Saturday, October 09, 2004
GLBA Day 1
Hey all, I'm trying to keep ahead on these regional show notes. The Great Lakes Booksellers Association regional show is happening today through Sunday at the Hyatt in Dearborn, MI.
Today's seminars were very positive, and almost all of them had great attendance. I arrived halfway through the First Timers breakfast. (Thanks to show organizers for having coffee and muffins for this.) After Jim Dana's recommendation, I'll try to find an extra copy of the "Bookselling for Dummies" promo book Wiley published as a BEA giveaway.
At the "Ideas That Work" session I heard from a lot of booksellers, but not much that differed from the UMBA ideas session. I feel like there are a lot more stores from small towns at GLBA than at other regional shows. Thinking about the strong independent stores in this region, Shaman Drum, Book Stall, Carmichael's, McLean & Eakin, Joseph-Beth these are well-run stores but except for Joseph-Beth, these not large powerhouses like Powell's or Tattered Cover. In some ways this is refreshing that the educational seminars can be valuable and useful for more smaller stores, especially new and prospective booksellers.
Kathy at Books and Co. in Dayton, OH puts together workshops for local teachers to learn about new or unknown titles that work well in classrooms. She's worked with the board of education to be certified to award CEU's (Curriculum Education Units) to these teachers toward their teaching requirements. Brilliant.
Vicky at Blue Kangaroo in Danville, IL is having success with her baby registry and birthday parties for kids. And wow, do they have an impressive web site with a few bells and whistles.
After the Ideas workshop we went to the Book Awards Luncheon. How is it that I can walk into a lunch where I have only heard of one out of the four books, but walk out wanting to read all four?
Good choices GLBA, definitely all are award worthy:
Blue Balliett - author of Chasing Vermeer, a YA novel about a vanished Vermeer painting and the two sleuths who have to solve the mystery.
Candace Fleming - author the picture book Boxes for Katje. The story follows a young Indiana girl who mails a care package to a European family during WWII. The resulting friendship changes their lives. Fleming explained how the story is based on her mother's own experience of sending the same care package to a Dutch family after WWII. Her story was incredible, heartwarming and funny. Good book.
Ingrid Hill - Ursula, Under is the novel Bob Gray at Northshire Bookstore put on everyone's map through his PW writeup and on PublishersMarketplace.com. The story follows a fictional 2-year-old girl, Ursula, who has fallen in a mine shaft. The story takes unusual turns from there to meditate on the complexities of culture, class, and race. The author is a graduate of Iowa Writers still living in Iowa City. Important note, Algonquin Books is one of two small publishers that are publishing incredibly consistent quality new fiction (Macadam/Cage is the other). I'm at a point where I'll trust Craig Popelars (Algonquin's marketing guy) every time he says a new book is going to be good.
The best General Book Award went to Phyllis Vine for her nonfiction, One Man's Castle. It's the story of the 1925 trial of Dr. Ossian Sweet, a Detroit doctor, and Clarence Darrow, the famed lawyer who defended Sweet in the racially charged atmosphere between Blacks and Whites.
After the lunch was the spelling bee. I'm happy Mac's Backs won for the second year in a row.
How to Manage Backlist seminar - this became a long demo for John Rubin's Above the Treeline system for tracking a store's sales on a category and title level. I'm thankful that Rubin was the star of the show. This guy has built something incredible. If you're a bookseller who likes working on a computer, you must sign up for this program and use it to streamline your backlist ordering. The monthly charge is between $50 and $125 depending on your store size. You'll make this back in seven or eight trade paperbacks. It's amazing how much Treeline can help with returns and ordering missing backlist.
10 Things I want my Rep/Bookseller To Do - I'm now a rep, so I wanted to see what I was doing wrong. My biggest mistake is still not setting up appointments efficiently. I liked having Toby Hines from the Henry Ford Museum on the panel to give the perspective of the non-profit museum. Due to tax-exempt status, they have a lot different constraints than most general bookstores. The experience and skill of the reps, Charlie Boswell of Heinecken & Assoc and Laura Baratto of Random House, remind me how little I know about the business. So much still to learn.
At the cocktail reception, I ran into Claire Kirch from PW. Hopefully they'll be able to do an Above the Treeline article. In other news, Big Hat Books has set their opening for Fri, Oct 22. The owner, Elizabeth, has been smart about getting resources lined up instead of forcing an early opening.
Author dinner notes:
Dean Bakopoulos is swiftly moving toward his book's January launch. My prediction is this one is going to be a unanimous Book Sense Pick combined with a large surge of bookseller support for a first-time novelist. Dean already has a lot of friends from his time as manager of Canterbury Booksellers. He's made a lot of new fans through his pro-independent comments at UMBA last weekend and his appearances at other regional shows.
