Engaging Forum in Bloomington, Minnesota

On Saturday, March 11, at the Clarion Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota, in conjunction with the Midwest Booksellers Association (MBA) Spring Meeting, the American Booksellers Association held a Booksellers Forum and Education Program. Among the highlights were ABA's session "Increasing Margin: An Advanced Course in Growing Your Bottom Line" and MBA-sponsored publisher presentations.

Representing ABA at the meetings were ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz, Director of Membership Marketing Meg Smith, and ABA Board member Collette Morgan of Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis.

"Everyone was very engaged," said MBA Executive Director Susan Walker. "We had a total of about 40 people, and we had a couple of brand-new members at the meeting. It was really great." Referring to the second ABA forum program planned for the MBA region this year, Walker said, "I want the rest of the [MBA] people to come to Iowa City in March."

MBA's programming began with presentations by publisher reps and commissioned sales groups, including Publishers Group West, Consortium, Penguin Young Readers Group, Heinecken & Associates, and Holtzbrinck. "Every time there was a break, booksellers and reps would still be busy in conversation," said Walker. "I think it generated good dialogue."

Sarah Bagby of Watermark Books in Wichita, Kansas, thought the presentations worked well on several levels. "I'm on the Board of MBA, and when we were planning the Spring Meeting, we talked about setting up a session to build the bookseller/publisher relationship. One aspect of that relationship is just being able to see their product."

Bagby noted that many stores in the large Midwest region don't often have opportunities to meet in-person with reps, so it was "worthwhile for stores to have access to reps and get a presentation of the lists."

Bagby found the presentations very helpful. "I could sit without being interrupted and listen to the highlights," she said. The reps did for her what she does for her customers -- direct her to great books. Some standouts were Girls in Peril by Karen Lee Boren (Tin House) and Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock (Houghton Mifflin), both YA titles.

Later that afternoon Domnitz presented the session "Increasing Margin" and then provided information about Above the Treeline (ATL), an online software product designed to help bookstores improve finances by optimizing inventory selection, now available to ABA members through a special partnership agreement.

"Increasing Margin" was extremely useful, reported Bagby. "The section that inspired me most was when Avin said to be sure that we were pricing product correctly, especially non-book product. He said that instead of simply doubling everything, we should factor in others costs, including freight."

The discussion of ATL sparked a lot of interest among booksellers as Domnitz projected Wisconsin's Books & Company's actual report (with the help of owner Diana Cohen) on a large screen. "It looked like an immensely powerful tool," said Laura Hansen of Bookin' It in Little Falls, Minnesota. "There are so many marvelous tools out there, but many don't work for us, the smallest of the small booksellers. But Above the Treeline looked very accessible, even at our level."

Domnitz and Smith, with ABA Board member Morgan, facilitated the forum, where they presented updates on the association's programs and initiatives and booksellers asked questions and discussed a variety of subjects.

Since she'll own Book Mouse in Ottawa, Illinois, on April 1, Eileen Fesco listened attentively to the discussion of BookSense.com. "I would love to have a website ... and I would love to have a BookSense.com website, because customers would have access to thousands and thousands of books," she explained. "I want to talk with other booksellers and find out more, but it sounded really good. Using a template would save me money right from the start."

Watermark's Bagby mentioned that the facilitators and other booksellers brought up the importance of reporting to both the Book Sense Bestseller List and BookScan. "We discussed how BookScan and BookSense work together and how important it is to report to both of them to show the market force of the Midwest."

Fesco joined both ABA and MBA at the forum and immediately reaped the rewards of membership. "I very much enjoyed the forum. As a newbie, I was sopping up all the formal and informal information I could. I learned what POS system we should use at the store, and I found out about Above the Treeline, which looks useful, and we could get it for an excellent price."

She also discovered a hot title for the summer. "Everyone at the meeting was predicting what would be the new Kite Runner for this year -- Algonquin's Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen). I'm going to make sure we order a sufficient quantity of that!" -- Karen Schechner