Lots of Good Vibrations at MBA
by Claire Kirch -- Publishers Weekly, 9/29/2008 11:23:00 AM
Moving back across the Mississippi River after last year’s show in Minneapolis, the Midwest Booksellers Association returned to familiar haunts this past weekend, holding their annual trade show at the RiverCentre in St. Paul, Minn. Some in attendance likened this year’s exuberant gathering to the State Fair’s “Great Minnesota Get-Together,” nicknaming it the “Great Midwestern Booksellers Get-Together,” a reference to the strong sense of community and camaraderie among independent booksellers who do business in nine predominantly rural states and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
While attendance was slightly up this year, with 400 booksellers from 105 stores, including three new owners of established stores and two new booksellers attending their first show, the number of exhibitors was down, with 82 exhibits representing more than 500 publishers, staffed by 325 persons, with 132 authors on hand. Two authors scheduled to speak to MBA booksellers – Anne Roiphe and Patrick McDonnell – were forced to cancel at the last minute, due to bad weather on the east coast disrupting their travel plans. And of the 60 guests at the show, 15 were librarians, part of a new policy implemented this year, whereby librarians sponsored by their local booksellers were allowed to attend.
This year’s show was three full days packed with education, information, and interaction – both formal and informal -- between booksellers, authors, and publishers, with each of the two days leading up to Saturday’s eight-hour trade show devoted to a different aspect of the bookselling experience.
Friday was devoted to booksellers, publishers, and even regional authors talking up their picks of the lists with each other during presentations scheduled throughout the day, with the conversation continuing during the well-attended cocktail reception preceding the book & author dinner. Friday’s highlights included a session in which nine Midwest Connections authors teamed up with their local bookseller to discuss his or her book and how it was promoted in that store.
“It’s a chance to put faces with names,” Vicki Erwin, owner of Main St. Books in St. Charles, Mo., commented, “Plus, you can see who’s going to be really good in your store.”
“Buzz about books is building on a lot of different levels,” declared Lisa Baudoin, who last year assumed the ownership of Books & Co. in Oconomowoc, Wisc. “[Thursday evening] was about the authors. [Friday] was all about the authors and the booksellers. I like all the face time before the show. By the time of the show, we’ve gotten all excited about why we’re selling books and why the Midwest is so damn cool.”
The two-day build-up to Saturday’s show certainly paid off for satisfied exhibitors, whose booths quickly filled with booksellers Saturday morning, tapering off around mid-day, then holding steady throughout the afternoon.
“We had orders from minute one,” Sheila Waldman of Tristan Publishing reported, “It was like someone opened the floodgates at 10 a.m.” “I took more orders in the first hour than I did the entire last show,” Bo Sherman, University of Minnesota’s Press’s sales manager told PW. “I had a bet with my competitor in the next booth that I wouldn’t get five orders. It’s not even 12:30 and I’ve done doubled that,” declared David R. Godine of David R. Godine Publishers, a first-time exhibitor.
As might be expected, the books highlighted by reps during their presentations Friday, as well as those by the 34 authors who spoke to booksellers during Friday’s moveable feast luncheon, were the show’s biggest hits with booksellers buzzing about David Mura’s Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire (Coffee House Press, Sept.), as well as Peter Feldstein & Stephen G. Bloom’s Oxford Project (Random, Dec.).
As the world becomes more and more unstable, and the U.S. economy teeters, it’s probably not surprising that regional titles with nostalgic themes and vintage-style covers would appeal to booksellers at this year’s show. Tales of the Road: Highway 61 by Cathy Wurzer (Minnesota Historical Society Press/Borealis, Oct.), In Cod We Trust: Living the Norwegian Dream by Eric Dregni (University of Minnesota Press, Oct.), American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon by Steven Rinella (Random, Dec.), and The American Farmer: The Heart of Our Country by Katrina Fried and Paul Mobley (Random, Oct.) were snapped up at exhibit tables by booksellers, who also stood in long lines snaking in front of booths to meet regional authors.
Children’s books and crossover YA releases also enticed booksellers, who were especially excited about Scrambled States of America Talent Show (Macmillan, Aug.) by Laurie Keller, Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman (Viking, Dec.), and Paper Towns by John Green (Penguin, Oct.).
Despite newspaper headlines each morning of the show announcing worse and worse economic news, booksellers remained buoyant throughout the weekend. At least a dozen booksellers described sales this past year as “surprisingly good,” despite the lack of a Harry Potter blockbuster and widespread economic woes. While some booksellers report that business is up, with beleaguered consumers remaining closer to home and frequenting their local bookstores in search of inexpensive entertainment, others report a drop in business, citing as causes higher gas prices and the impact of this summer’s flooding in Iowa.
But several booksellers also pointed to the truth in a presentation at the Friday evening book & author dinner by Leif Enger (So Brave, Young, and Handsome, Grove/Atlantic, May) that looked at bookselling at more than dollars and cents. “The bottom line is, most of you are in bookselling for the most impractical of reasons,” Enger said. “Most of you are in it for joy. Bookstores are conduits of joy above all.”
