ABA's Spanish-Language Bookstore Focus Group to Meet

The American Booksellers Association will convene a Spanish-Language Bookstore Focus Group on the world of Spanish-language bookselling, in both Spanish-language stores and within general trade stores, on November 18 at the 2005 Miami Book Fair International (MBFI). The goal of the group will be to better understand the needs and challenges of bookselling to, and by, the Latino community, with an eye towards developing new education, marketing, and other programs to meet these needs. The Latino population is the fastest growing minority group in the nation, and ABA believes serving this segment is crucial and beneficial for both bookstores and communities.

"We have a terrific group of booksellers gathering for our first Spanish-language booksellers focus group in Miami," said Associate Book Sense Marketing Director Meg Smith. "These are enthusiastic, committed booksellers from across the country, and we believe they will provide us with a much clearer picture of the challenges and issues facing stores serving this diverse and growing demographic."

Confirmed participants include Celia Brehm of Cultural Legacy in Denver; Raquel Roque of Downtown Book Center in Miami; Bonnie Olesh of Fifth Avenue Books in El Centro, California; Dennis Evans of Sam Weller's in Salt Lake City; America Alvarez of La Moderna Poesia in Miami; Ruby Haberkamp of Libreria Diamante in Gaithersburg, Maryland; Books & Books in Miami; Josefina Aguilar of Espresso Mi Cultura Books & Coffee in Los Angeles; Tonia Ramirez and Luciano Ramirez of Latino Books y Mas in Palm Springs, California; and Elisa Garcia of ImixBooks in Los Angeles.

The MBFI will hold its street fair from November 18 to November 20 and its Congress of Authors from November 13 to November 20. MBFI chair, as well as ABA president, Mitchell Kaplan of Books & Books said that the fair would not be affected by the aftereffects of Hurricane Wilma. "The book fair is going on in full force," said Kaplan. "There's nothing in its way. It's moving forward and starts on the 13th. We're excited about it. It's going to be a good one."

The Spanish-language focus group will be held at 10:00 a.m. at Miami Market Research and will be facilitated by Valerie and Gary Berman of Market Segment Research. The Bermans are leaders in multicultural marketing research. --Karen Schechner