An atmosphere of excitement and optimism missing in recent years permeated the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association fall trade show held in Portland, Oreg. on October 7-9 at the Portland Airport Holiday Inn and conference center. “We’re up 10% this year,” an enthusiastic Maggie Freitag, owner of Parnassus Books in Ketchikan, Alaska said on Friday. “Even though there were 250,000 fewer cruise ship travelers this summer, we made up the difference because people are just buying more books.” The Fishes and Dishes Cookbook (Epicenter, 2010), which Parnassus has sold 420 copies of since April, boosted sales at the store. One of the values of attending the show for Freitag is the opportunity to sometimes get free freight on orders placed there, which makes a considerable difference because of Alaska’s remote location. “This is a great show,” Freitag added. “It’s important for us to come and network. We place a lot of orders here as well.”
The Thursday schedule was dominated by a variety of educational panels and Rep’s Picks offerings, 17 in all, which were very well attended. “Digital Content, Social Networking and Your Store” featured a presentation of Copia Interactive’s new Web-based sales and social networking program for booksellers by Joann Spyker, the company’sv-p of field dales and higher education, and generated a lively discussion. “Copia is a consumer marketplace for all of digital media – books, music, movies, and magazines – all the things we like to share with our friends. Our program is about content, commerce, and community,” Spyker said.
The program, which will be offered free to booksellers, takes store customers to a Web site that will be branded to the individual bookstore but powered by Copia. When the initial purchase is made, the customer will be given a personal web page designed to encourage social networking with friends and other Copia users that includes discussions about books and other media. Unlike GoodReads and FaceBook, Copia functions as a commerce site where five million titles are available for sale in all formats. Spyker demurred on an exact commission figure that Copia will charge, but did say that it will be somewhere between 30% and 50% of the retail price.
“Copia is a marriage between Facebook and Amazon,” Spyker explained. It’s not intended to be a replacement for ABA’s IndieCommerce, although Meg Smith, ABA’s membership and marketing officer, did say that the organization is meeting with Copia and will discuss a possible partnership after Spyker’s presentation to the organization. The booksellers at the Thursday panel raised many questions about the integrity of Copia’s program, one asking, “How do we justify throwing the indie-local movement back into big commerce?” Copia is owned by DMC Worldwide, a large product development, sales channel marketer, and supply chain management company. ‘We treat people like customers, not transactions,” Spyker responded. “In fact, the first point of entry, the bookstore the customer first purchases from, keeps the customer for life.” Franz Hasslacher of Ekahni Books in Manzanita, Ore. objected to Copia on the grounds that it’s similar to a pyramid scheme. “If a customer gets poor customer service from an indie bookstore and switches to a different one, or if a customer moves to a different area, the Copia customer I.D. makes it impossible to switch to a bookstore of choice.”
Spyker also announced that Copia's e-reading devices will be ready “before the holidays.” They will be offered as hand-held, 3-G, or touch screen devices that can be purchased directly at the bookstore or on the store’s site, although pricing information is not yet available.
The PNBA membership meeting on Thursday was moderated by board president Sylla McClellan and executive director Thom Chambliss. “We’re guardedly optimistic about next year,” Chambliss said. “In 2009 we predicted a net loss of $90,000 for the organization and in reality this turned out to be $63,000.” Income from the holiday catalogue and sales of the Eat, Sleep, Read calendar contributed to this positive adjustment, as well as a general budget cut of $100,000 that included a move to less expensive office space. “The association is very sound financially,” added Chambliss. Both author breakfasts and the dinner were sold out, and attendance was up overall at the show this year.
Tracy Taylor of Elliot Bay Book Company raised the question of moving the PNBA trade show from Portland to the Seattle region, an issue that has come before the board many times. “I’m very disappointed in the choice of Portland, and the board needs to address this,” she said. “There are five states in our association – why can’t we move to Seattle, which is more centrally located and easier to navigate?” Board president Sylla McClellan and Chambliss explained, with some exasperation, that the show location had been addressed before and that the I-5 corridor is financially better for booksellers because of the low rates on hotels and the trade show facility itself.
