Live From BookExpo America -- Day 1

• Booksellers Go to Capitol Hill for ABA Legislative Day
• The Day's Legislative Briefings
• Off to Capitol Hill
• ABA/Book Sense Lounge: Member Services, Authors & More
• Sign-Up for ABA Town Hall Available at the Lounge
• Tim Russert to Deliver Thursday's Keynote Address
• Random House Reception at Hotel ABA on Thursday
• Book Sense Book of the Year Nonfiction Winner Stephen J. Dubner
• Book Sense Offers Most Timely & Diverse Bestseller Lists Available

Booksellers Go to Capitol Hill for ABA Legislative Day

Yesterday, on Wednesday, May 17, the American Booksellers Association kicked off BookExpo America's return to Washington, D.C. with its first-ever Legislative Day. Over 100 booksellers gathered at Hotel ABA, The Doubletree Crystal City, for lunch and briefings on a number of current policy issues affecting the book industry. They then headed off to Capitol Hill to meet with their senators and representatives.

Remarks by Robert Barnett, senior partner at Williams & Connolly LLP, whose author clients include some of Washington's biggest names, kicked off ABA's Legislative Day.

The day started at noon with the "Washington & Books: Welcome Lunch," featuring attorney Robert Barnett, senior partner at Williams & Connolly LLP and one of the premier authors' representatives in the world.

Barnett's clients read like a who's who of politics. They have included Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bob Woodward, Lynne Cheney, Karen Hughes, James Patterson, Katharine Graham, Ari Fleischer, Tim Russert, Stephen White, Barack Obama, George Will, Art Buchwald, James Carville, Mary Matalin, William Bennett, Howard Dean, Cokie Roberts, several former U.S. secretaries of state, numerous U.S. senators, Queen Noor of Jordan, Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, Alan Greenspan, and many others.

Barnett's entertaining talk took a look at the popularity of political books today -- why politicians write them and what can be done to help ensure a book's success; the future of political books; and his role as author representative in a book's development.

Barnett started with an anecdote regarding his experience helping "the ultimate political odd couple," James Carvell and Mary Matalin, auction their book, All's Fair: Love, War and Running for President (S&S). "During the recording of the audio, the two would go off script and fight," he said. He noted that during a number of meetings with prospective publishers, if the subject would turn to politics, the couple would fight and stop talking altogether -- leaving Barnett to run the meeting. "One time they fought in the elevator and never spoke during the entire pitch meeting," he explained, and that publisher turned out to be the highest bidder for the book.

Noting that between now and the next presidential election in 2008 booksellers will see a lot of political books, Barnett explained that a book can be a useful tool for a politician, one that gives him or her a reason to go on tour. "It's provides a useful platform for a candidate to get their position out there without being seen as self-serving."

Barnett told the audience that several things could help sales of political books: "It should be in the writer's voice," he said. "You also need something new [because of] the saturation of coverage [on cable, print, and Internet] ... for the political genre to succeed."

"These books succeed not on the basis of advertising," he said, but political books sell when they get "good reviews"; when the author promotes the book; and "when there is positive word-of-mouth from those who read and those who are selling the book."

The Day's Legislative Briefings

Great Lakes Booksellers Association Executive Director Jim Dana and Karl Pohrt of Shaman Drum conferring about their Capitol Hill visits.

Following the luncheon were Legislative Briefings, which began with an update on Small Business Health Plans legislation by Dawn Latham, CAE, director of public policy, for the American Society of Association Executives. Discussing the need for Congress to pass legislation that will provide small businesses with access to affordable healthcare, Latham noted, "An estimated 45.8 million people are without health insurance and the number of uninsured has risen every year since 1989."

Latham told the audience that Sen. Michael Enzi's (R-WY) attempt to push for a quick vote on The Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act, S. 1955, was blocked last week when the Senate voted 55 - 43 against cloture. "The legislation has been pulled from the Senate floor and it's too early to know the future," she said, and then advised booksellers to let their senators know that they do not want SBHPs "put on the back burner" and to encourage them "to find some compromise."

Latham also commented on other SBHP legislation in the Senate: The Small Employers Health Benefits Program Act of 2006 (S. 2510), sponsored by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), and The Small Business Health Fairness Act (S. 406), sponsored by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME). She explained that whatever legislation is passed in the Senate, it will have to be reconciled with the House version of the legislation, which passed last July.

