Live From BookExpo America -- Day 2

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On Thursday, May 28, ABA's Day of Education programming began with a thought-provoking and sometimes provocative panel discussion that explored how the relationship between authors and independent bookstores can continue to grow and prosper in challenging times.

Roxanne Coady, owner of R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Connecticut, moderated the panel, which featured a who's who of bestselling writers: author, poet, and film-maker Sherman Alexie, winner of this year's inaugural Indies Choice Book Award for Most Engaging Author; Jon Meacham, managing editor of Newsweek and author of Pulitzer Prize-winning American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, published by Random House last November; James Patterson, a finalist for the 2009 Children's Choice Book Awards "Author of the Year" for The Final Warning, the fourth book in his Maximum Ride series (Little, Brown Young Readers Group), and creator of ReadKiddoRead.com; and Lisa Scottoline, author of Look Again (St. Martin's) and more than 12 other legal suspense novels, which have appeared on national bestsellers including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times.

Outgoing ABA President Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona, who opened the session, likened the beginning of BookExpo America to waking up on Christmas morning and not knowing what you'll get. "It's always so exciting … seeing all those friends you haven't seen in a year," she said. "It's so much fun, and the Hotel ABA is such a treat."

"Yesterday, I was the president of ABA," Shanks continued, "and today I am a bookseller from Changing Hands in Tempe, Arizona, here to listen and learn and go back to the store and implement the things I've learned."

Shanks also thanked Ingram Book Group and Ingram Publisher Services for its "continued gracious support of ABA's educational programming. We could not have a better partner."

Skip Prichard, president and CEO of Ingram Content Group, said that indies are holding up against their bigger rivals, but urged them to listen to the advice provided by both experts in the field and from their customers. Technology and innovation are both key. He stated, "Ingram is passionate about books and magazines. The economic crisis will pass and many of you here will emerge from it much stronger."

Shanks also reminded attendees that they are invited to tonight's celebration in honor of retiring ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz, beginning at 9:00 p.m. in the Brooklyn Marriott's Legends Ballroom. With Domnitz in the audience, she noted this was the first public opportunity for booksellers to express their thanks for his service to the association, and attendees gave the outgoing CEO a rousing standing ovation. "And now we're saying hello to Oren Teicher, who will take over the association and change, lead, and engage us." Shanks also reminded ABA members about Friday's Celebration of Bookselling (reservations required), as well as to attend the ABA Town Hall and the Annual Meeting, where booksellers will vote on an amendment to the Bylaws.

Shanks also encouraged everyone to attend Saturday's session "How SBA and the Federal Stimulus Package Can Help Your Business," to be held from 10:30 a.m. - noon in Room 1E09 of the Javits Center. The featured speakers at this important event are Ana M. Ma, chief of staff at SBA, and Michael Goldman, a counselor for the New York City Chapter of SCORE and a past member of its executive committee.

Coady then took over as moderator and explained that she hoped for a frank discussion about what independent bookstores do well and what they need to change. To begin the discussion, she gave a statistical breakdown of book sales by channels: 30 percent sold in bookstore chains; 15 percent online; 10 percent in indie bookstores; and 45 percent in big box, warehouse, and specialty stores. "The question I have is, what do you see as the role of each of these channels?" Coady asked the panelists.

"In brief, what's happened is that everything has become the long tail," Scottoline said. During her career, she said, she has watched as "everything has morphed -- authors used to be the passengers on the publisher's train and then, at one point, we had to become more active. I think the real question is what do authors have to do." For example, if an author likes indie bookstores, Scottoline said she believes that he or she needs to "put their money where their mouth is" and tour there.

Coady noted that many times an author's career will kick off in independent bookstores, but as they become bigger, a larger chain has the capacity to sell more of their books. "How do you balance these competing kinds of pressure?" she asked the authors.

"I'm living a binary life," Alexie said. "Certainly, a bigger store might sell more copies, but the thing about independent bookstores is that they are more eccentric. You go in there for entirely different reasons, emotional reasons … and out of loyalty to the store."

Patterson stressed that more attention needs to be drawn to books. "Relatively speaking, there is not much publicity about [BookExpo America]. This is a big event. Comic-Con is [smaller]… and yet the amount written about that thing is incredible. Publishers, ABA, and authors, we all need to do something about that at the macro level."

