Tuesday, March 18, 2003
Here are some highlights from the Spring PNBA Trade Show in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho:
Meeting a young bookseller who drove from Moscow, Idaho to get to the show, his first tradeshow. He wanted to learn more about the business. I love seeing enthusiasm for bookselling!
"I don't want to be in a business that increasingly launches new books only before Christmas for holiday sales. I want to be in a business that promotes books year round."
-Quote from a bookseller during the PNBA Membership meeting on Friday afternoon
Barbara Theroux (from Fact and Fiction) and Chris (from Auntie's Books) explaining the history of the Spring event: they started the show as a way for stores east of the I-5 corridor to have a time to get together and meet with sales reps, but mostly just to get together and give the region a sense of identity. There were some strong feelings against the planned move of the spring show from the Spokane/Idaho area to closer to Seattle and Portland. (I think it'd be great if we had a spring meeting in Idaho or Montana that had more programs for booksellers and authors to meet and less emphasis on needing a show floor with booths.)
Sitting in on Avin Domnitz's session on the ABACUS study for bookstore data. The ABA is collecting this data to build a better idea of the benchmarks for performance for all independent bookstores. The info can tell us what are the average payroll, rent, sales, and other business factors in determining a successful and profitable bookstore. This is going to be very valuable if they get enough stores supplying data. Not only will it help current bookstores evaluate their situations, it will help new and expanding bookstores have better comparison data to use when applying for loans or other funding.
Watching PNBA award winner Michael Collins spend all day Saturday playing with his daughter in the hotel hallways.
Escaping the hotel for a couple hours and finding a GREAT used book store two blocks away. George Nolan Books had a wonderful selection in a labyrinth of wooden shelves. Classical music playing, framed artwork above the bookcases, and numerous finds. I'd love to get back to Coeur D'Alene to spend more time at this shop.
PNBA Award winner, Chuck Palahniuk and his green corduroy jacket covered in jeweled brooches. Palahniuk had collected "35 pounds of jewelry" while doing research on his latest two novels. This gave him a way to get rid of it. So he pinned them all to his sportscoat and strutted through the hotel looking like the "white Michael Jackson" to the cocktail party before the banquet. At the party, he asked all of us to pull them off the coat as souvenirs for the evening.
At the Sunday Author Breakfast, listening to Paul Collins talk about his new book Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books, about trying to move to the bookseller town of Hay-on-Wye in Wales. (This looks to be a must-read for us bookstore lovers.)
|
Go to Top of Page
Meeting a young bookseller who drove from Moscow, Idaho to get to the show, his first tradeshow. He wanted to learn more about the business. I love seeing enthusiasm for bookselling!
"I don't want to be in a business that increasingly launches new books only before Christmas for holiday sales. I want to be in a business that promotes books year round."
-Quote from a bookseller during the PNBA Membership meeting on Friday afternoon
Barbara Theroux (from Fact and Fiction) and Chris (from Auntie's Books) explaining the history of the Spring event: they started the show as a way for stores east of the I-5 corridor to have a time to get together and meet with sales reps, but mostly just to get together and give the region a sense of identity. There were some strong feelings against the planned move of the spring show from the Spokane/Idaho area to closer to Seattle and Portland. (I think it'd be great if we had a spring meeting in Idaho or Montana that had more programs for booksellers and authors to meet and less emphasis on needing a show floor with booths.)
Sitting in on Avin Domnitz's session on the ABACUS study for bookstore data. The ABA is collecting this data to build a better idea of the benchmarks for performance for all independent bookstores. The info can tell us what are the average payroll, rent, sales, and other business factors in determining a successful and profitable bookstore. This is going to be very valuable if they get enough stores supplying data. Not only will it help current bookstores evaluate their situations, it will help new and expanding bookstores have better comparison data to use when applying for loans or other funding.
Watching PNBA award winner Michael Collins spend all day Saturday playing with his daughter in the hotel hallways.
Escaping the hotel for a couple hours and finding a GREAT used book store two blocks away. George Nolan Books had a wonderful selection in a labyrinth of wooden shelves. Classical music playing, framed artwork above the bookcases, and numerous finds. I'd love to get back to Coeur D'Alene to spend more time at this shop.
PNBA Award winner, Chuck Palahniuk and his green corduroy jacket covered in jeweled brooches. Palahniuk had collected "35 pounds of jewelry" while doing research on his latest two novels. This gave him a way to get rid of it. So he pinned them all to his sportscoat and strutted through the hotel looking like the "white Michael Jackson" to the cocktail party before the banquet. At the party, he asked all of us to pull them off the coat as souvenirs for the evening.
At the Sunday Author Breakfast, listening to Paul Collins talk about his new book Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books, about trying to move to the bookseller town of Hay-on-Wye in Wales. (This looks to be a must-read for us bookstore lovers.)