Right now, the key sticking point is whether or not the legislation preempts mandated state benefits, Latham said. "Quite frankly, [the Enzi and Durbin] bills are two different options and both could be passed into law -- they don't conflict," she said. "We need to find a compromise -- to not do anything is not helping those without health insurance."

Following Latham, Neal Osten, the federal affairs counsel for communications and interstate commerce at the National Conference of State Legislatures, spoke on the status of Streamlined Sales and Use Tax legislation in Congress. Osten said that NCSL has been working on SSUTA for seven years now and has been making "tremendous progress.... Nineteen states have complied with SSUTA as of October 1 last year," and this has thus far resulted in $6 million in new tax revenue.

A recent national study, Osten said, which was commissioned by a partnership of business and government organizations, shows that the retailers' cost of compliance to collect sales taxes averaged more than three percent of the sales tax collected, a $6.8 billion cost to retailers at 2003 sales tax levels. It is expected that the implementation of SSUTA will reduce these costs and "eventually eliminate the cost." Moreover, it will remove a retailer's liability if there's a mistake. "That's why it's important that SSUTA passes," he stressed.

Osten also noted that SSUTA provides tax amnesty for a retailer's past failure to collect sales tax and pointed out that some big box stores are attempting to bypass nexus by keeping their online arm as a separate company. However, he said that all eyes are on the current case in California, where, as previously reported in BTW, in May 2005, the California First District Court of Appeals affirmed a California Board of Equalization (BOE) recommendation that Borders Online, LLC had nexus in California and owed back use tax because Borders Books & Music, Inc. accepted returns and had other interconnections with Borders Online purchases. "If California wins this one, you will see every state going after Borders," Osten said.

Currently, there are two bills in Congress that would allow states that are voluntary members of the SSUTA to require all sellers to collect and remit sales tax. However, Osten stressed that booksellers should urge their Congressional reps to support Sen. Michael Enzi's bill, the Sales Tax Fairness and Simplification Act (S. 2152).

John B. Morris, Jr., of the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), in Washington, D.C., followed Osten, and provided booksellers with an update on free speech and the Internet. Morris noted that free speech on the Internet is often threatened by lawmakers who would censor legal speech through legislation that is cloaked by "hot-button issues that no one wants to fight against." In many cases, the "hot button" issue is only a minor part of a larger bill that violates the First Amendment and could affect booksellers.

Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) updated booksellers on efforts to protect reader privacy, to prevent an amendment to the First Amendment by those who want to ban flag burning, and to protect the confidentiality of press sources.

Of the reauthorized Patriot Act, Finan said, "We came so far, starting in 2003 to the point where we deadlocked reauthorization [of the Patriot Act] for three months." Noting that there was disappointment that Section 215 was reauthorized without an amendment narrowing the FBI's search authority to cover only suspected terrorists, he explained that there were small, yet significant changes. Finan noted how the authorities lifted a gag order on a Connecticut library that was issued an NSL because of changes in the reauthorized Patriot Act. In addition, the Justice Department released figures on how many NSL and 215 orders were issued in the last year. "These are changes we wouldn't have seen if not for our [Campaign for Reader Privacy]." He urged booksellers to tell their senators to support Arlen Specter's (R-PA) bill, S. 2369, which includes a number of civil liberties protections that were omitted from the reauthorization bill, including a provision that fixes Section 215.

Rounding out legislative updates was a talk by Thomas Sullivan, the U.S. Small Business Administration's chief counsel for advocacy in Washington, D.C. Sullivan was named by Fortune Small Business as one of the "Power 30 most influential folks in Washington," and Inc. called Sullivan "an entrepreneur's best friend in Washington, D.C." in 2006. "It's an honor to be here in what is an incredible build-up to what will be a great weekend," Sullivan said.

Sullivan provided booksellers with an overview of the Office of Advocacy and explained that it is his office's job to listen to the voice of small business and make sure it is heard in the halls of Congress and by the Administration. He also discussed how important it was for small business owners to engage in advocacy and activism, though he acknowledged good-naturedly "that I'm preaching to the choir here."

Sullivan made special mention of bookseller Alzada Knickerbocker, owner of the 19-year-old Avid Reader in Davis, California, who, in March 2006, was named the state's Small-Business Champion of the Year for 2006 by the Leadership Council of the 35,000-member National Federation of Independent Business/California. "She runs two businesses ... is a member of NCIBA ... teaches at Stanford, and then goes to the assembly in San Francisco on issues that are important to her."

