Suzy Takacs, owner of the Book Cellar in Chicago, spoke for most booksellers who attended the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association trade show held at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, Mich., from October 8-10, when she said, “I thought it was a great show. There was a lot of positive energy, and bookseller attendance was up.” As Jill Miner, owner of Saturn Booksellers in Gaylord, Mich., noted, it was a real reversal of trends in recent years. Not only was bookseller registration up 12% going into the show, but there were a number of first-timers like Heidi Schmitt with Off the Beaten Path Bookstore and Café, a new and used genre bookstore scheduled to open at the end of this month in Farmington, Mich.
Although the show program emphasized change—especially that associated with a changeover in leadership from founding member Jim Dana to new executive director Deborah Leonard—much of the show’s emphasis was on authors and bookselling basics. For those who came a day early, there was a screening of a biopic of Millenium Trilogy author Stieg Larsson. But the official opening on Friday morning gave booksellers a chance to get back to basics with a session on Best Marketing Ideas for the Buck. Among the tips were ways to promote being green. At Anderson’s Bookshops in Naperville and Downers Grove, Ill. , said Becky Anderson, that means BYOB—for Bring Your Own Bags. Every time a person uses their own bag, the store places a marble in a glass bowl and then donates 10 cents to charity for each marble.
Additional marketing suggestions focused on using customer loyalty programs to boost sales. Terry Whittaker, owner of Viewpoint Books in Indianapolis, sends thank-you notes to customers who spend a certain dollar level over the course of a year. He also pens a we-miss-you letter to those whose purchasing have dropped off. To get customers to sign up for e-mail lists and to participate in loyalty programs, Cynthia Compton, owner of 4 Kids Books & Toys in Indianapolis and Fishers, Ind., recommended getting customers to share information indirectly. For example, she asks customers if she can send them a coupon and what e-mail address to use. Kelli Gleiner, events and party coordinator for Blue Manatee Books in Cincinnati, said that as a result of the panel, the store is contemplating revamping its frequent shopper program.
Other educational sessions that impressed Gleiner included the kids buzz panel, where she finds YA books she may have missed since Blue Manatee is geared toward younger children, and Self- Published Authors in Your Store, which offered strategies for dealing with self-published authors. “To me the highlight was the brunch on Sunday with children’s authors. In terms of inspiration it was great,” said Robert McDonald, a bookseller in the children’s department at the Book Stall at Chestnut Court in Winnetka, Ill. In the wake of last week’s front-page New York Times article on the decline of picture books, author Mem Fox used part of her talk at the brunch to urge booksellers to continue to support the format, while McDonald said the the picture book is alive and well.
For general booksellers, Kathleen Kent, author of The Wolves of Andover (Nov., Reagan Arthur Books), a prequel to The Heretics Daughter; Masha Hamilton, author of 31 Hours (Unbridled); and Mary Doria Russell, author of Doc (May, Random House), who spoke at the banquet, stole the show. The latter even managed to get a hall full of booksellers to sing the theme song to the ‘50s TV western Wyatt Earp. “I had no idea what a lively and funny woman Russell is,” said Matt Norcross at McLean and Eakin Booksellers in Petroskey, Mich. “Doc is amazing and will be huge.”
Big books at the show also included Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife (Mar., Ballantine) about Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley. Sue Boucher, owner of Lake Forest Books in Lake Forest, Ill., anticipates selling it to book clubs with Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast. On the nonfiction side, booksellers were especially excited about Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken (Nov., Random House), about a lieutenant whose bomber crashed into the Pacific during World War II; Paul Clemens’s Punching Out: One Year in a Closing Auto Plant (Jan., Doubleday), about the closing of a Detroit auto plant; and Pauline Maier’s Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788, which pubs next week.
Even with the show’s upbeat vibe, GLiBA is not without many of the same downward pressures that affected other regionals this year. Overall attendance at the show was 429, which represented a drop of 5%, and membership decreased for the year ending March 31 from 392 to 320. The association lost $40,000 last year and projects a loss of $67,600 for the current fiscal year; it is in the midst of restructuring to reduce its budget, staff, and board. Some GLiBA members have also seen their businesses decline. Viewpoint had a difficult year, said Whittaker, who terms his drop in sales “not insignificant. The e-book situation is troubling and it too has an impact.” By contrast Saturn Booksellers had a good summer and sales stayed up through the first half of September before they hit a lull, which Miner hopes will be temporary. On the other hand, Nicola’s Books in Ann Arbor has benefited from the closing of Shaman Drum in the summer of 2009. It’s doing especially well, according to head adult book buyer Bill Cusumano.
Next year the GLiBA trade show will return to Dearborn.