“Attendance fell in 2007 from 940 to 760 when we had the show in Spokane,” Chambliss declared. “The problem is the amount of exhibit space relative to the number of hotel rooms we book.” Chambliss has toured the area for competitive bids and found that exhibit space in Seattle is twice that of Portland. After much bantering back and forth the subject was dropped without a resolution.
Nancy Pearl, Ivan Doig, Bonny Becker, and Jonathan Evison were the featured authors at Friday morning’s breakfast. Becker, author of the Mouse and Bear picture books, told the audience that she’s been pleased to find that she’s literally putting words into the mouths of children. “I’m told that three-year-olds are now saying things like, ‘insufferable,’ ‘impossible,’ and ‘begone!” Becker said to much laughter. West of Here novelist Evison, who referred to his Algonquin editor Chuck Adams as “Dad,” told the audience that his creative aim is to do for the Pacific Northwest what Steinbeck did for Central California. Although Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust To Go is a guide for travelers to recommended books about foreign destinations, the esteemed librarian surprised the audience by saying, “I’m not an enthusiastic traveler. Just leaving my house makes me anxious, so I’m totally the wrong person to write this book.” She then redeemed herself by adding, “Still, I’m exactly the right person because I’ve been to all these places through the books I’ve read.”
Ivan Doig, whose new book is Work Song (Riverhead), referred to his recurring character of Morrie Morgan when he said that the writer’s goal is “to write better than we know, to create characters readers love more than we ever hoped for.” He concluded his talk by telling the rapt audience, “As writers we voyage on, knowing there is safe harbor in the hands of booksellers and booklovers.”
The trade show floor was buzzing and active all day on Friday. At the Sasquatch booth,v-p of sales and marketing Sarah Hanson reported that their sales are up 20% over last year. “The show is really lively. The indies are fighting back, and showing great resilience,” she said happily. “People are embracing local businesses, and I take pride in knowing that we in the bookselling community started the movement through IndieBound.”
Plenty of potential sleepers and regional titles were being discussed by the booksellers on hand. Elliot Bay’s Booknotes editor Hilary Vonckx singled out Blind Your Ponies, by Stanley Gordon West (Algonquin); One Big Rain: Poems For Rainy Days, by Rita Gray and Ryan O’Rourke (Charlesbridge Pub.) for children 4 – 8; Oaxaca Al Gusto, by Diana Kennedy (U. of Texas Press); Pacific Feast: A Cook’s Guide to West Coast Foraging and Cuisine, by Jennifer Hahn (Mountaineers); The Lost Art of Reading, by David Ulin (Sasquatch); and The Etiquette of Freedom: Gary Snyder, Jim Harrison, and the Practice of the Wild, edited by Paul Ebenkamp (Counterpoint).
Powell’s Books’ Kathi Kirby is hopeful about Dogs, by Tim Flach (Abrams); Skippy Dies, by Paul Murray (FSG); Keith Richards: Life (Little Brown) and Workman’s The Photographic Card Deck of the Elements, by Theodore Gray. Edsel McFarlan’s New Car, by Max Holechek and Darrell Toland (Book Publishers Network) is a favorite of Judy Hobbs, children’s books buyer for Third Place Books in Seattle, in addition to The Three Little Kittens, by Jerry Pinkney (Dial); Dark Life, by Kat Falls (Scholastic); Adios, Nirvana, by Conrad Wesselhoeft (Houghton Mifflin); and Bedtime for Bear, by Bonny Becker (Candlewick).
Author Jonathan Evison was glad for the “upbeat vibe” at the show and echoed the sentiments of many out-of-town attendees when he said, “Northwest booksellers never cease to inspire me with their passion, dedication, loyalty, and ability to endure the Portland Airport Holiday Inn. God love ‘em.”