Other authors I was excited to see at the Moveable Feast:
Jane Monroe Donovan and her picture book Winter's Gift. This would be a good title for the Kid's Grief section, especially for the loss of a grandmother.
Greg Emmanuel, The 100-Yard War. Chronicles the story of the 100 year rivalry between the Michigan and Ohio State football teams. Greg's a nice guy, I hope his book does well.
Lolita Hernandez, Autopsy of an Engine and Other Stories from the Cadillac Plant. Short stories about the tragic nature of life in post-industrial Detroit.
Michael Hoeye, No Time Like Show Time. I thought this guy was too much of a bestselling author to do author dinners at regional shows. Maybe it's outside of his home region. At PNBA I think he'd be a keynote speaker for an event. It was refreshing to see him still out on the book trail, giving a stump speech for his work right alongside the first-time novelists. He'll be as famous as Lemony Snicket soon, so it was good to see him before he becomes the superstar.
Michael Perry, Off Main Street. Another rising star, his Population:485 was a sensation in the midwest and other small-town friendly parts of the world.
Nancy Reisman, The First Desire. I'd like to learn more about this book.
Rich Shapero, Wild Animus. The same author who dressed a man as a human goat and staged a mock protest about his book at BEA. I'm not kidding. I can't tell if this guy is a marketing genius or a publicity whore. Bookseller response so far has said the book isn't that good.
Sarah Stewart and David Small, author and illustrator of The Friend. Their presentation convinced me. This is an unusual picture book about a young girl who is frequently left by her wealthy parents to be raised by their African-American housekeeper. It's based on Stewart's real-life experience when she was young. The illustrator admits the tough subject matter and nature of the story. But as he said, there are many women who take care of children all day long as a job, then have to go home and take care of their own children. They deserve to have their story told.
Bob Tarte, Enslaved by Ducks. Sometimes a great title is enough to get you in the door.
Todd Tucker, Notre Dame vs. The Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan. Details the true story of the early twentieth century riot on Notre Dame's campus. I first encountered this book at Mitchell Books's Grand Opening party last month. It's a shocking slice of American history that could become an important history lesson. We all had to laugh, though, when the emcee of tonight's dinner jumbled the subtitle, "How the Fighting Irish Defended the Ku Klux Klan."
My intentions were to hang out and have a few drinks with folks, but I got sucked into the Prez debate tonight and typing up my day's notes. Good night.
|
Go to Top of Page
Today's seminars were very positive, and almost all of them had great attendance. I arrived halfway through the First Timers breakfast. (Thanks to show organizers for having coffee and muffins for this.) After Jim Dana's recommendation, I'll try to find an extra copy of the "Bookselling for Dummies" promo book Wiley published as a BEA giveaway.
At the "Ideas That Work" session I heard from a lot of booksellers, but not much that differed from the UMBA ideas session. I feel like there are a lot more stores from small towns at GLBA than at other regional shows. Thinking about the strong independent stores in this region, Shaman Drum, Book Stall, Carmichael's, McLean & Eakin, Joseph-Beth these are well-run stores but except for Joseph-Beth, these not large powerhouses like Powell's or Tattered Cover. In some ways this is refreshing that the educational seminars can be valuable and useful for more smaller stores, especially new and prospective booksellers.
Kathy at Books and Co. in Dayton, OH puts together workshops for local teachers to learn about new or unknown titles that work well in classrooms. She's worked with the board of education to be certified to award CEU's (Curriculum Education Units) to these teachers toward their teaching requirements. Brilliant.
Vicky at Blue Kangaroo in Danville, IL is having success with her baby registry and birthday parties for kids. And wow, do they have an impressive web site with a few bells and whistles.
After the Ideas workshop we went to the Book Awards Luncheon. How is it that I can walk into a lunch where I have only heard of one out of the four books, but walk out wanting to read all four?
Good choices GLBA, definitely all are award worthy:
Blue Balliett - author of Chasing Vermeer, a YA novel about a vanished Vermeer painting and the two sleuths who have to solve the mystery.
Candace Fleming - author the picture book Boxes for Katje. The story follows a young Indiana girl who mails a care package to a European family during WWII. The resulting friendship changes their lives. Fleming explained how the story is based on her mother's own experience of sending the same care package to a Dutch family after WWII. Her story was incredible, heartwarming and funny. Good book.