Overall, Sullivan said he wants to know "how can my office help you. Use us." He said he has 10 regional advocates to "try to get a sense of what the real issues are on Main Street" and a team of economists who try to provide hard data that small business owners can use to help advocate their position.

Off to Capitol Hill

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Will Peters of Annie Bloom's Books in Portland met on Capitol Hill as part of ABA's first-ever Legislative Day.

Before leaving Hotel ABA for their appointments on Capitol Hill, a bookseller asked Sullivan what advice he had for their lobbying visits. He replied, "Be yourself." And in a series of meetings with their elected representatives throughout the afternoon, booksellers were, in ABA COO Oren Teicher's words, "putting a face on what we're talking about." As Sullivan noted, "People like me, with all due respect, are a dime a dozen when it comes to getting Congress' attention ... but, when you come here, it's different -- it's real."

As they walked the halls in the House and Senate office buildings, booksellers entered the stream of face-to-face political advocacy. They quickly learned that a congressional appointment schedule is a fluid work-in-progress, as senators and representatives broke away from briefings for upcoming hearings or imminent votes to greet booksellers in their offices. In an intensive, two-hour blitz, there were substantive meetings with congressional staffers about issues very close to booksellers' hearts and minds, including the First Amendment and free expression; affordable health care; and tax fairness.

One of the day's meetings for Steve Bercu of BookPeople in Austin, Texas, was with Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and staff, and the first topic discussed was health care. "The person we spoke to was very interested, and we discussed all our issues with her." Health care was also a key point of discussion when Karl Pohrt of Shaman Drum Bookshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, who met with Joshua Tzuker, legislative director for John D. Dingell (D-MI). At 5:15 p.m., Will Peters, of Annie Bloom's Books in Portland, Oregon, had a quick meeting with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who had spent much of the day preparing for hearings on the confirmation of Gen. Michael Hayden, President Bush's nominee to lead the Central Intelligence Agency. In a longer meeting with Wyden's staff, Peters expressed his thanks for the senator's opposition to the Patriot Act renewal and encouraged him to continue to work to lessen the continuing First Amendment threats inherent in the reauthorized Patriot Act.

Earlier in the day, Teicher had noted, "I always say that booksellers underestimate their influence." Throughout the day, the cordial, respectful reception booksellers received on the Hill demonstrated to many the truth of his observation.

Following her scheduled appointments with elected representatives, Dana Harper, Brystone Children's Books in Fort Worth, Texas, said, "It's a once in a lifetime experience. I never would have been able to come here on my own. Now, I feel very connected with the issues. I'm empowered."

Following the legislative visits, booksellers hosted a reception at the Frederick Douglass Museum to honor Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Noting the national leadership role Sanders played in opposing the Patriot Act, Teicher said, "Your ability to influence the public debate is enormous," adding, "America's readers never -- ever -- had a better friend in the U.S. Congress than Rep. Sanders."

Sanders congratulated booksellers "for standing up for freedom, real freedom" by speaking out in their communities about the importance of the First Amendment and readers' privacy and by collecting thousands of signatures on petitions. "In the beginning, people thought we were a little hysterical, a little, crazy, but you know what? They don't now," he said. "You didn't have to do it, but you did it because you understood what the First Amendment is about." Looking ahead, he said, "We will continue to fight, and we will prevail." --By David Grogan and Dan Cullen

ABA/Book Sense Lounge Features Member Services, Authors & More

The ABA/Book Sense Lounge, Room 151 at the Washington Convention Center, will be the place for American Booksellers Association members to learn about ABA products and services; to check e-mail (courtesy of Booklog); and to meet with some of some of independent booksellers' favorite authors.

The Lounge, which is exclusively for ABA members, is open at 9:00 a.m. each morning, from Thursday to Sunday. On Thursday and Saturday, the Lounge will be open until 6:00 p.m. On Friday, it will close at 3:00 p.m. for ABA's Town Hall and Annual Membership Meeting, and on Sunday it will close at 4:00 p.m.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, an array of authors, whose works have appeared on the Book Sense Picks lists, will be in the Lounge to autograph their books. Watch for a schedule in tomorrow's convention issue of Bookselling This Week.

