Trade Show Preview: NCIBA

by Jill Tardiff, PW Daily for Booksellers -- Publishers Weekly, 9/2/2004

As the fall trade-show season approaches, PW Daily will be previewing a different show each day. Today, a look at what to expect at the gathering of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, scheduled to meet Oct. 1-3 at the Oakland Convention Center and Oakland City Center Marriott, Oakland, Calif.

The event starts Friday at 10 a.m. with a two-hour seminar on bookstore profitability lead by ABA's Avin Domnitz. At the same time, in a workshop designed with the writer in mind, a representative from Writer's Digest and a bookstore event coordinator offer tips on how to start an in-store writing group. That will be followed by the annual author box lunch featuring speakers Jennifer Haigh (Baker Towers), Mary Doria Russell (A Thread of Grace) and Bart Schneider (Beautiful Inez).

Educational programming continues in the afternoon, as Allan Beatts, owner of Borderlands Books, leads a discussion on bookstore security. Beatts is a former police officer and bookstore security chief--so he knows a thing or two about shoplifting and internal theft. In a concurrent session, representatives from Baker & Taylor and several booksellers talk about selling DVDs. The afternoon second installment of programs begins at 3:30 p.m. with a panel on used books. Knowledgeable booksellers steer the debate on issues like pricing strategies and merchandising. Jay Conrad Levinson conducts a seminar straight from the pages of his new book, Guerrilla Retailing.

On Saturday at 8 a.m., Francisco Goldman (The Divine Husband), Jim Wooten (We Are All the Same) and Kevin Starr (Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003) will speak at the breakfast. Afterward, they will sign their books in a designated autographing area from 10-11 a.m.; then four authors at a time will sign their books on the hour and half hour until 3:30 p.m.

NCIBA holds its hour-long annual general membership meeting at 4 p.m. Top off the day at Toppers, where refreshments and hors d'ouevres await showgoers at the 5 p.m. cocktail party. Dan Millman is scheduled to read from his forthcoming book, The Journeys of Socrates. At the 7 p.m. moveable feast, 12 authors and more than 100 booksellers gather over a four-course dinner. A partial guest list includes Marc Acito, Joshua Braff, Harriett Scott Chessman, Gary Erickson, Gerald Everett Jones, Lawrence Thornton, Monique Truong and William Vollmann.

At the Sunday morning children's author breakfast Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Grim Grotto), joins Sarah Stewart and David Small (The Friend) and Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 5: The Wrath of Mulgarath).

Contact: Hut Landon, Presidio National Park, 37 Graham St., Ste. 210, P.O. Box 29169, San Francisco, Calif. 94129; (415) 561-7686; office@nciba.com; www.nciba.com.