and that was a manufactured buzz. It wasn't like Harry Potter or South Beach Diet or Da Vinci Code." His wife, Pat, added, "Our customers are worried about the election." Other booksellers expressed concern about the cost of living, big book or no. Susan Little, owner of Jabberwocky Bookshop and Cafe in Newburyport, Mass., said, "With gas prices going up, food prices going up and heating prices doubling, that's going to cut into our business. We have to hope for a mild winter."
Despite flat sales all around (one bookseller was overheard saying, "Down is the new up") and the rumored closing of WordsWorth Books, Cambridge, Mass., which declared bankruptcy last month, the show had very little openly expressed doom and gloom. Several potential bookstore owners attended, as did the owners of a new African-American store, Multicultural Book World, which opened outlets in the Roxbury and Mattapan sections of Boston this summer, and Porter Square Books in Cambridge, which opened just days earlier.
Bookseller attendance exceeded NEBA's 1,000 goal. At 1,353, the number of booksellers was up 1% over last year; the number of exhibitors was down slightly to 809. NEBA executive director Rusty Drugan told PW, "I'm pleased with the attendance. We're not immune from trends. Last year the other regionals were down more than we were, and I could see they were still down from last year. Going into the show, I was very concerned." Even though there were slightly fewer book signings this year, the money raised from them (at $2 per book) was up significantly, $7,239 went to the Boston Adult Literacy Fund.
At the Friday lunch, Simon & Schuster sales representative John Muse received the Gilman Award as rep of the year. He joked, "Last year, all the Random House sales reps received the award. That makes me the equal of all the Random House sales reps." Long-time Boston writer James Carroll was singled out by NEBA president Allan Schmid, owner of Books, Etc. in Portland and Falmouth, Maine, for a President's Award for lifetime achievement. The Sunday breakfast honored the 2004 New England Book Award winners for a body of work: Molly Bang (Little Rat Rides) for children's; Linda Greenlaw (All Fishermen Are Liars) for nonfiction; Archer Mayor (The Surrogate Thief) for fiction; and Storey Publishing was named publisher of the year.
To spice up the show, NEBA added a cookbook area with signings and taste treats through Saturday, and both Random House and St. Martin's did pillow drops at the convention hotels. Continuing an experiment begun at BEA, HarperCollins had sign-up sheets for galleys—although there were still plenty of book giveaways and a book signing with sports writer Michael Holley (Patriots Reign, Morrow).
For first-time exhibitors, the 2004 show was especially strong. "It's been good for us," said Taschen sales representative Pamela Roskin. "Our terms of sale changed so small accounts can buy from us. We've opened several accounts." Diamond Book Distributors rep Kevin Habral praised a children's booksellers panel on graphic novels: "I got to inform people about graphic novels they wouldn't have thought about before." Webster Bull, founder of regional New England publisher Commonwealth Editions, commented, "We've had a lot of traffic. It's nice to see old friends. We're in our seventh year, our sixth year at NEBA."
Attendance at educational programming was in the high double digits for panels ranging from "Adding Used Books to Your Inventory" to "Graphic Novels: Are They Any of Your Business?" Book theft continues to be a problem in New England, where booksellers were hit by a new strain of the Nigeria scam, in which they were asked to ship orders to third-party locations in California and Missouri. Perhaps the most startling assertion made at the panel came from security expert Kagan Hudaya of OmniGuard Systems, who noted, "Your best customers have stolen from you. It's easier for them; they feel entitled." He also said that the brave new world is here: some store greeters use hand-held computers to connect to robotic cameras that follow customers to see if they're stealing.
The used book panel was also packed as booksellers, like panelist Sarah Zacks, co-owner of Books on the Square in Providence, R.I., looked for ways to make up for inventory cutbacks—and lost revenue—due to a downturn in sales. At Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, Mass., which added a used book cellar last year, "used books provide a great extra layer," said co-owner Dana Brigham. "We can't call it frosting, but it's a good section."
While many booksellers and book organizations are struggling to balance their books, NEBA is faced with the opposite problem: a nearly $1 million cash reserve. Some $30,000 has been put aside in next year's budget to continue the work begun this summer by Kate Whouley, lighting expert Dennis DeLorenzo of Design Dynamics and Ted Baylis of Franklin Fixtures, who consulted with some booksellers on how to make their stores more visually appealing.
