PNBA Trade Show 'A Literary Delight'

From September 10 - 12, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association held its fall trade show at Oregon's Portland Convention Center. In an area of the country with some of the highest unemployment, attendance at this year's show was down from 2003, but PNBA Executive Director Thom Chambliss told BTW, "We are cautiously optimistic that the holiday season may allow us to begin to see the light at the end of the this multi-year tunnel of recession."

"The highlights of this year's show were definitely the author events," said Chambliss. "Both of our Book & Author Breakfasts were well attended and enthusiastically received. Our first-time Feast of Authors on Saturday night (which was modeled after the very successful 'Moveable Feast' at the Southern California Booksellers Association fall meeting), was considered a gamble by many of our booksellers, but turned out to be the most exciting event of the weekend. Everyone I spoke to about the Feast raved and said that it was the best author event they had ever attended at one of our shows. We featured 20 authors, each of whom sat with five different tables of booksellers and discussed their new books."

Here Cheryl McKeon of Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, Washington, shares her thoughts on the delights of the show -- literary and otherwise.

By Cheryl McKeon of Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, Washington

Eager for their weekend at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association trade show, Seattle booksellers settled in for the three-hour train ride to Portland, Oregon, and opened their latest ARCs for quality reading time. "Oh, I just read The Da Vinci Code!" came the voice of a fellow traveler. The booksellers suppressed sighs, returned to their pages, and anticipated three days of new books.

They weren't disappointed. With attendees from more than 140 bookstores across Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and British Columbia; more than 400 exhibitors from 128 companies; and a number of author presentations, the September 10 - 12 PNBA fall trade show was, indeed, a literary delight.

Meeting at the Portland Convention Center, many had risen early enough for the first sessions on Friday: the reps' Pick of the Lists and the education sessions. More than 15 publishers' representatives shared their favorites from upcoming lists, in two marathon sessions, morning and afternoon. More Advanced Readers Copies were snapped up. We took notes: "Watch for Fannie Flagg for Christmas; advise book clubs that's coming in trade paper; order plenty of that coffee-table book for the holidays."

Booksellers chose among sessions on returns, maximizing co-op dollars, selling to the Christian market, creative use of the PNBA Holiday Catalog, and more.

Real, live authors' first appearances were well received at the "Celebration of Authors," where 10 writers, each in 12 minutes, introduced their new titles. A literary potpourri of subjects: poetry; a memoir of a doctor's experiences in remote PNW regions; a zany novel of a soldier in Vietnam, one of a career girl whose mother moves in, another of a healing friendship between an aged woman and a young girl, one of a "teenaged theater queen," and more.

For independent bookstores, one of the most creative and potentially lucrative business plans is forming alliances with other "indies" in their communities. A Friday session, moderated by ABA COO Oren Teicher, included Chuck Robinson of Village Books in Bellingham, Washington, who told of the county-wide program in the northwest corner of the state that's successfully launched a "Think, Buy, Be" local campaign, urging customers to support local independent merchants. This "sustainable connections" program emphasizes that dollars spent locally keep jobs and sales tax funds in the area. Gifts, bumper stickers, posters, and contests based on customers' receipts are all part of the Bellingham plan.

Derrell Ness of Portland spoke of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) program and noted that residents there are "willing to fight for their quality of life, inspired to change behavior by the 'McNeighborhood' fear." BALLE encourages alliances to stress the economic, environmental, community, and workplace benefits of locals working together.

In spite of the excitement of the day's events, attendance at the fall trade show was down, Thom Chambliss, PNBA executive director, told a small but enthusiastic group attending the PNBA Membership Meeting on Friday. Membership overall is also lower than last year, and Chambliss cited the regional economy, noting that Oregon and Alaska have very high unemployment.

There was good news, too. Portland will launch a new city-wide literary event and book show this spring. "Wordstock" runs April 19 - 24, preceded by a week of ticketed author events, which will help to fund the show.

"The Spoken Word, " taped author events recorded at venues around the country and broadcast on local NPR stations, is a possible upcoming effort. The hour-long program would include frequent references to the host location as well as other PNBA bookstores in the area, and will be funded in part by bookseller's associations, including PNBA, Chambliss explained.

It was also announced that in response to bookseller requests, the spring 2005 PNBA show would be a weekday event, from Monday, March 14, through Wednesday, March 16, at the Seatac Hilton in Seattle.

As exciting and informative as the Friday events were, the literal and figurative feasts of desserts, authors, book chats, and banquets, all interspersed by tours of the 200 publishers and exhibitors' displays on the floor show, were enough to make an ardent bookseller swoon.

With good intentions of taking only what would fit into one canvas bag, few managed to resist "just one more" book, as exhibitors presented favorite new titles and sidelines. "I was only going to take book club-potential titles, but then I saw the new kids' books…" one bookseller sighed. All activity paused, however, when Marc Acito (How I Paid for College) led the crowd in a "Happy Birthday" homage to Truman Capote, who would have been 80 on Saturday. Random House staff served birthday cake.

The Book Sense booth offered updates on the new gift card program for those who couldn't make the educational sessions, and ABA staff also distributed handouts for the "Freadom" campaign, noting that the "Patriot Act" petitions' final deadline is September 20. Materials for Banned Book Week were popular, too.

While the Saturday and Sunday Author Breakfasts maintained a traditional format, Saturday Night's "Moveable Feast" allowed 20 authors to circulate among tables of diners. While this allowed informal interaction, a drawback was that authors couldn't visit every table, so attendees missed some favorite presenters and only heard five writers, booksellers said.

As reps, buyers, and authors said goodbye during final tours of the exhibits on Sunday, the numbing effect of sensory overload was beginning to show.

"Did you hear the Marine veteran who wrote about his experiences in Nam-O-Rama?" a woman asked her colleague. "Oh, you mean Barack Obama, who spoke at the Democratic Convention?!" It was time to go home, probably doze on the train, and sort out the books, the orders, and the memories.