Trade Show 2011 – A Hit!
”The theme at MPIBA this year seemed to be relationship building; not just between the new executive director, new board members and new attendees. There’s an eagerness to engage all kinds of other people in the business of bookselling.”
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-Anne Holman, The King’s English Bookstore
Overheard in the exhibit hall:
“Best show ever …”
“Such a fabulous, well-lit room …”
“Hotel food is the best …”
“Hotel staff is so nice …”
“Location is perfect!”
The Trade Show was so very upbeat — and we are talking about an industry that is struggling as never before in its history.
And then the stars collided to make sure the author lineup at the dinner was stellar — everyone was commenting on the program, how much fun it was, and yes, even the food was good!
I can honestly say that I’m looking forward to next year!
-Dory Dutton, Karel/Dutton Group
“MPIBA: Enthusiastic Show”
by Judith Rosen
Publishers Weekly
October 3, 2011
Like its members, Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association has been rethinking everything it does, from a new venue for this year’s trade show, the Renaissance Denver (Sept. 30-Oct. 2), to a new executive director, Laura Ayrey, appointed during the past year. In some ways the selection of this year’s hotel serves as a reminder that it is possible to reinvent oneself and move forward despite changing times. The Renaissance seemed destined to fail when Denver closed the Stapleton International Airport across the street. Instead it has thrived while the city has redeveloped the area over the past 15 yerars to include stores, homes, and even an elementary school.
That’s not to say that things have necessarily been easy for booksellers in the region, which extends all the way from Texas to the Canadian border in Montana. In a session on Best Things I Did This Year, moderator Andy Nettle, co-owner of Back of Beyond Books in Moab, Ariz., said, “I opened [this session] up last year saying that this is the most challenging year ever, and we all need to share ideas. Ditto.” Some, like Becky Smith, manager of Town Crier Bookstore in Emporia, Kans., credit toys and games with not only helping the children’s section, but the store’s numbers overall. Others like Arsen Kashkashian, inventory control manager at Boulder Bookstore in Boulder, Colo., have moved to charging for events. “The jury is still out on if it’s our best idea,” said Kashkashian. “Attendance has gone down, but book sales are growing. Now we’re looking at events with a more critical eye. Can we sell a $5 ticket?”
Later, in one of a trio of sessions created by publishers to give booksellers the 411, Ruth Liebmann, v-p and director of account marketing for Random House, advised booksellers to make use of their best customers to sell more books. “A thread running through all the trade shows is what at Random House we’re calling ‘the unofficial bookseller,’ the person in your community who feels an emotional connection to your store,” she said. MPIBA president Meghan Goel, children’s book buyer at BookPeople in Austin, agreed. She’s doing that by inviting YA lit bloggers to come to store events, interview the authors, and create a buy-books link to BookPeople.com instead of Amazon.
In addition to educational programming, MPIBA gave booksellers a chance to meet more than two dozen adult and children’s authors at breakfasts, afternoon teas, and a literacy dinner with Christopher Moore (Sacre Blue, Morrow, Apr. ‘12), Hillary Jordan(When She Woke, Algonquin), and Shannon Hale (Midnight in Austenland, Bloomsbury, Feb. ‘12).
There were also two days of rep picks and an active exhibit hall that drew booksellers like Nettle, who was looking for books he missed, since he doesn’t buy direct. “This show is more important to me than ever,” he said. Similarly, Julie Shimada at Maria’s Bookshop in Durango, Colo., noted, “I look for authors and affirmation for what we ordered.” MPIBA also offered an opportunity for new bookstore owners like Arvin Ram, who opened Townie Books in Crested Butte, Colo., just a few months ago, to meet with publishers and seasoned booksellers.
But it’s not only booksellers who found the show helpful. First-time exhibitor and self-publisher Holli Pfau of Glad Dog Press, called MPIBA “a fabulous experience.” Her book about her rescue Golden Retrievers, Pure Gold, had already been doing well in Durango, where she lives, and hit number one on Maria’s bestsellers list. At MPIBA she was able to book events throughout the state.
