Mid-South Booksellers Gather at ABA Booksellers Forum

The American Booksellers Association continued its 2004 Booksellers Forum tour on Tuesday, March 16, with a program in conjunction with the Mid-South Independent Booksellers Association (MSIBA), at Brystone Children's Books in Fort Worth, Texas. The forum, conducted by ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz and COO Oren Teicher, gave booksellers the chance to ask questions and to discuss key issues, including the USA Patriot Act, Book Sense Gift Cards, the 2004 ABACUS study, and more.

One of the events' hosts, Brystone co-owner Dana Harper, enjoyed having over a dozen of her fellow Mid-South booksellers gather at her store. "We wanted to have people from our region come to our store," she said. "We were really happy when [MSIBA] decided to hold the meeting here."

Harper, who has a master's degree in Art History from Vanderbilt University and has been dubbed the "display queen" by her sister, shared some tips in a presentation on creating effective store displays. "I talked about how, when merchandizing, it's important to appeal to the five senses, to create an ambience in everything you do in the store, incorporating music, color, the way things are arranged, the actual merchandise chosen." She then held a scavenger hunt where booksellers answered a list of questions on the arrangement of merchandise and set pieces around the store. Prizes of Burt's Bees lip balm were awarded to all participants.

Dana Harper's sister, co-owner Adrienne Harper, reported on some of the highlights of the forum, including the discussion of the Campaign for Reader Privacy, a petition drive that calls for Congress to amend Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. "Oren showed us the petition and talked about how he didn't know anyone who'd gotten a negative response from a customer," Adrienne Harper told BTW. "That's good because that's something I was worried about. I asked Susanna [Nawrocki] from The Twig in San Antonio if people were giving her a hard time about the petition because it's something I really want to do. Susanna told me, 'I have the petition pad sitting on the table with a little American flag pen on top. People sign away, and I haven't had any negative comments.'"

Nawrocki confirmed Adrienne Harper's synopsis and added, "I have not experienced any averse reactions. Oren made the point that people who are conservative are also concerned with First Amendment issues; it brings many political persuasions together."

During the forum, Nawrocki decided to go ahead and join the Book Sense Gift Card program. "It was effective to hear that other stores who are already using the cards saw a rise in gift card sales during Christmas over gift certificate sales from the year before. When the [gift card] presentation showed how easy the cards are to process, I was persuaded. I'd been thinking about it a long time, but hadn't taken the step. Maybe you have to hear something three times before you're moved to action," said Nawrocki with a laugh.

She reported that the ABACUS study also garnered some forum airtime. "We spent a fair amount of time on ABACUS and discussed the importance and ease of submitting data. I came back fired up to get that done. We also talked about Hotel ABA and changes to the Book Sense list."

Both Adrienne Harper and Lois Proctor of The Bookseller in Ardmore, Oklahoma, were excited about a presentation given by Deb Lewis, a rep for Penguin USA, who described Penguin's Business-to-Business promotion. "It's a great deal," said Harper. "Penguin's doing a program where if you order 25 - 99 titles, you get a 50 percent discount, free freight, and they drop ship it. They'll ship it right to the company or school you're working with. And it's for all titles."

Proctor elaborated on and echoed Adrienne's enthusiasm about Penguin's incentive. "It's a good carrot for us," she said. "Free freight and a drop ship. What else could we ask for other than that they go around and promote it for us. I want to talk with other publishers and see if they're offering anything similar."

At many forums, the general word from booksellers is that it's always great to hang out with other booksellers and compare notes. The Mid-South forum was no different. "When I go to the fall trade show or the forums I always get excited about bookselling," said Adrienne Harper. "I get that shot in the arm, especially since this year it was held in my own store. It's great to see all the booksellers in my region. I usually only get to see them once a year at the fall trade show. It's good to see them in the spring, too." --Karen Schechner