Business Is Brisk at PNBA's Spring Trade Show

Business was brisk at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) Spring 2002 Trade Show Northwest, held at the Coeur d’Alene Resort, March 23 to March 25, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The emphasis was on placing orders, according to a number of attending booksellers. Benefiting most from show orders were smaller publishers, said Thom Chambliss, PNBA’s executive director. "A lot of the smaller reps, especially with show specials, took a lot of orders," he said. "One person with a small press in Montana told me he had done twice as much business at this show than at the last one."

The trade show ran for two-and-a-half days: Saturday was an "education" day with a number of seminars, ABA’s Strategic Planning Session, and PNBA’s General Membership Meeting, followed by an "Author Autographing Party."
On Sunday, the day began with a Book & Author Breakfast, then the trade floor opened for ordering, and on Sunday night there was a second "Author Autographing," followed by the PNBA 2001 Book Awards Banquet. On Monday, there was a final Book & Author Breakfast, an "Award-Winning Author Autographing" session, and one final bookseller workshop.

Overall, the number of vendors exhibiting at the PNBA Spring Trade Show on Sunday was down from last year, Chambliss told BTW. The exhibit-space-sold decreased 16 percent from 2001, and the number of exhibitors was down 11 percent. He believes part of the reason for the downturn was a rollover effect of 9/11, with fewer people making travel plans after the terrorist strike. As for whether bookseller attendance at this year’s show increased or fell, Chambliss was unsure as of press time, though he noted that a snowstorm hit the Seattle area two days prior to the show, and he knew of three different booksellers who cancelled travel plans due to the weather.

Regardless, Chambliss, as well as trade show attendees, said the show was very busy. Luanne Kreutzer of St. Helens Bookshop in St. Helens, Oregon, who is past president of PNBA and a member of ABA’s Booksellers Advisory Council, noted that at past shows, there had been criticism that booksellers weren’t placing a great deal of orders, but this year it was different. "It was a very crowded show floor," she remarked. "There was an emphasis on placing orders by a lot of people."

That was certainly the case for Susan Richmond, co-owner of the 2,100-square-foot Inklings Bookshop in Yakima, Washington, which opened only a year and a half ago. She said that it was important for her store to take advantage of trade show specials, such as increased discounts and free shipping. "This was the first time that we were organized enough to order from a rep [at the trade show]," she said. "It was a better use of time, and it showed them that we were thinking ahead and supporting them. PNBA does a good job of putting in the pre-show info of who’s going to be there and what the show specials are going to be. The benefits of free shipping are always important."

Lynn Dixon, co-owner of Cook Inlet Book Company in Anchorage, Alaska, told BTW that "the show was well attended and busy. We don’t get a lot of reps [coming up to Alaska], so some show specials made it important for us to be [at the show]."

Of course, show specials weren’t the only highlights of PNBA’s Spring Trade Show. Attendees also enjoyed two sessions hosted by Carl Lennertz, ABA’s senior marketing consultant, during Saturday’s seminars: "Bookseller Session: Increasing Sales with Book Sense," and "Publisher Workshop: How to Maximize Your Book Sense Participation."

Cook Inlet’s Dixon noted that Lennertz’s bookseller workshop presented a good dialogue, and that it showed "Book Sense from all angles." Chambliss said that "having Carl speak both to booksellers and later to publishers and authors was great," adding that Lennertz "provided a lot of helpful information for our bookseller members."

Said ABA’s Lennertz about the sessions: "I loved the energy, enthusiasm, and the generous sharing of great Book Sense ideas that have worked."

Booksellers also made special mention of the "Bookseller Panel: The Dollar Impact of Multi-Source Ordering," presented by PNBA Immediate Past President Russ Lawrence, co-owner of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana; Chris O’Harra, owner of Auntie’s Bookstore in Spokane, Washington; and Marcia Vanderford, co-owner of Vanderford’s Book & Office Products in Sandpoint, Idaho. The session presented booksellers with ideas about how to diversify their purchasing sources, with an eye toward improving the bottom line.

"It showed how important it is to have orders ready for the show," said Inkling’s Richmond. "It made a lot of sense, and it shows our support of the publishers and distributors [at the trade show]."

Richmond also enjoyed the Author Autographing sessions, which featured many different writers each day, including Judy Blunt, author of Breaking Clean (Knopf), Heather Parkinson, author of Across Open Ground (Bloomsbury USA), and Susan Blackaby, Rembrandt’s Hat (Houghton Mifflin). The sessions gave Richmond a good opportunity to make author contacts, she explained, and, because attendees waited in line to meet the authors, it was a good place to have casual conversations with other booksellers, key for a new bookstore like Inklings. "We’re always listening to others and what they have to say," she said. "You always learn as much from booksellers as from any of the seminars."

The marquee event of the spring show was the PNBA 2001 Book Awards Banquet, hosted by Chapter One’s Russ Lawrence, held Sunday night, March 24 -- which, it just so happened, was competing with another prestigious awards show, the Oscars. Still, there were only a few no-shows, said Chambliss, and both he and Kreutzer had high praise for emcee Lawrence. "[He] moderated with humor and gave us a running tally of who was winning what at the [Oscar] awards," said Kreutzer.

Each award-winning author was present to accept his or her award, with the exception of Virginia Euwer Wolff, author of True Believer (Atheneum/S&S), though Lawrence read a prepared speech from Wolff. Winners present to receive their awards were: Chris Crutcher, for Whale Talk (Greenwillow/HarperCollins); Jennifer Blomgren and Andrea Gabriel, for Where Do I Sleep? (Sasquatch Books); Craig Joseph Danner, for Himalayan Dhaba (Crispin/Hammer Publishing); and Louise Freeman-Toole, for Standing Up to the Rock (University of Nebraska Press). The authors also held an autograph session on Monday morning, March 25.

"The award-winning authors were magnificent," said Chambliss. "Each author had a unique approach to accepting the awards. Each one was very moving."

For more information on PNBA, go to www.pnba.org. --David Grogan