In other news, Drugan announced that 68 stores have enrolled in NEBA's new ReadAround.com project that is intended to offer a complete, online listing of all book-and-author events in New England. The NEBA holiday catalogue, which will be inserted in one million newspapers, will promote the Web site on the back cover.
Next year's show will rotate back to Providence and will be held early enough to avoid leaf-peeping season, but after school rush, September 16—18. —Judith Rosen
GLBA: Celebrating Community
"There's a family feeling to this show, a closeness to this group," GLBA executive director Jim Dana told PW Sunday afternoon, as the Great Lakes Booksellers Association wound up its 14th annual trade show.
The GLBA weekend felt like a family reunion thanks to the familiar location (this was the third consecutive year that the GLBA show has been held at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, Mich.) and the theme of celebrating the ties that bind the bookselling community. The 700-plus attendees included 378 booksellers and librarians from 163 bookstores and libraries and 323 exhibitors and authors representing 75 companies.
Some of the weekend literally consisted of fun and games. At the Second Annual Team Spelling Bee, bee-master Michael Sheehan, author of Words to the Wise (Arbutus Press), presided over six teams of booksellers vying for a set of American Heritage titles. Once again, the Mac's Backs team from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, outspelled, outplayed and outlasted everybody else.
On Saturday night at the raucous "Quiz Bowl," seven teams with up to six members each—booksellers, authors, publishers, reps and even a PW reporter were recruited—answered seven rounds of questions testing their knowledge of literature and the publishing industry. The Heinecken & Associates team barely squeaked to victory after emcee Carol Besse of Carmichael's Books in Louisville, Ky., fired off the final flash round of questions by asking contestants to identify publishers' ISBN numbers.
Quirky books were the most-discussed titles at the show. Karl Pohrt, owner of Shaman Drum in Ann Arbor, Mich., described his literary tastes as being shaped by the ongoing struggle between Good Karl and Bad Karl. Bad Karl's favorite fall picks included: Brick Testament: The Story of Christmas by Brendan Powell Smith (Quirk/Chronicle Books, Dec.), which tells the holiday story illustrated with Legos; Vice: Do's and Don'ts: 10 Years of Vice Magazine's Street Fashion Critiques (Warner Books); and Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death by Corinne May Botz (Penguin, Oct.), which contains photographs of a 1940s-era dollhouse maker's reconstruction of unsolved murder scenes. Michael Boggs, owner of Carmichael's Books in Louisville, Ky., also highly recommended Botz's book, describing it as "a cool book of weird tableaux. It's CSI meets Gnomes."
Two nonfiction winter/spring releases seemed to amuse booksellers: Off Main Street: Barnstormers, Prophets & Gatemouth's Gator by Michael Perry (HarperPerennial, Apr.) and Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (Crown, Feb.). "Rosenthal is like a really funny female David Sedaris," Sue Boucher, owner of Lake Forest Books, Lake Forest, Ill., told PW. "She's got a wickedly funny slant on life. She's a lot hipper than we are, but we can all relate to her."
Authors got into the family spirit of GLBA by doing their best to entertain booksellers at the popular author events. Ron McLarty, author of The Memory of Running (Viking, Jan.), regaled the 200 attendees at Saturday evening's Booksellers Banquet with tales of his checkered acting career. "I was even a gallbladder in an industrial show for Merck," he boasted. And Peter Sís, author of Train of States (HarperCollins/Greenwillow, Oct.), assured the 210 people packed into Sunday Children's Book & Author breakfast that he felt a special bond with Midwestern booksellers, "as I am from the middle of Europe."
Tomie dePaola, author of Guess Who's Coming to Santa's for Dinner (Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, Sept.) and Sunday morning's final breakfast speaker, recalled "the book signing from hell" many years ago at a California bookstore. It featured long lines, power outages all over town, babies being rescued from locked cars and an earthquake. "So, no matter how bad a book signing is at your store, it can't be that bad," he concluded.
"This is our third show; it's the best one so far," Mary Allen Ahmad of Aria Booksellers in Howell, Mich., told PW. "I made a lot of great contacts and have had a lot of fun all weekend. Tomie dePaola made me laugh so hard, I cried. My face still hurts." —Claire Kirch
