Unlike Economy, NAIBA Upbeat
by Judith Rosen -- Publishers Weekly, 9/25/2008 7:11:00 AM
Despite bleak newspaper headlines about the economy, the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Fall Conference held Sept. 21-22 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill, N.J., was markedly upbeat. In part, the buoyant spirit was due to the number of booksellers from new or about-to-open stores, including Trish Brown and Ellen Klein, co-owners of Hooray for Books! in Alexandria, Vir., which opened this spring; Marietta Barral Zacker, who held the grand opening for SOMe Book Nook children’s bookstore in South Orange, N.J., over the conference weekend; Jennifer Stockton Bagnulo, who is closing in on a space in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn; and Georgia Scott, who is planning a grand opening for Globe Trippin in New York City later this fall.
“This was my first NAIBA conference, and it exceeded my expectations,” said Kelly Amabile, events and marketing manager at Book Culture in New York City. “I’ve been to BEA but I hadn’t been to one of the smaller shows. The difference is quite extraordinary, the intimate time you can spend with reps and authors.” Long-time NAIBA attendee P.K. Sindawani, owner of Trappe Book Center in Trappe, Penn., agreed. “It was a great show,” he said. “I like these shows because they’re small and manageable.” At NAIBA, Sindawani looks for books he might have missed when he was originally ordering and attends educational panels like the one given by the ABA’s Len Vlahos on IndieBound.
On the publishing side, the fall conference offered a chance to connect with 230 booksellers. “We really don’t look for orders,” said Mike Cutforth, a sales representative for Macmillan. “There was a time when I averaged two orders a day. That has precipitously dropped to zero.” Instead, he noted, that he attends NAIBA to give out galleys and to introduce authors. That sentiment was echoed by Grove/Atlantic president Morgan Entrekin, recipient of this year’s Legacy Award for lifetime achievement, who said that NAIBA and the regionals are a great place to introduce new authors. It’s too hard for independent presses to be heard above the noise for celebrity authors like Barbara Walters at BEA, he said.
For the second year in a row the focus of the NAIBA convention was firmly on selling, with tips from both booksellers and authors throughout the day. At the Early Bird Supper that kicked off the show, for example, NAIBA president Joe Drabyak with Chester County Book & Music Company in Chester, Penn., challenged his colleagues to turn Robin Gaby Fisher’s After the Fire (Little, Brown) about the Seton Hall fires into a regional bestseller. Both Fisher and Shawn Simons, one of the most severely injured students, spoke at the dinner.
Books and authors were front and center at every meal. The show officially began on Sunday with a breakfast with children’s authors, including two first time writers, Jay Asher (Thirteen Reasons Why) and Loren Long (Drummer Boy). Other new authors were introduced at the Movable Luncheon Feast, including Lisa Genova, whose self-published first novel exploring Alzheimer’s, Still Alice, is due out from Pocket in January. Even evening drinks were presided over by writers like Tim McLoughlin, editor of Brooklyn Noir (Akashic), at the Sunday night Noir Bar.
As part of its emphasis on sales, NAIBA also used the conference to introduce a new program to enable booksellers to get free author trailers and profiles for Web sites and point-of-sales promotions for six months through BookSpots. NAIBA fiction award-winner Hillary Jordan (Mudbound) and Robin Gaby Fisher are among the first writers to be featured by the video maker. NAIBA booksellers can register at bookspots.com/naiba.
