Commenting on the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association's two-day trade show in Atlantic City, N.J., October 24—25, executive director Eileen Dengler noted, "We had a lot of new stores this year—at least 13 that were brand new or about to open, and a few who had not been involved with the organization before." Some 578 booksellers attended the Sunday—Monday show, along with 417 publishers and authors.
"It was a great show," Barbara Shaffer, co-owner of Tudor Bookstore in Clarks Summit, Pa., told PW. "I think it's interesting to speak to some of the young people who just opened bookstores. We've been open for more than 30 years and it's always good to get new information on how people are running their bookstores."
Education
Sunday was dedicated to educational programming, with a total of six programs filling the day. The theme of the programs this year was "I'm a Bookseller Because...." NAIBA board member Joe Drabyak of Chester County Books and Music Co., in Chester, Pa., explained, "We've had nuts-and-bolts presentations in the past on employee relations, marketing and budgets. Those are all well and good, but this year we wanted to step back and figure out why we chose this profession and why independent booksellers are still very important." First up was an 11 a.m. "Pick of the Lists" presentation by various publishers. "About 50 booksellers attended our morning discussion of upcoming titles—that's a huge amount of people that early in the morning," said Simon & Schuster rep Tim Hepp.
In addition to ABA CEO Avin Domnitz's "2% Solution" presentation on bookstore profitability, Drabyak lead a discussion of the joy of reading featuring Suzanne Strempek Shea (Shelf Life: Romance, Mystery, Drama and Other Page-Turning Adventures from a Year in a Bookstore, Beacon Press) and Sara Nelson (So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading, Berkley). "I was there to probe their minds," Drabyak told PW. "When Suzanne was diagnosed with cancer and became creatively blocked, she took a job working in a bookstore. And Sara took a year's sabbatical to devote to catching up on her reading."
Authors & Food
That evening's Moveable Feast boasted more than 20 authors and featured food from Michael Lomonaco's Nightly Specials: 125 Recipes for Spontaneous, Creative Cooking at Home (Morrow). Authors included Laurie Lico Albanese (Blue Suburbia, HarperCollins), Michael Bamberger (Wonderland: A Year in the Life of an American High School, Atlantic Monthly Press), Mark Bowden (Road Work, Atlantic Monthly Press), Heidi Julavits (The Effect of Living Backwards, Penguin), Carl Lennertz (Cursed by a Happy Childhood, Random House) and Jennifer Weiner (Little Earthquakes, Atria).
"Thomas Kelly was particularly interesting," said Shaffer. "He just did a book on the Empire State Building [Empire Rising, FSG] and he was very knowledgeable about New York City in the 1930s. He said he might come and do an autographing, which is always exciting."
Masha Hamilton, author of The Distance Between Us (Unbridled Books), appreciated being able to attend the Movable Feast. "What a great opportunity for authors and booksellers to connect—over food," she told PW. "Booksellers got more than a catalogue explanation of the books—they got a sense of back story, and of our personalities and what we might be like at a reading or other event. I hooked up with some who thought Distance was perfect for their stores, and who might not have otherwise known about the novel."
The NAIBA Book Awards honored Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake (Mariner Books) for best fiction; Tim Russert's Big Russ and Me (Miramax Books) for nonfiction; Suzanne Collins's Gregor the Overlander (Scholastic) for children's novel; and Robert Sabuda's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: A Pop-Up Adaptation (Little Simon) for illustrated book. Joyce Carol Oates was awarded a special Legacy Award for her body of work. Commission reps Jim and Lisa Sirak of Sirak and Sirak Associates shared the William Helmuth Award for Salesperson of the Year. And Jessica Stockton, a bookseller from Three Lives & Co in New York City, won NAIBA's first essay award for writing "Why I'm a Bookseller."
More than 100 authors signed throughout the day at Monday's trade show. "The attendance seemed a little bit up from last year," S&S's Hepp told PW. "At least four or five new booksellers stopped by to set up accounts with me, which is always promising. Most of the publisher reps I spoke to were positive about the show."
New this year was a series of mini "fast track" workshops led by sales reps on the trade show floor. "Because we are a two-day show, we just have one day allotted for education," explained Dengler. "These NAIBA workshops are created by booksellers for their current needs. Every year we get suggestions for educational programs that are good but don't quite fit in, so this year we decided to put these fast tracks in the exhibit hall. They were successful, but next year we'll do these on the day of the educational program, so they don't compete with the trade show traffic."
To revitalize the energy of the room a few hours before the trade show closed, Drabyak returned to serve as quizmaster and host of the Quiz Bowl Trivia Challenge, where three teams matched wits to win prizes donated from publishers. A.J. Jacobs (The Know-It-All, S&S) served as color commentator for the event, sharing information he learned after reading all 32 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica. "The final score is still in dispute because there was a half-point difference," said Drabyak. "I see a rematch in the future."
