Mountains & Plains Meet at Denver Booksellers Forum

Members of the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association (MPBA) attending the regional's Spring Meeting at the Denver Marriott Tech Center on Friday, March 19, and Saturday, March 20, also had the opportunity to take part in an ABA Booksellers Forum and to meet with ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz to learn how easy it is to report financial data to the 2004 ABACUS study.

The Booksellers Forum, which was led by Domnitz and ABA COO Oren Teicher, provided an arena in which booksellers could share ideas and concerns, as well as hear updates on ABA programs and initiatives.

Lisa Knudsen, executive director of MPBA, said of the forum, "We had quite a good turnout, about 45 people there. We had encouraged even non-members of ABA to come also, and we had publisher reps there, too." Knudsen said the hot topic was Book Sense, and a portion of the forum was spent talking about ABACUS. "[A forum attendee] spoke up and said how extraordinary ABACUS was and what an extremely useful tool [it is]," she reported.

Betsy Burton, owner of the King's English in Salt Lake City, Utah, was very enthusiastic about this year's forum and MPBA spring show. After 27 years at the store, several years on the MPBA board, and a current stint on ABA's Booksellers Advisory Council, Burton has more than a little experience with meetings of booksellers. "Enjoyable and convivial" was how Burton described the MPBA Spring Meeting, and she told BTW that it was one of the best she'd ever attended.

"All of the workshops I attended were interesting," said Burton, "the speakers and banquets were terrific, and I felt more relaxed [at these events] than I have in a while. But that may be because I'm no longer on the [MPBA] board and ours is a very hard working board."

Burton described some of the specific, and very useful, topics that were covered in ABA programming at the meeting. Of the Book Sense gift cards, she explained, "I bought into gift cards early on, and since the initial launch, people using the extra equipment have discovered how much easier and more effective the Internet system is. Many other people were interested in getting involved in the gift card program because they realize it's the way of the future."

"Everyone is fired up about the Freadom to Read petitions," Burton continued. "One excellent suggestion from a bookseller … described a voter registration booth set up in the bookstore. I'd love to make that work."

Meg Sherman, assistant manager of the Chinook Bookshop in Colorado Springs, Colorado, told BTW that the topic of the Book Sense at Five Celebrations to be held at this June's BookExpo America stimulated good discussion at the forum.

Sherman also found "Avin [Domnitz]'s comments and insights about reporting sales to publishers were poignant. He noted that publishers get sales figures from chains and not independents. And books that sell a lot of copies in the chains often got their start at an independent store -- a good example is the Da Vinci Code. People forget once the books become huge sellers."

On Saturday morning, Domnitz offered his highly regarded one-on-one ABACUS Tutorials. The consultations were designed to demonstrate how easy submitting financial information to the 2004 ABACUS study is and how valuable a financial tool it is for those seeking to improve store operations.

In the afternoon, in addition to the Book Sense gift card demonstrations, ABA sponsored a session on how to market the new Mountains & Plains Independent Bestseller List to local newspapers. --Nomi Schwartz