Industry Voices

06 Oct

Accent on Education and Professional Development at Lively GLBA Show

By Liz Murphy of The Learned Owl Book Shop in Hudson, Ohio

I always return from the Great Lakes Booksellers Association fall trade show re-enthused, re-vitalized, and (almost) ready to face the holidays! This show was no different.

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28 Sep
15 Sep

PNBA Show Continues a Proud Tradition

By Scott Foley of Grass Roots Books & Music in Corvallis, Oregon

On a day rumored to be the last truly warm day of the summer, members of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association gathered at Portland, Oregon's Convention Center to begin three days of networking, education, and business, from September 8 to 10.

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08 Sep

Dealing With Disasters: Business Steps to Take When a Disaster Strikes

By Neal Coonerty, Owner of Bookshop Santa Cruz

Every disaster brings its own unique destruction. The Gulf Coast devastation that resulted from Hurricane Katrina is Biblical in scope, overwhelming with sorrow, and is our national shame to bear. In the midst of all this death and human suffering, it is hard to think about dealing with the problems created for businesses in a disaster zone. But we do, because healing involves recreating a healthy community that includes such businesses as independent bookstores.

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23 Aug

On Koen's Demise: A Bookseller Shares His Thoughts

By Kenny Brechner of Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers

The business practices that made so many profitable independent bookstores love Koen Book Distributors are not, I emphatically believe, related to Koen's demise. These business practices were excellent, and it is vitally important to the northeastern independent bookselling community that they find a new home.

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16 Aug

Make Your Mark Through Marketing

Chuck RobinsonBy Chuck Robinson, co-owner of Village Books in Bellingham, Washington

"If you build it they will come" is a great line from a great novel and movie. As a business marketing philosophy -- often adopted by booksellers -- it leaves a great deal to be desired. They will come when they are invited and invited and reminded and reminded. In other words, when marketing is used effectively.

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04 Nov

T-Shirts and Quite a Bit More at NAIBA's Trade Show

On Sunday and Monday, October 24 - 25, 578 booksellers, 417 publishers, and a slew of authors gathered at the Borgata Hotel in Atlantic City for the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Trade Show. "The show is always a great time for booksellers to meet new booksellers, and see old friends," said NAIBA Executive Director Eileen Dengler.

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21 Oct

Making Connections at Well-Attended NEBA Show

Attendance at the New England Booksellers Association (NEBA) fall trade show, which was held from Friday, October 8, to Sunday, October 10, at Boston's World Trade Center, was up slightly this year compared to last year's show in Providence, Rhode Island, reported NEBA Executive Director Rusty Drugan, who told BTW that "the educational programming ... was a hit throughout the show.

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14 Oct

An Energizing GLBA Trade Show

"The Little Trade Show With Heart" is the way Jim Dana, executive director of the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, described the regional's show, which was held in Dearborn, Michigan, from October 8 - 10. "A number of people commented to me on how 'close-knit' our group is, the 'family feel,' the 'intimacy,'" said Dana.

Among the new and successful events at this year's show was the Quiz Bowl, sponsored by Simon & Schuster and inspired by A.J. Jacobs' book Know-It-All.

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12 Oct

Reader Privacy Concerns Overblown Says Tampa Trib -- Not So Say Booksellers

On Tuesday, October 5, Florida's Tampa Tribune published an editorial entitled "The Patriot Act's License to Snoop Causes Unjustified Anxiety " that began by stating, "Fears that the Patriot Act allows government agents to spy on everyone's library records are wildly overblown. All the three-year-old law does is open a variety of semiprivate files to scrutiny by agents conducting espionage investigations.

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07 Oct

UMBA Show Proves to Be an Inspiring Experience

"Total attendance at this year's Upper Midwest Booksellers Association (UMBA) fall trade show, which was held from Friday, October 1, to Sunday, October 3, at the RiverCentre in St. Paul, Minnesota, was a bit lower than last year, said UMBA Executive Director Susan Walker, due in part to the closing of St. Paul's Ruminator Books and a change in the admissions policy, which affected the number of "peripheral people" in attendance.

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29 Sep

NEA's Reading at Risk Redux

By Robert Gray

In July, NEA chairman Dana Gioia announced the dismal results of a survey of America's reading habits, including the news that those people admitting to having read fiction, poetry, or plays had dipped to 46.7 percent in 2002, down from 54 percent the last time the survey was done in 1992.

A copy of the study still rests on my desk, taunting me.

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The American Booksellers Association, a national not-for-profit trade organization, works with booksellers and industry partners to ensure the success and profitability of independently owned book retailers, and to assist in expanding the community of the book.

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