Attendance Steady at Upbeat PNBA Show

Last week's trade show in Portland, Oregon, "felt like a retreat for booksellers, authors, publishers, and librarians," said Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association President Paul Hanson of Eagle Harbor Book Company in Bainbridge Island, Washington. "It was an intensive couple of days, and we all got to have a meeting of the minds. Everyone seemed to go away jazzed and inspired."

For the September 15 - 17 event at the Airport Holiday Inn, PNBA experimented with inviting more librarians to the show, as well as including more education sessions based on bookseller-librarian collaboration. "We're seeing more librarians needing to become further involved with the community," Hanson said. "Coordinating them with independent booksellers seemed like a natural fit.... Hopefully we'll be hearing some success stories."

"Overall, staff and the board were pleased with the show," said PNBA Executive Director Thom Chambliss, who noted that the number of booksellers in attendance was just about holding steady. "The reps who stayed the second day were almost unanimous in saying that it was worthwhile. Many of the independent reps were taking orders most of the day," he added. "The new first night event, the Nightcapper, was very well attended, and the buzz about it was all positive. We will repeat that format next year. The Author Feast on Tuesday night was a sell-out for the first time in five years."

As part of Monday's full roster of education, ABA presented three sessions. "Creating Killer Events," facilitated by ABA COO Oren Teicher, featured a how-to session with Roberta Dyer of Broadway Books in Portland, Oregon, and Sweet Pea Flaherty of King's Books in Tacoma, Washington. Pam Evans of Darvill's Bookstore Inc. in Eastsound, Washington, thought the session addressed the needs of different size stores. "Being on an island, our situation is unique. This session covered large, small, and specialty stores, and I felt like it could be applied to us."

Evans was pleased with the show overall -- "It just seemed really well organized" -- and with Monday's keynote lunch speaker Garth Stein (The Art of Racing in the Rain, Harper), who got points both for his humor and for acknowledging his base. "He said all the right things about independent bookstores," explained Evans. "That's where he got his start, and he feels he owes it all to smaller bookstores."

The "Green Retailing" session presented by ABA's Teicher examined how booksellers can be smarter, cleaner, more efficient retailers, as well as ways to save money by going green. A week later, when Rebecca Guthrie of Bethel Avenue Book Company in Port Orchard, Washington, spoke to BTW, she said staff had already incorporated some of the tips from the session into the store's day-to-day operations -- including shutting off nearly all lighting fixtures and the stereo at night.

ABA Chief Marketing Officer Meg Smith led the session "Connecting to Your Customers and Community With IndieBound," which focused on ways IndieBound taps into the growing localism movement and how booksellers can use it to further communicate their core strengths. Booksellers also shared tips for using IndieBound promotional material within their shops and with other local businesses.

Guthrie reported that she "picked up all kinds of ideas" from the IndieBound session. "There were a number of small things that we could do right away. I really like the 'Here's What You've Just Did' flier. We're getting the big Eat Sleep Read poster mounted on foamcore, and we'll hang it from the ceiling. We're also printing Snack Nap Read posters for the Kid's section."

Eagle Harbor's Hanson noted that booksellers filled the room for the IndieBound session, and there was a mix of those who were curious, those still in an exploratory phase, and those who'd already successfully incorporated IndieBound in their stores. Regarding Eagle Harbor's experience with the program, Hanson said, "IndieBound came along just when we were looking into developing our own Buy Local program, so it dovetailed nicely."

Of the several author events, Broadway Books' Dyer especially liked the Author Feast. "Although it must be very hard work for the authors, as a bookseller I appreciated getting to know about new books that I had overlooked," she said. David Wolman, whose Righting the Mother Tongue (Harper) is a history of English spelling, and Susan Jane Gilman, author of Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven (Grand Central), the story of her disastrous post-college trip to China, were among the authors Dyer said she enjoyed meeting. "I also loved talking to Ivan Doig about his forthcoming novel about Montana football teammates and soldiers in WWII," she added.

Deon Stonehouse of Sunriver Books & Music in Sunriver, Oregon, said that for the Rep's Picks alone, the trip was worth it. "It's one of the main reasons I go. There are two reps who are always stunningly wonderful -- David Glenn at Random House and Dan Christiaens, at W.W. Norton. This year David got me interested in The Mule [Bantam] by Juan Eslava Galan and Past Caring [Delta] by Robert Goddard."

Stonehouse said that she plans on continuing her education with a two-day road trip with some of her store staff to attend ABA's Fourth Annual Winter Institute in Salt Lake City this January.

For Jennifer Pederson, owner of Darvill's Bookstore in Eastsound, Washington, the PNBA show is a must-attend mix of education, networking, socializing, and author events. "Because we're on an island, it's always a highlight to reconnect with people I know in the business. I love the education sessions. And we picked up some good galleys -- the new Anita Shreve, and Abraham Verghese has a new novel I'm excited about. Even though it was small, I thought it was a good show." --Karen Schechner