Forum Makes for 'Excellent Day' for Great Lakes Booksellers

More than 20 people attended an ABA Booksellers Forum, held in conjunction with the Great Lakes Booksellers Association (GLBA) on Tuesday, March 30, at Emmis Books in Cincinnati, Ohio. The forum -- the second to be held in the Great Lakes region this season (the first was on January 15 in Chicago) -- was conducted by ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz and COO Oren Teicher, with ABA President Ann Christophersen of Women & Children First in Chicago and Board member Karl Pohrt of Shaman Drum in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Booksellers who spoke to BTW noted that one of the highlights of the day's sessions was Domnitz's financial seminar, "The 2% Solution," which will be part of ABA's programming at this year's BookExpo America in Chicago.

"It was an excellent day for me," said Anne Mankins of Paragraphs Bookstore in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, of the forum programming. "As a new bookstore owner (she took over Paragraph on September 1, 2003), it was beneficial to hear other owners talk about issues affecting them."

The roughly half-day of programming began with a Book Sense gift card demonstration, which explained how the gift card works and how easy it is to get started. The presentation included specific case studies of bookstores' experiences this past holiday season when stores converted from paper to plastic. Susan Danner of Danner's Books in Muncie, Indiana, said of the demo, "[It] convinced us to go to the gift card program…. It gave us the opportunity to get information about the ease of offering gift cards and the benefits they will provide my customers," Mankins said. (For more about the gift card program, click here.)

Following the gift card demonstration was an open forum. Some of the topics discussed included the new Book Sense Picks list. "We're thrilled with the new format," said Michele Sulka of Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati. "The big, [double] tabloid size [Book Sense 76] was hard to merchandise. This is a quarter of the size…. Everyone was thrilled with it."

Domnitz and Teicher encouraged booksellers to send in nominations for upcoming Book Sense Picks lists, and there was discussion about the best way to utilize the space on the handout. (For more about the new Book Sense Picks list, click here.)

Another topic was the Campaign for Reader Privacy, a grassroots petition campaign to amend the USA Patriot Act. "They encouraged us to give our community the opportunity to know how [Section 215] impacts their freedom, and let people in Washington know that that is not acceptable."

Danner said that her store has been collecting signatures, and "every time we get to five or six pages" she sends the petitions to ABA. She also described how she's found a way to direct customers' attention to the petition: She retyped the petition introduction in red, white, and blue and placed it in an acrylic, tabletop easel directly behind the petitions at the cashwrap. "When I did that, customers were like, the FBI can do that? People just sign it left and right." (For more about the petition campaign, click here.)

Immediately following the forum, Domnitz presented his new financial seminar, "The 2% Solution," based on the results of last year's ABACUS study. The session demonstrated how booksellers can work on sales, gross margin, compensation, and occupancy expense to improve profits.

The new seminar earned rave reviews from booksellers. "Some of things he said, we had never thought of," Danner said. "It's the little things … there are ways we can increase our margin; we can use sidelines; and to really sit down and do an effective plan for marketing. I wish the session had been all day!"

"'The 2% Solution' was fabulous," said Joseph-Beth's Sulka, "for someone like us, a big store, to the small stores. Avin [Domnitz] covered all the bases. I can't wait to see it at BEA."

"It was presented so clearly," Paragraphs' Mankins said. "It gave me hard and fast guidelines on the business end of the bookselling business."

Overall, booksellers found the day's sessions very worthwhile. "It was very invigorating," Sulka summed up. "And I was pleased that Emmis Books hosted it, because they are a new publisher, and they presented each of us with a bag of their hottest titles." --David Grogan