Mid-South Independent Booksellers Association/Mid-South Independent Booksellers for Children

Trade show meets Thurs., Sept. 6—Sun., Sept. 9, at the Myriad Convention Center and Renaissance Hotel, Oklahoma City, Okla.

Just steps away from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, Myriad Botanical Gardens, Bricktown Ballpark and Oklahoma City National Memorial, MSIBA booksellers will gather to polish their professional skills, meet their favorite authors and discuss today's publishing marketplace. In response to members' feedback, more training seminars have been added to this year's educational agenda. Donna Paz and Mark Kaufman of Paz & Associates will conduct three separate sessions on customer service, merchandising and marketing. These begin on Thursday at 1 p.m. with the popular "Exceptional Frontline Bookselling." They'll present something for everyone—including training materials that can be taken back to the stores.

On Friday, the MSIBC schedule is filled with activities meant to assist booksellers succeed in the children's book market. It all starts with a visit to the "Wild, Wild West" breakfast, an early-morning gathering featuring Bill Wallace and Gerald McDermott. Then it's on to the classroom for a full morning of workshops and panels—five in all. James R. Vollbracht, author of Stopping at Every Lemonade Stand, will get things underway with a program on how to become the quintessential neighborhood bookstore. Regional authors will then have their turn at the microphone during a workshop designed to introduce local talent to the bookselling community. When convention-goers need refueling, they can head for "A Land Before Time," a theme lunch starring Brian Selznick, Gloria Pinkney and Molly Bang, who will sign copies of their books for lunch attendees.

After lunch, Paz and Kaufman will return to reveal more tricks of the trade in two 90-minute programs. In "Show & Sell: Increasing Turns with Focal Point Merchandising," they'll review the secrets and strategies of increasing sales by catching customers' attention. The second session is called "Integrated Marketing: Working Smarter, Not Harder." It will focus on ways of creating greater store visibility through effective newsletters, advertising and strong community relations. On Friday afternoon there's also a three-hour, back-to-the-basics session on bookstore finances to be led by an ABA staffer.

The MSIBC signature event—its annual Humpty Dumpty Silent Dinner and Auction—is planned for Friday evening from 6:30—9 p.m. It's an all-American night out at Bricktown Ballpark, with BBQ and conviviality on the menu. Governor Frank Keating and illustrator Mike Wimmer (Home Run) will be on hand to mingle with booksellers, and the association's "people choice" awards will be given. Don't forget to bring your dancing shoes (and checkbooks); original handprints and sketches rendered by well-known children's authors and illustrators such as Felicia Bond, Eric Carle, Patricia Polacco and Mark Teague will be up for bid when the festivities draw to a close. Proceeds from the silent auction will fund store-based children's book promotional efforts.

At Saturday's author breakfast, cartoonist Doug Marlette (The Bridge) joins Nancy Mace (In the Company of Men) and Jerry Jenkins (Hometown Legend). Exhibit hours: 10 a.m.—noon, 1—5 p.m. During the noontime lunch break, booksellers are invited to participate in round-table discussions—another new item on this year's program. Subjects to be covered include: buying various sidelines, selling used books, using co-op wisely and working with wholesalers. The afternoon hours have been reserved for nothing but books, books, books! Fun and laughter should accompany the Saturday evening autographing party to be held at the hotel. Chat with authors like Carolyn G. Hart, Jodie Larsen and John Wobley—and collect signed editions!

On Sunday morning, Jim Dent regales the breakfast audience with regional baseball stories from The Undefeated, while Kathy Hepinstall shares excerpts from The Absence of Nectar. Exhibit hours: 9:30 a.m.—noon. Show-goers then have a few hours to mingle with colleagues before packing up and heading home.

Contact: Joe Holmes, MSIBA, 2309 N.W. 120 St., Oklahoma City, Okla. 73120; (405) 751-5681; midsouthbooks@juno.com; www.msiba.org and Susan Kent, Treehouse Readers, 2855 Lake Houston Pkwy., #107, Kingswood, Tex. 77339; (281) 361-6110; .

Southeast Booksellers Association

Trade show meets Fri., Sept. 21—Sun., Sept. 23, at the Cook Convention Center, Memphis, Tenn.

SEBA celebrates its 25th anniversary in Memphis, the city on the mighty Mississippi that calls itself the "Birthplace of the Blues." With a mandate "to empower, promote, and celebrate core-member bookstores in a spirit of partnership," the show organizers have once again put together a weekend packed with promise.