Patterson added that independent bookstores have to do a better job of being more inclusive to the myriad readers that pass their doors each day. "There needs to be tolerance for all sorts of readers, whether they are Democrats or Republicans, or whether they want to read John Grisham or Gabriel Garcia Marquez…. As a country, we need to start focusing on the things we have in common with each other and stop focusing on the things that pull us apart."

Meacham pointed out the difference between books and reading when he observed that more and more people are turning to the Internet for news and other information. "The ducks are moving," he said. "And we have to hunt where the ducks are.

"I think the struggle that Newsweek is facing is analogous to the book industry.... I have to produce something people want to read and then figure out how they want to read it." He added: "We have to treat each reader -- whether they are reading [traditional] books or the Kindle -- seriously."

Patterson noted that if booksellers are not selling John Grisham or other bestselling authors, they need to ask themselves: "Am I reaching out to some of the people who walk by my store -- and do I want to?"

The discussion soon turned to independent bookstores' "eccentricities," as Alexie put it. "If your store is not focused on eccentricities, then you might as well be working at a chain store," he said.

"The case for eccentricity is a compelling one that we have been grappling with," Meacham said. "What do you have to offer that the big places don't -- that's your personality."

About the growth of e-books and their effect on independent bookstores, Patterson said, "I think it's going to be massive … because young people are so used to reading off of screens. They are very comfortable with that. I think it's going to grow like crazy, especially when screens come down in price. As to what happens in bookstores because of it, that's a tough question."

Meacham said, "I think we're at the beginning of something as big as [the transition from] letter writing to e-mail…. We need to create something people want no matter how they consume it."

Scottoline predicted that e-books might actually be a good thing for booksellers because the format might spur those who aren't traditional readers to read, and "they'll have to buy" the books from somewhere. "I agree it will be massive, but I don't think it will be like letter writing to e-mail."

"I am one of the last authors whose fiction is not available digitally," explained Alexie. "I think it's the opposite of the Gutenberg press, which enabled mass printing, reading, and literary egalitarianism. This will be elitist -- poor places will have no access to this technology."

Also adding to his opposition, he said, was uncertainty about the screens' effects on our health; digitization's possible homogenizing effect on what titles would be available; the effects he believes digital content will have on children, who already spend too much time staring at screens; and that the technology distances us from the book.

Bringing the threads of the wide-ranging conversation together, Coady noted, "People are not reading less, they are reading in different ways." The challenge for bookstores will be to "turn these readers of other formats" into book readers. "Things are changing but I still think there is an opportunity to expand the world of readers," she said, by embracing new technology and expanding the audience for bookstores.

Look for complete coverage of the rest of the day's ABA educational sessions in upcoming editions of Bookselling This Week.

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BEA Meets the Press

As booksellers took a lunch break from the educational sessions, two levels above them in the Javits Center, BookExpo America held a press conference, which was opened by Lance Fensterman, vice president and show manager for BEA, and which included ABA COO Oren Teicher; Tom Allen, CEO of the Association of American Publishers; and Rick Joyce, chief marketing officer of the Perseus Books Group.

Fensterman gave an update on this year's show, which included both stats and a quick review of some of BEA's new programming. He noted that while the number of exhibitors was down approximately 10 percent from the last show in New York, in 2007, the number of indie booksellers attending "was almost identical to '07." Teicher said that more than 600 booksellers were attending ABA's all-day educational programming, and he expressed his pleasure that the indie presence at this year's BEA represents "a greater percentage of our membership than there were here two years ago."

Fensterman explained that while this "was a smaller show... [it] is more focused and concentrated," and, with 20 percent more press and media attending this year than in '07, he said that BEA was working to help "put a megaphone up to the industry" and "open a dialogue [and connect] key influencers" in the book world. Teicher added that that "the most important thing that our members tell us that we can do for them is to create the venue for booksellers to come together and exchange ideas," and he said, "we're convinced BEA is one of the most important events" of the year for indie booksellers.

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ABA Program Schedule for Friday
All programming is at the Javits Convention Center.

9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
ABA's E-Commerce Solution Users Group (Room 1E09)
IndieBound Users Group (Room 1C04)

10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
ABA's Gift Card Program Users Group (Room 1E11)

12:15 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Celebration of Bookselling Luncheon (Special Events Hall) Reservations required.

3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
ABA Town Hall (Room 1E11)

4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
ABA Annual Meeting (Room 1E09)

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ABA Booksellers Lounge Autographing Schedule

The lounge and its author autographing events are open exclusively to ABA member booksellers.

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