Ingrid Hill - Ursula, Under is the novel Bob Gray at Northshire Bookstore put on everyone's map through his PW writeup and on PublishersMarketplace.com. The story follows a fictional 2-year-old girl, Ursula, who has fallen in a mine shaft. The story takes unusual turns from there to meditate on the complexities of culture, class, and race. The author is a graduate of Iowa Writers still living in Iowa City. Important note, Algonquin Books is one of two small publishers that are publishing incredibly consistent quality new fiction (Macadam/Cage is the other). I'm at a point where I'll trust Craig Popelars (Algonquin's marketing guy) every time he says a new book is going to be good.
The best General Book Award went to Phyllis Vine for her nonfiction, One Man's Castle. It's the story of the 1925 trial of Dr. Ossian Sweet, a Detroit doctor, and Clarence Darrow, the famed lawyer who defended Sweet in the racially charged atmosphere between Blacks and Whites.
After the lunch was the spelling bee. I'm happy Mac's Backs won for the second year in a row.
How to Manage Backlist seminar - this became a long demo for John Rubin's Above the Treeline system for tracking a store's sales on a category and title level. I'm thankful that Rubin was the star of the show. This guy has built something incredible. If you're a bookseller who likes working on a computer, you must sign up for this program and use it to streamline your backlist ordering. The monthly charge is between $50 and $125 depending on your store size. You'll make this back in seven or eight trade paperbacks. It's amazing how much Treeline can help with returns and ordering missing backlist.
10 Things I want my Rep/Bookseller To Do - I'm now a rep, so I wanted to see what I was doing wrong. My biggest mistake is still not setting up appointments efficiently. I liked having Toby Hines from the Henry Ford Museum on the panel to give the perspective of the non-profit museum. Due to tax-exempt status, they have a lot different constraints than most general bookstores. The experience and skill of the reps, Charlie Boswell of Heinecken & Assoc and Laura Baratto of Random House, remind me how little I know about the business. So much still to learn.
At the cocktail reception, I ran into Claire Kirch from PW. Hopefully they'll be able to do an Above the Treeline article. In other news, Big Hat Books has set their opening for Fri, Oct 22. The owner, Elizabeth, has been smart about getting resources lined up instead of forcing an early opening.
Author dinner notes:
Dean Bakopoulos is swiftly moving toward his book's January launch. My prediction is this one is going to be a unanimous Book Sense Pick combined with a large surge of bookseller support for a first-time novelist. Dean already has a lot of friends from his time as manager of Canterbury Booksellers. He's made a lot of new fans through his pro-independent comments at UMBA last weekend and his appearances at other regional shows.
Other authors I was excited to see at the Moveable Feast:
Jane Monroe Donovan and her picture book Winter's Gift. This would be a good title for the Kid's Grief section, especially for the loss of a grandmother.
Greg Emmanuel, The 100-Yard War. Chronicles the story of the 100 year rivalry between the Michigan and Ohio State football teams. Greg's a nice guy, I hope his book does well.
Lolita Hernandez, Autopsy of an Engine and Other Stories from the Cadillac Plant. Short stories about the tragic nature of life in post-industrial Detroit.
Michael Hoeye, No Time Like Show Time. I thought this guy was too much of a bestselling author to do author dinners at regional shows. Maybe it's outside of his home region. At PNBA I think he'd be a keynote speaker for an event. It was refreshing to see him still out on the book trail, giving a stump speech for his work right alongside the first-time novelists. He'll be as famous as Lemony Snicket soon, so it was good to see him before he becomes the superstar.
Michael Perry, Off Main Street. Another rising star, his Population:485 was a sensation in the midwest and other small-town friendly parts of the world.
Nancy Reisman, The First Desire. I'd like to learn more about this book.
Rich Shapero, Wild Animus. The same author who dressed a man as a human goat and staged a mock protest about his book at BEA. I'm not kidding. I can't tell if this guy is a marketing genius or a publicity whore. Bookseller response so far has said the book isn't that good.
Sarah Stewart and David Small, author and illustrator of The Friend. Their presentation convinced me. This is an unusual picture book about a young girl who is frequently left by her wealthy parents to be raised by their African-American housekeeper. It's based on Stewart's real-life experience when she was young. The illustrator admits the tough subject matter and nature of the story. But as he said, there are many women who take care of children all day long as a job, then have to go home and take care of their own children. They deserve to have their story told.
Bob Tarte, Enslaved by Ducks. Sometimes a great title is enough to get you in the door.
Todd Tucker, Notre Dame vs. The Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan. Details the true story of the early twentieth century riot on Notre Dame's campus. I first encountered this book at Mitchell Books's Grand Opening party last month. It's a shocking slice of American history that could become an important history lesson. We all had to laugh, though, when the emcee of tonight's dinner jumbled the subtitle, "How the Fighting Irish Defended the Ku Klux Klan."
My intentions were to hang out and have a few drinks with folks, but I got sucked into the Prez debate tonight and typing up my day's notes. Good night.