“MPIBA Show Partnerships,
‘Unofficial Booksellers’ “
by Robert Gray
Shelf Awareness
October 7, 2011
“I look around this room and see the people who have made my career,” said Bruce Machart — author of The Wake of Forgiveness and soon-to-be-published Men in the Making — during the Author Banquet for Literacy at last weekend’s Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association trade show in Denver, Colo.
“Find somebody who does what you do, and find out if they do it better,” advised Neil Strandberg of the Tattered Cover Book Store, Denver, at a panel about retail metrics.
“This is the one time we all get to legally plagiarize and steal from our colleagues,” said moderator Andy Nettle of Back of Beyond Books, Moab, Utah, at the always well-attended “Best Thing I Did this Year” session for booksellers, where partnerships were mentioned frequently. Several people also said they had taken ideas from last year’s discussion and put them into action.
Building partnerships with other booksellers, with suppliers, with authors, with libraries, with local businesses and communities — both online and offline — was at the forefront of many discussions during the show. The retail numbers game and numerous creative promotional ideas will be explored further in upcoming columns. They are unquestionably conversation starters. In Denver last week, they also were emblematic of the show’s overall theme.
Relationships matter.
At a “Publishers–What’s the 411″ session, moderator Ruth Liebmann, director of account marketing at Random House, led a conversation about the ways in which booksellers can take advantage of the “blurring of the lines” in the book world to harness the passion and energy being generated by reading groups, teachers, librarians, bloggers and the myriad social networking connections that comprise an army of “unofficial booksellers.”
A “Building Vibrant Partnerships with Local Libraries” panel generated considerable attention and buzz. “I do think a big theme of the conference was community building,” said panelist and MPIBA president Meghan Dietsche Goel of BookPeople, Austin, Tex. “The great thing about that session was that while the three of us on the panel were all talking about specific approaches that had worked for us, we also had a number of people in the audience with their own experiences to share. We even had several librarian voices there who could speak specifically about how to best collaborate with those in their world.
“I think the lesson of the panel was that there really isn’t one way to develop successful community partnerships because they ultimately reflect each of our individual communities. A lot of us in the room have found that by simply opening the door to those conversations and exploring how to pool our resources, our stores, our libraries and our local readers can really benefit.”
Anne Holman of the King’s English Bookshop, Salt Lake City, Utah, was also on the partnering with libraries panel. She noted that the “theme at MPIBA this year seemed to be relationship building; not just between the new executive director, new board members and new attendees. There’s an eagerness to engage all kinds of other people in the business of bookselling. The panel I was on dealt with how to work together with libraries big and small, public and private, city and county to bring books and community together. Librarians and booksellers in the room were excited about new ideas to try and new relationships waiting to be forged.”
For Daiva Chesonis, the show was an opportunity to build relationships for the first time as an owner after years as a book buyer. Ten months ago, she and Bobbi Smith purchased Between the Covers Bookstore, Telluride, Colo. (Shelf Awareness, December 13, 2010).
“We’ve attended MPIBA the previous three years, but this was our first show as owners,” Chesonis observed. “Did it feel different? Yes. The congratulatory remarks sure felt good, even 10 months in, and our absorption levels seemed to go up a notch, as if we had sprouted ears all over our heads. These regionals are invaluable at any level of vested interest… and the post-sessions chit-chat over cocktails is like night school without notebooks. Viva la regionals!”
MPIBA executive director Laura Ayrey “found the conversations surrounding the ‘unofficial bookseller’ to be intriguing and of importance now more than ever. It’s been said again and again, but with the closing of Borders stores in communities there is a stronger opportunity to capture those consumers. Original methods of communication have become so incredibly broad with social media and networking that within your own communities there are undoubtedly local bloggers, people with large Facebook & Twitter followings and even just local ‘big mouths’ that can be powerful advocates for your independent bookstores.”
She was also pleased with the positive response to a pair of new programs — Bring On Your Books (BOYB), through which booksellers can have their membership fees waived if they permit the MPIBA to place book ads on their shop websites; and a new consumer facing website Buzzaboutbooks.org.
“In this ever-changing industry we have been focused on creating additional revenue streams to not only keep Mountains & Plains solvent (which we are), but to also find new ways to support and expand awareness for our stores,” Ayrey observed. “We’re pushing the boundaries of how we’ve operated historically and it’s a very exciting time for MPIBA.”
–Robert Gray
(column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)
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