Although Friday is considered the official start to the show, educational programming begins on Thursday with an all-day bookseller school called, "What a Great Bookstore!" This management course runs from 9 a.m.—5 p.m. at the convention center. That evening, Mary Gay Shipley and the folks at That Bookstore in Blytheville invite booksellers to "come on over." Bus transportation is sponsored by HarperCollins. Regional humorist Doug Marlette plans to share a few homespun tales and home-down BBQ at the shindig. It starts at 5:30 p.m. and all are welcome!

At 8 a.m. on Friday, it's breakfast with the SEBA board. The educational programming—sponsored this year by Random House Inc.—gets into full swing at 9 a.m. when Doug Hall presents "Jump Start Your Business Brain," a seminar guaranteed to provide a bigger jolt than a second cup of joe. At the same time, ABA CEO Avin Domnitz offers his basic course on bookstore finances. On the esoteric side, feng shui practitioner Jami Lin gives a one-hour lesson on design and visual merchandising at 11 a.m. There's also a tour of Burke's Bookstore, The Deliberate Literate and Davis-Kidd Booksellers. Inkreadible Sponsor Baker & Taylor hosts the noontime Kick-Off Author Luncheon with James Hall (Blackwater Sound) and Ken Davis (Don't Know Much About the Universe). Panels and workshops resume after lunch. At 2 p.m., there's a tour and panel sponsored by Houghton Mifflin and Doubleday. Author James Hirsch (Riot and Remembrance) and historian William Doyle (An American Insurrection) will take the city of Memphis and the Civil Rights Movement as their subject. The same afternoon, Michael Hoynes reviews various marketing programs in a traditional classroom setting.

Between those two events, at 3:30 p.m., Booklink rep Linda Dreyfus takes first-time exhibitors through their paces at a "gold star" show orientation session. And in a concurrent session, Vintage Books v-p and director of publicity Russell Perreault moderates a panel about the bottom-line benefits of organizing and maintaining reading groups. The day ends with a workshop on marketing, promotion and special-event strategies coordinated by Caren and Dick Lobo. Classes break at 5 p.m. sharp so that everyone can get ready for the SEBA 25th Anniversary Party. The party gets under way at 7 p.m. when a parade of authors takes center stage. More than 35 authors are on the roster, including Robert Olen Butler, Joan Hess, Christopher Rice, Mary Robinson and Philip Yancey. Ingram Book Company sponsors the party.

For those who can manage an early wake-up after a long-night out, the 8 a.m. Saturday Rutledge Hill-sponsored breakfast headlines Lorraine Johnson-Coleman, author of Larissa's Breadbook Baking Book and Telling Tales with Women of the American South. Attendees will sample recipes and folklore taken from Lorraine's latest cookbook. The Gold Star Orientation for first-time Booksellers is slated for 9 a.m. Exhibit hours: 9 a.m.—noon and 1:30—5 p.m.; autographings: 2—5 p.m. Saturday's book and author luncheon features storyteller Mem Fox (Reading Magic), and children's book illustrators Steven Kellogg (A Penguin Pup for Pinkerton), Michael Hague (Kate Culhane: A Ghost Story). SEBA's annual meeting is at 5:30 p.m. The SEBA supper will be held at 8 p.m. that evening. George P. Pelecanos (Hell to Pay), Rick Bragg (Ava's Man) and Kinky Friedman (Kinky Friedman's Guide to Texas Etiquette) are dinner guests at this Warner Books-sponsored affair.

At 8 a.m. Sunday morning, there's a breakfast sponsored by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. Jill McCorkle (Creatures of Habit) joins Robert Morgan (This Rock), Stella Suberman (The Jew Store), Melanie Sumner (The School of Beauty and Charm) and Wendy Brenner (Phone Calls from the Dead). Exhibit hours: 10 a.m.—1 p.m.; autographings: 9 a.m.—1 p.m. Gloria Pinckney hosts this year's morning readings, featuring John Dufresne, Craig Holden, Jerry B. Jenkins, Christine Lincoln, Nancy Mace, Michael Malone and others. The show ends with the traditional Grand Finale Book & Author Luncheon; Bobbie Ann Mason (Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail), Susan Isaacs (Long Time No See) and Connie Mae Fowler (When Katie Fades) are guest speakers. A round of applause is extended to HarperCollins for supporting the conclusion of what should be a successful show.

Contact:Wanda Jewell, 2730 Devine St., Columbia, S.C. 29205; (803) 252-7755; sebajewell@aol.com; www.sebaweb.org.