NEIBA Accentuates the Positives
by Judith Rosen -- Publishers Weekly, 9/23/2008 3:10:00 PM
The days of regional trade shows being ordering shows may be over, but they still serve an important function by facilitating a dialogue between booksellers and publishers. So much so that last week’s 35th annual New England Independent Booksellers Association (NEIBA) trade show, which was back in Boston after an absence of three years, opened with a literal “Conversation” among Bob Miller, president and publisher of HarperStudio; Jonathan Karp, publisher and editor-in-chief at Twelve at Hachette; and independent booksellers. “I thought it was a great show,” said Beacon Press associate publisher and director of sales and marketing Tom Hallock. “With less conflicts between programming and floor time, the focus really was on interactions between publishers and booksellers.” To promote those interactions even more, HarperCollins sales people stickered their favorite galleys. V-p of field sales Jeanette Zwart’s pick was Daniel Bergner’s A Map of Desire (Ecco, Feb.), while sales representatives Anne de Courcey and Karen Gudmundson chose Toni Jordan’s debut novel, Addition (Morrow, Feb.).
Children’s programming was front and center even more than in previous years. In addition to Tomie dePaola receiving a 2008 New England Book Award for children, David Macaulay was named the recipient of a President’s Award for lifetime achievement by NEIBA president Judy Crosby, owner of Island Books in Middletown, R.I. Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games (Scholastic) spoke at the Friday morning breakfast; members of the New England Children’s Booksellers Association were the first to get behind her book. And NECBA’s panel on How to Make Publishers Love You was one of the most popular of the show. “From my perspective I thought it was very good,” said Robert Geake, who has recently been tasked with creating special events and programming for kids at Brown University Bookstore.
Another standing-room-only session, Surviving Tough Times in Retail, led by ABA programming director Len Vlahos, was eerily timely given the headlines. Panelists Carole Horne, general manager of Harvard Book Store, and Dan Chartrand, owner of Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, N.H., recommended that if booksellers get behind on their payments that they be honest with publishers and approach them with a plan. Advocating more conversation with publishers, Chartrand asked booksellers to consider, “You have appointments with your sales rep, why not your credit rep?”
Despite flat--or in some cases slightly down--sales for many stores in the region the show was decidedly upbeat. In part it was buoyed by rumors of the imminent sale of two of the region’s best known stores, Harvard Book Store and Bunch of Grapes, which could take place as early as next week. Even a leak on the trade show floor didn’t diminish the mood. “We’re here looking for ideas,” said, Lynn Reed of Misty Valley Books in Chester, Vt., who did not attend BEA. “I like the scale of NEIBA; BEA is overwhelming.” Added Suzanna Hermans, manager of Oblong Books and Music in Rhinebeck, N.Y., “It’s great to see other people who do the same thing you do.”
Like store sales, attendance at the show was also flat despite larger stores like Harvard Book Store bringing as many as 21 booksellers. Once exhibitors were factored out, attendance declined roughly 9% from 929 in 2007 to 841 this year. Still, said NEIBA executive director Steve Fisher, “generally the buzz I got back was plenty good.”
