SCBA Authors Feast and Fall Seminars Held as Wildfires Burn

The 2003 Southern California Booksellers Association (SCBA) Authors Feast and Fall Seminars were held Saturday, October 25, at the Westin Hotel in Pasadena, California. The day featured educational workshops and seminars and concluded with the popular annual Authors Feast. "It went very well," said SCBA President Lise Friedman. "It was a very interesting and successful day followed by a fun and wonderful evening," although the destruction caused by California's wildfires was in the back of everyone's mind.

Attendance was lower than expected at the educational seminars, Friedman said, but "people who went gained a lot."

Friedman noted that participants in the day's events could smell smoke and the air was hazy from the wildfires burning around San Diego, 50 - 75 miles away. (For more on the wildfires' effect on two local booksellers, click here.)

Educational seminars began as planned with a 9:30 breakfast with Book Sense Marketing Director Mark Nichols who talked about Book Sense opportunities and initiatives designed to increase savings and profitability. The session, "New Opportunities With Book Sense," provided information about the new Book Sense Gift Card program, Co-op Reimbursement Program, Book Sense Audio Library, Book Sense Bestseller List reporting options, and more. For Skylight Book's Kerry Slattery, the seminar eased confusion about how to process the electronic gift cards. Carrying gift cards was "something in the back of my mind that I knew we'd do," said Slattery. "At BEA it wasn't clear to me, but now it's clear how to toggle back and forth through Windows. I got things clarified, and we ordered the cards."

At noon, SCBA hosted its annual Author Luncheon. Jack Mitchell, CEO of Mitchells/Richards clothing stores and author of Hug Your Customers: The Proven Way to Personalize Sales and Achieve Astounding Results (Hyperion), was the featured speaker. Mitchell shared his strategies for improving customer interactions and hosted a Q&A session. Friedman said that Mitchell's presentation "convinced me to go out and hug everyone I know, including our customers." She added, "He just reconfirmed something that we already do, and can do more of, and that we're on the right course" regarding getting to know customers.

Nielsen BookScan was discussed later in the afternoon by a panel including Christian Waters, vice president, associate director, retail field sales, Random House; Charlie Trachtenbarg, Western regional sales manager of HarperCollins and an SCBA board member; Book Sense's Nichols; and others. The session catalogued BookScan's benefits for booksellers, including how easy BookScan makes reporting to the Book Sense Bestseller List.

Slattery told BTW that she was more inclined to report to the Bestseller list after attending the seminar and asking questions about the program. "I'm seeing how independent booksellers can have a stronger voice with publishers. I think it's worth trying."

At the SCBA General Meeting, ABFFE board member Slattery led a discussion about the Patriot Act amendments pending in Congress and showed Reading Your Rights, a documentary about Denver's Tattered Cover and its fight to protect the privacy of a customer. Slattery mentioned that showing the documentary was one of the highlights of the show for her and that it was a "dramatic and powerful film."

The 11th Annual Authors Feast capped the day. Over 40 authors attended this year's event including Todd Boyd (Young, Black, Rich, and Famous, Broadway Books), Gayle Brandeis (The Book of Dead Birds, HarperCollins), Laurie Fox (The Lost Girls, S&S), Amy Stewart (The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms, Algonquin), Mark Lee (Canal House, Algonquin), and Carolyn See (Making a Literary Life, Random House).

The dinner was terrific, said Slattery, who presented the 2003 SCBA Book Awards. T. Jefferson Parker won the fiction award for Cold Pursuit, (Hyperion); Carolyn See won the nonfiction award for Making a Literary Life; and the children's award went to Kathleen Krull for Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez (Harcourt). Friedman said that See's work was "at the heart of Southern California writing" and that she was a "great supporter of other writers and writing programs."

After the Feast, SCBA hosted its second After Feast Party, featuring music, a "no-host bar," and poker lessons given by Jim McManus, author of Positively Fifth Street (FSG).

"It was entertaining and fun," said Friedman. "We're already planning for next year." --Karen Schechner