Sign-Up for ABA Town Hall Available at the Lounge

On Friday, ABA's Town Hall Meeting, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Room 150A of the Convention Center, provides members with an opportunity to voice opinions and to share ideas with ABA Board members and staff in a less formal setting than at the Annual Membership Meeting, immediately following. At the Town Hall, members are encouraged to ask questions and make suggestions, and any topic of concern may be brought up for discussion.

The Town Hall is open to all ABA members, but in order to provide the opportunity for as many members as possible to speak during the meeting, a sign-up sheet will be prominently displayed in the ABA/Book Sense Lounge, Room 151 of the Convention Center, beginning Thursday morning. Sign-up is on a first-come, first-served basis, though the ABA Board will do its best to make sure all members with questions or issues have the opportunity to speak. Booksellers will be called upon in the order in which they sign up.

Tim Russert to Deliver Thursday's Keynote Address

Tim Russert photo credit: Kelly Campbell.

Tim Russert, host of Meet the Press, and the author of Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters From Daughters and Sons (Random House), will be the featured speaker at BookExpo America's Opening Night Keynote, set for Thursday. The hour-long event will begin at 5:00 p.m. in Ballroom A in the Washington Convention Center. Known for his insights and wit, Russert will share his thoughts on family life as well as some of the stories behind the latest Washington headlines.

Admission to the keynote is free to all badged attendees.

Random House Reception at Hotel ABA on Thursday

Booksellers are invited to end their busy days at BookExpo America with relaxation and conversation at special, publisher-sponsored receptions at Hotel ABA, the Doubletree Crystal City, for ABA members.

Thursday's reception, from 9:00 p.m. to midnight, will be hosted by Random House and will be held at the Doubletree's Windows Over Washington/Potomac View Room, located at 300 Army Navy Drive in Arlington, Virginia. A shuttle bus will bring booksellers from the Hilton Crystal City to the Doubletree and back during the three events. A reception on Wednesday night was hosted by Rodale Books.

On Friday, May 18, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing will host a reception in the Doubletree's Wilson and Harrison rooms that will be based on the October 2006 release of Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean, illustrated by Brian Froud (Margaret K. McElderry Books).

Book Sense Book of the Year Nonfiction Winner Stephen J. Dubner on Freakonomics & More

The American Booksellers Association's Celebration of Bookselling -- a joyful event that has become a highlight of BookExpo America programming -- will be held Friday evening, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in Ballroom A of the convention center. Sponsored by Ingram Book Group and Ingram Publisher Services, the celebration, which is free and open to all BEA attendees, features the presentation of the Book Sense Book of the Year Awards and honors to several outstanding booksellers.

Among those whose work will be recognized as independent booksellers' handselling favorites will be Book Sense Book of the Year nonfiction winners Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, authors of Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (William Morrow).

A professor in the University of Chicago's economics department, Levitt is the recipient of the American Economic Association's John Bates Clark Medal (given to the country's best economist under 40). Dubner, a journalist, has written for the New York Times, The New Yorker, and Time, among others. His stories have been anthologized in The Best American Sports Writing and The Best American Crime Writing, and he is the author of two bestselling books, Turbulent Souls and Confessions of a Hero-Worshipper. His first children's book, The Boy With Two Bellybuttons, will be published in September 2007 by Harper Children's.

BTW recently had the opportunity to chat with Dubner via e-mail about Freakonomics, working with Steven Levitt, and his Book Sense Book of the Year Award.

BTW: How did you come to work with Steven Levitt? What was the collaboration process like?

Stephen Dubner: I originally went to Chicago to profile Levitt for the New York Times Magazine. He was leery of me, since I'm a journalist, and I was prepared to have to translate everything he said from economist-speak into English. In the end, both of our expectations were upended. After my profile was published, there was interest in a book, and we talked things over and decided to collaborate. From the outset, we had a very good time. Although we have quite different skill sets (an economist would call them "complementarities"), we share a sensibility for what is interesting, worthwhile, engaging. In the beginning, we tried to physically sit in the same room and write together; this was fun but deeply unproductive. In the end, we spent a great deal of time on the phone and e-mailing, me in New York and Levitt in Chicago. We'd talk through each upcoming section of the book, then I'd draft it, then we'd bounce it back and forth a few times over the course of several days. It was a truly collaborative process, and for the most part an enjoyable one.

