MSIBA Meets for ABA Forum and Launch of Holiday Catalog

On Tuesday, April 8, ABA held a Booksellers Forum, in conjunction with programming of the Mid-South Independent Booksellers Association (MSIBA), in Katy, Texas. ABA and MSIBA members met with MSIBA president and ABA Booksellers Advisory Council member Tamra Dore of Katy Budget Books and ABA COO Oren Teicher.

The forum, MSIBA program, and a lunch sponsored by the two organizations were held at Katy Budget Books. Booksellers were encouraged to discuss issues and offer input regarding the association. According to Valerie Koehler, owner of six-year-old Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, the forum offered an opportunity for everyone attending to learn something new or to share information. "It's always good to get together and talk about ideas and services. The ABA offers many things, and there's a little information overload. Here we can ask a lot of questions and have a discussion," she told BTW.

Dore concurred: "There were some MSIBA members who are not ABA members. By the end of the meeting, several were enthusiastic about Book Sense and seriously considering joining ABA. Everyone was very excited at the prospect of a regional list. I think people were convinced of the importance of reporting to the Bestsellers list -- even the small stores -- to help us generate a valid regional list. And a regional list would help get the Book Sense list into local media. That excited people. Most members also seemed very positive about the conversion to plastic gift cards."

Everyone attending was pleased with the opportunity to network and discuss issues. According to Koehler, "these meetings are so important, particularly because a lot of people don't get to go to BEA or are so busy there that they don't have the opportunity to meet in forums like this."

The afternoon session, sponsored by MSIBA, focused on the launch of a regional holiday catalog. All attendees agreed that it would be an extremely useful marketing tool and could tie together bookstores separated by thousands of miles. The discussion included creative ways to promote bookstores using the new catalog and ways MSIBA will be able to subsidize the costs of distribution. The session covered marketing and merchandise techniques as well as using the new catalog to promote holiday and author/author-less events. Attendees were informed about the process for selecting titles and ways to be involved in the decision.

Koehler was pleased to make personal connections with new members, whose stores might be five hours away in Dallas or ten hours away in Oklahoma. "We don't get around much [to other stores]," she said. "Some people are unfamiliar with computer use. There were a number of questions about the Book Buyers Handbook. We use it everyday with both computers, looking for some kind of information. I still have two Rolodexes, but it so much easier to find information in the Handbook [online.] I like to explain to people new to this that if I can do this in my small store, they can too." --Nomi Schwartz