Like a fine Champagne that has lost its sparkle, the 29th annual NEBA Trade Show held at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence September 27—29 was noticeably flat. One publisher commented that the show, back in Providence for the first time since 1999, "had less buoyancy" and "seemed much smaller." But, in fact, the largest regional association still attracted 1,432 booksellers, down just 7% from last year's high of 1,540. Close to 1,100 orders were placed, and more than $5,150 was raised for the Rhode Island chapter of Reach Out and Read through donations for autographed books.

Despite the somewhat reduced total attendance, 2,340 people in all, there was no question among exhibitors that the show was well worth the price of admission. Commission sales representative Sara Sinclair of Spurgin & Sinclair Associates commented, "Business has been steady. I think everyone's enjoying the city." Similarly Roger Williams, v-p and director of field and online sales for Simon & Schuster, said, "We're having a good show, and we're accomplishing our mission: meeting face-to-face with our customers." First time exhibitor Erin Ruddick, founder of InScribe Publishing, an online custom-publishing service for consumers, told PW, "One of the great things is how willing people have been to give us their thoughts on our product. People want us to succeed."

On the bookseller side, most were more than satisfied with the switch in venues from Boston. Joan Grenier, co-owner of Odyssey Bookshop in S. Hadley, Mass., who was at the show buying remainders, was among many who stated simply, "I like Providence." The proximity of the convention hotel, which is connected to the Rhode Island Convention Center by a skywalk, was important to Betsy Detwiler, owner of Buttonwood Books and Toys in Cohasset and Hingham, Mass. "I like it here," she told PW. "The hotel is so convenient, and we've been able to connect with authors a lot."

While the somber mood of this year's show reflected the flat book sales in New England this year, there were a number of high points. Saturday's bookseller dinner, the first ever moveable feast with 12 authors rotating among more than 160 diners, was a big success. The show opened on Friday with what the Car Talk hosts would likely have dubbed "an encore presentation" from BEA by Jeffrey Stamp on "Jump Start Your Business Brain." Based on Eureka! Ranch colleague Doug Hall's eponymous book, the morning and afternoon workshops took booksellers step-by-step through the ranch's technique for developing "capitalist creativity." Stamp discussed 10 of the best ideas for promoting books that were developed at BEA, including his personal favorite: a 76-minute CD sampler describing all Book Sense 76 selections. For Stamp, the Book Sense list is "the most underutilized asset in this organization."

At Friday's industry lunch, two Vermonters were honored by NEBA president Linda Ramsdell, owner of Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick, Vt. Poet Donald Hall received the President's Award for a lifetime of achievement in arts and letters and independent rep Nanci McCrackin won the Saul Gilman Award for outstanding New England sales representative. Both awards carry a $1,000 donation to the literacy fund of the recipient's choosing; both winners chose the New Hampshire Council on Literacy. In addition, Chronicle Books, which is one of the lines that McCrackin represents, made a $250 donation to NHCL. Keynote speaker Gary Fisketjon, v-p and editor-at-large at Knopf, spoke about the personal benefits of working in publishing. "Totally unexpectedly, you get paid to read and get to make long distance calls for free," he joked. On a more serious note, Fisketjon thanked booksellers "for keeping my kind of books alive and well.... A list like Knopf's couldn't exist without strong independent booksellers."

Author Draws

The biggest event of the show, drawing more than 200 attendees, was the Sunday morning breakfast with this year's New England Book Award winners—Chris Bohjalian for fiction, Leonard Everett Fisher for children's books, Howard Zinn for nonfiction and the University Press of New England, represented by director Richard Abel, for publishing. The three authors donated their $500 checks to the Children's Literacy Foundation, Literacy Volunteers of America of Southern Connecticut and the Prison Book Project, respectively.

Other author events included a Saturday morning breakfast with a very shy Donna Tartt (The Little Friend, Knopf), who said that despite her Southern heritage, she considers herself a New Englander. "My first book [The Secret History, Ballantine] was written in New England about New England. There's a real sense that I do feel myself to be a New England writer," she said. Derrick Bell (Ethical Ambition, Bloomsbury) spoke about the need for integrity to achieve success, and cited examples such as Paul Robeson and W.E.B. DuBois. Brad Watson (The Heaven of Mercury, Norton), however, was the surprise hit of the breakfast with a very funny explanation of why it's so hard to explain what a book is about, especially his books.

Another strong draw was a panel organized by the New England Children's Booksellers Advisory Council on "Sex and Drugs and Children's Books." Participants included NECBA members Alison Morris of Wellesley Booksmith in Wellesley, Mass., and Josie Leavitt, co-owner of the Flying Pig Bookstore in Charlotte, Vt.; YA editor Sharyn November of Penguin Putnam; and writers M.T. Anderson (Feed, Candlewick) and Ellen Wittlinger (The Long Night of Leo and Bree, Simon & Schuster). "We live in the age of the edgy novel," said Anderson. "We are veering toward the wedgy novel, where authors keep yanking on the underwear until the reader feels the pain." "I'm sick of edginess," responded November. "Not every teenager has alcoholic parents. Not every teenager is shooting up. Not every teenager is sleeping around. It's really misrepresentational."

NEBA's "Book Doctors," a team of experienced booksellers who agree to share their knowledge with NEBA members throughout the year, addressed questions such as charging for events at a boxed lunch on Saturday. The two newest doctors, David Didriksen, owner of Willow Books in Acton, Mass., and Bob Hugo, owner of Spirit of '76 Bookshop in Marblehead, Mass., joined Jenny Lawton, who recently purchased Just Books in Greenwich, Conn., and moderator Ivan Barkhorn, a strategic consultant to the ABA, on a program on Succession Planning. They offered suggestions on figuring out what a business is worth. The bottom line, Didriksen explained, "is whatever people will pay for it." He also advised that "If there is a key employee, get them on your side immediately."

At the annual meeting, Ramsdell drew booksellers' attention to a new NEBA program to promote holiday titles. This year NEBA is offering $50 for window and/or in-store displays that are up for at least two weeks between Thanksgiving and January 10 and feature the catalogue books. "One of the goals [the board] articulated was we wanted to facilitate imaginative leaps," he said. "We wanted to build capacity for new projects." She pointed to the October launch of Read Around New England, Read Around New York, a celebration of New England authors and New England bookstores, as one such project. Ramsdell defined the most critical challenge facing NEBA—and the industry as a whole—as attracting younger booksellers.

Next year NEBA will return to Providence October 24—26 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the trade show.