BTW: Freakonomics' subtitle, A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, covers a pretty large swath, and you've said that the book has no "unifying theme." With such an open pretext, how did you select the topics presented here?

SD: We decided early on to turn our biggest weakness -- the lack of a unifying theme -- into an asset, or if not an asset then at least an acknowledged oddity. We hoped to write the "Seinfeld" of books -- a book about nothing, that is, except that, like "Seinfeld," what might seem at first like nothingness, or a certain formlessness, in fact frees you up to create exactly what you want to create, with the voice and pace and content that's most to your liking (instead of wading through the requisite sections of certain books that all writers feel they must write). In the end, we wanted to write a book that used the tools of economics to look at the real world, an empirical view of topics that we -- and hopefully some readers -- find intriguing, for whatever reason.

BTW: Freakonomics is being used to teach Public Policy Analysis at Georgetown, Behavioral Science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, International Business at American University, among other programs. It's also been on the Book Sense Bestseller List for over a year. Why do you think Freakonomics is so popular with both academic and general readers?

SD: I would hope that "academic" and "general" readers like the book for the same reason: that it's simply a series of stories, backed up by data, that tell us a bit more about how the real world actually operates. This wouldn't seem remotely revolutionary, but with the social and political climate in the U.S. these days, so many discussions have become so partisan, so fraught with angst and subterfuge, that people seem to welcome the opportunity to read about various subjects (parenting, crime, cheating, etc.) about which the authors seem to know a bit, but don't have an ulterior motive.

BTW: Independent booksellers chose Freakonomics as the Book Sense Book of the Year for nonfiction. What does that recognition mean to you?

SD: It means that ... let's see ... Book Sense made a mistake in counting the ballots? Honestly, we were very surprised, and supremely delighted. To see your book become a commercial success is obviously a wonderful thing. To see it accorded such high praise by a group of readers, and true book lovers, as the Book Sense voters, is extraordinarily heartening, and humbling. I'm looking forward to thanking as many of these folks as possible, in person, at BEA.

BTW: What are you working on now?

SD: Levitt and I continue to collaborate in a few forms: a "Freakonomics" column in the New York Times Magazine, a blog [www.freakonomics.com/blog/], and research for our next book (to be called -- what else? -- SuperFreakonomics), which will probably take at least three or four years to write. Besides all that, I've got another few books in various stages of research or writing; and Levitt has his little research factory churning out at the University of Chicago. Our one goal for the next book is that it be better than the first, so we plan to keep our heads down for the next few years and work as hard as we can. --Interview by Karen Schechner

Book Sense Offers Most Timely & Diverse Bestseller Lists Available

Today -- as is the case every week -- independent booksellers nationwide are posting the latest Book Sense Bestsellers List, a weekly record of the country's independent bookstore sales. The Book Sense list is the most timely and diverse bestseller list available, and is based on the sales reports of approximately 500 independent bookstores from coast to coast in the Book Sense program. It lists the bestselling titles for adults in hardcover, paperback, and mass market and for children's literature, illustrated, and series. Book Sense is the national marketing program for independent booksellers from the American Booksellers Association.

Here are the top five titles from this week's adult and children's lists:

Debuts for the week:

Hardcover Fiction
14. The Girls by Lori Lansens (Little, Brown)

Hardcover Nonfiction
3. Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking)
12. The Great Deluge by Douglas Brinkley (Morrow)
13. My Life in and Out of the Rough by John Daly (HarperCollins)
15. Lies at the Altar by Robin Smith (Hyperion)

Paperback Nonfiction
14. American Prometheus by Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin (Vintage)

Children's Interest
14. Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge (HarperCollins)

Children's Illustrated
7. Walter the Farting Dog Goes on a Cruise by William Kotzwinkle, et al. (Dutton)

A consistent bellwether on the latest tastes and trends in independent bookselling, the full lists are available online each week at www.bookweb.org/booksense/bestsellers and comprise of total of 110 titles.

Each week, Book Sense compiles an extended national bestseller list showing an additional 35 titles in the categories of Hardcover Fiction and Nonfiction and Trade Paperback Fiction and Nonfiction, and an additional 40 Mass Market titles. And twice a month Book Sense posts online at BookWeb.org a new subject category Bestseller List based on national sales in independent bookstores.

For more information about the Book Sense Bestseller Lists, visit www.BookWeb.org or call (800) 637-0037, ext. 6641.