SCBA Trade Show Revival a Success

By Robyn Kamimura of Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, California

To be able to find so many people who truly relate to your love of books is one of the highlights of any booksellers trade show, and the recent Southern California Booksellers Association Authors Feast & Trade Show was no different. The event provided innumerable opportunities to mingle with fellow bibliophiles who work in and around the book business and to talk shop about the newest, hottest titles, innovative ways to market products, and various scenarios for attracting attention and creating positive publicity for the store in the media and elsewhere.

This year's activities were held on Saturday, October 15, on the second floor of the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel, a relaxed setting with medium-sized rooms serving as the exhibit floor, while a comfortably cozy conference room acted as the seminar center.

The day kicked off with sales rep presentations from about 10:00 a.m. to noon p.m., with each person describing their favorite picks of the season.

At noon, the trade show opened, and a free boxed lunch was served, allowing people to wander through the exhibit tables at their discretion to discover recent releases -- favorite titles such as Penguin's My Friend Leonard by James Frey or newcomer Liza Palmer's Conversations With the Fat Girl (5 Spot) -- and the newest sidelines best representing each publisher or distributor.

Educational programming picked up again at 2:00 p.m. with "The Bookstore As a Third Place," a lively and noteworthy panel moderated by ABA COO Oren Teicher, who kept the discussion flowing smoothly with insightful interjections of his own. As the various panelists talked about store events -- describing ways to make the bookstore a principal meeting place for the community, I once again saw an absolute love for the book business shining through.

Each panelist spoke about striving to create events that, first of all, were appropriate for their target customers. For example, while Kerry Slattery of Skylight Books in Los Angeles might set up controversially charged, politically oriented author signings, Amy Pickell of Warwick's in San Diego, a more family-oriented store, would look to develop less edgy, more conservative events. But being aware of the neighborhood and the surrounding population is vital to any bookstore's well-being. Warwick's, for example, realized that with so many dog-walkers strolling through its neighborhood, making the store dog-friendly would bring in a whole new audience, as well as provide a common meeting place for local pet owners.

Panelist Joel Cahn of Mrs. Nelson's Book Company in La Verne detailed the store's diverse events with a beautiful presentation, backed by full-color handouts discussing a problem experienced by booksellers everywhere -- ways to attract kids and teenagers, more specifically, middle- and high-schoolers.

As one way of addressing this complicated issue, Pickell offered an ingenious suggestion that Warwick's has successfully employed: for certain kids' events, store staff contacts school teachers and arranges for students to receive extra credit for event attendance.

Overall, the panelists seemed to be in almost unanimous agreement about certain points. Workshops of all kinds -- writing, crafts, or otherwise -- were a successful, thriving way to introduce people to the store and to build a reputation as a great place to go to be with family and friends -- a place where something is always going on. The more events that can be held, the more opportunities a store has to showcase its unique personality and products, and the more individuals will be inclined to spread the word to the people in their lives.

By the time the first afternoon program was over, even more people had filled the trade show floor to create a much livelier environment than earlier in the day. Rooms were beginning to buzz with spirited book talk, while authors like D.J. MacHale and Leslie G. Burbank (who was also an incredibly friendly rep for Medallion Press) were on the show floor discussing and signing their titles.

With so many wonderful books on the surrounding tables and more familiar faces beginning to pour in, I almost regretted having to go to the next seminar, but once "Understanding Co-op 201" began, I was rewarded by yet another animated panel discussion, moderated by ABA's Teicher. Although the discussion ranged over many points that I was already familiar with, Christine Berry [formerly of Dutton's, Skylight Books, and Book Soup] and company offered shrewd advice that further reinforced the methods to my co-op madness (for example, an excellent, inexpensive way to claim co-op monies lies through e-mail newsletters). Wrapping it all up, Teicher reminded us that with so many different co-op procedures varying from publisher to publisher, easy (and instant) access to these methods is available online through the ABA Book Buyer's Handbook.

ABA also offered booksellers at the show the opportunity to win, ironically enough, either an all expenses-paid trip to Long Beach for the first annual ABA Winter Institute or a high-quality computer printer. [See the announcement of the winners below.]

Rejoining the activity on the trade show floor (and running into quite a few Vroman's employees who were there en masse), I had affable discussions with people like PartnersWest Regional Sales Manager Jim Carretta and Penguin rep Tom Benton, who'd been there all day, yet who still managed a pleasant smile for me.

When the floor closed between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to allow the reps a break, booksellers, who by now had greatly multiplied, were able to mingle and really had an occasion to share books, laughs, and banter. Good feelings and cheer were abundant in all, and by the time the floor reopened, people were re-energized, sparkling, and ready to hit the tables for another round.

As 7:30 neared, I, along with 275-plus fellow booksellers and authors, headed to the ballroom for the SCBA Authors Feast. Twenty-seven tables were set up with seven to 10 people per table, including two authors who would switch tables as each course was served. Dinner was a delightfully arranged meal, accompanied by friendly conversation. It was while dessert was served that SCBA Vice President Sherri Gallentine of Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena and Board member Candace Moreno of San Marino Toy & Book Shoppe began announcing the SCBA Book Award winners: Lisa See (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Random House) for Fiction; Ernest Marquez (Santa Monica Beach, Angel City Press) for Nonfiction; T. Jefferson Parker (California Girl, William Morrow) for Mystery, and David Shannon (Alice the Fairy, Blue Sky/Scholastic) for Children's Books.

As the night came to a close, I could see the reluctance to leave in people's faces. I left that evening, tired, satisfied, and reeling with the amount of information, ideas, people, and titles that had been introduced to me throughout the day.

Related Trade Show News

ABA awarded a scholarship to its inaugural Winter Education Institute to Kathleen Russo of Russo's Books in Bakersfield, California. The scholarship includes hotel accommodations to attend the Institute, which will be held on Thursday, January 26, and Friday, January 27, 2006, in Long Beach. Also awarded at the ABA booth at the show was an inkjet printer to Stephanie Thomas and Kathy Wales of Martha's Bookstore on Balboa Island.

The winners were chosen at random from booksellers who stopped by the ABA booth at the show and dropped off a business card.