MPBA Puts on a 'Remarkable' Show

Approximately 500 booksellers representing about 115 of the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association's 240 bookstore members gathered in Denver from September 16 - 19 for the association's fall trade show. "The exhibitors were absolutely delighted with the show," said MPBA Executive Director Lisa Knudsen. "In some years they have catalogues left over at the end -- this year many of them ran out on the first day…. House reps from some of the largest publishing companies said that they had written more orders at this MPBA than in any prior year!"

Among the highlights of MPBA's two full days of educational programming, Knudsen noted, were a panel called "Care and Feeding of the Rep/Bookseller Partnership," a seminar on school and library sales, and the brown bag lunch with Sandra Dallas, Candy Moulton, Craig Johnson, and Pam Houston. "ABA has been so generous to the regionals in bringing their excellent seminars to our trade shows," Knudsen continued. "[ABA CEO] Avin [Mark] Domnitz, assisted by Jill Perlstein and Kristen Gilligan, offered three seminars on Friday that played to SRO crowds of booksellers.

"The writers and their work are of course the lifeblood of our industry and the author breakfasts on Saturday and Sunday are always highlights of the trade show. Authors this year included Francisco Goldman, Esmeralda Santiago, Jeff Shaara, and Jim Wooten. They each spoke so beautifully -- it was one of those times when I thanked my lucky stars to be a part of it all."

Below, Betsy Burton of the King's English describes her impressions of the show, which she found to be remarkable for more than just the abundance of new books.

By Betsy Burton of the King's English in Salt Lake City

Aside from the new books, present in their usual abundance, the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association's fall trade show was remarkable for three things: an unusually riveting book and author breakfast, the moving speeches given by this year's recipients of the Gordon Saull Rep and Bookseller of the Year Awards, and Avin Domnitz's marathon day of educational seminars (miraculously, his voice held out for the entire eight hours). Avin is possessed of a bookseller's passion, an attorney's analytical ability, and an essential honesty that makes his "look it in the face, call it what it is, then deal with it" approach to bookselling enormously effective. In the morning he charted and analyzed the characteristics that make our stores stand out from -- or fail to stand out from -- our competitors, and in the afternoon he presented the infamous "2% Solution." Although this second workshop is highly detailed and requires concentration difficult to muster after lunch, sleepiness wasn't an issue, since Avin is never boring. It was chock-full of information and ideas invaluable in the chase of that chimera, the bottom line, and should be attended by every independent bookseller.

Bestselling author Jeff Shaara, gesticulating his enthusiasm as he led the audience through the genesis of his new novel on WWI, To the Last Man, began the Saturday author breakfast. His lively performance was followed by that of Esmeralda Santiago, who lit up the podium as she wove her tales of growing up in Puerto Rico and Brooklyn through descriptions of her two previous memoirs and of The Turkish Lover. By turns funny and passionate, Santiago made a 15-minute presentation seem like one of two or three minutes, finishing with a brief reading from the new book. She was followed by the distinguished journalist Jim Wooten who outlined the reasons for his interest in Africa, in the AIDS epidemic, and one boy, Nkosi, who had AIDS from birth and who eventually died from it. Since Santiago had read, Wooten did too, choosing a brief passage that moved the audience to tears; gray-haired, clad in a pin-stripped suit, unflappable of delivery until this point, he surprised all of us with the depth of his emotion -- everyone who hadn't already read We Are All the Same vowed to do so. Wooten was a hard act to follow, but Francisco Goldman, evidencing the extraordinary brio, knowledge, passion, and humor that mark his new novel The Divine Husband, did so with panache. He took us through the life and career of an astonishing poet who became a major character in the book, and into a brief but equally intriguing history of the Americas. A bookseller who hadn't attended a trade show before was overheard saying, as Goldman finished, "So this is what it's all about." Another bookseller is born, we told one another with glee as we watched her stagger off, stars in her eyes.

A day browsing the books (we were glad to see Meg Sherman, formerly of Chinook, happily ensconced in the Norton booth) was followed by cocktails, twin birthday cakes for Sam Weller's 75th birthday and Changing Hands' 30th, and the presentation of the Gordon Saull Awards.

In accepting her award as rep of the year, Jeannie Dunham [of Wilcher Associates] took us through a litany of the things she loved about her job, listing great stores in her territory, sites of stunning physical beauty she has passed through while crisscrossing the Rockies, a roster of wonderful books she's represented over the years.

Bookseller of the Year Linda Brummett [of BYU Bookstore in Provo, Utah] followed and mused about her 32 years as a bookseller with her customary humor, describing the accidental way she came to the job, and startling the audience with a question. "How many of you," she asked, "started out life intending to go into the book business?" After a moment of silence during which not one person raised a hand, the audience burst into laughter, acknowledging the fact that, given its financial realities, few enter this business purposefully -- but that once caught up in it, it's hard to imagine doing anything else. The Harper rep, John Zeck, summed the whole thing up later when he said, "Ya, know, we're all crazy."

I guess we are, if crazy is synonymous with passion or is defined as an inability to look at the world in wholly monetary terms (I can see Avin shaking his head). If living a life that matters seems imminently sane, on the other hand, then we are crazy -- in good ways, or so we tell ourselves. That 'good crazy' was very much in evidence in Denver last weekend.