Productive Forum Held in Ohio

On Wednesday, March 29, the American Booksellers Association held a Booksellers Forum and Education Program in conjunction with the Great Lakes Booksellers Association (GLBA) at the Hilton Garden Inn in Dublin, Ohio. At the event, which was attended by approximately 50 booksellers, ABA presented two educational sessions followed by the Booksellers Forum. Regarding the day's events, Jim Dana, GLBA's executive director, told BTW, "I thought it was one of the best ones we've had. As we got into the forum, there was a lot of discussion. It was pretty lively."

Jill Miner of Saturn Booksellers in Gaylord, Michigan, echoed Dana's sentiments. "I thought it was a very productive day. There was a lot of ground covered in a short amount of time."

And Judy Gaylord of Liberty Books & News in Columbus, Ohio, said the day was "very helpful. It sparks you and gets you motivated."

The day's programming began with the hour-long session "How to Be the Story: Developing and Implementing a Public Relations Plan," presented by Len Vlahos, director of BookSense.com and of ABA's education program. This seminar discussed how a comprehensive public relations plan can have a greater impact on a store's visibility than advertising, and at a much lower cost. The differences between advertising and public relations were explored, and Vlahos led booksellers through an explanation of how to formulate and execute a PR plan.

"I thought there were some interesting points," Miner said. "People can [implement a PR plan] for less than they think. [Some booksellers] put advertising and PR as the same thing in the budget, and it's not true."

Following the seminar on PR, Meg Smith, associate director of Book Sense marketing and director of membership marketing/media relations for ABA, presented "Know Your Customer: Increase Sales." This session explored how individual contact, surveys, market research, and use of the store database can be combined to form an effective strategy for communicating with customers.

Miner said she came away with the knowledge that a bookseller must keep on top of what his or her customer wants at all times. "It's easy to get complacent," she said.

Summer Moser of Summer Stories in Kendallville, Indiana, attended both seminars and said, "They were really helpful to me -- there were lots of great ideas that will help my business."

From noon to 1:45 p.m. was the ABA Booksellers Forum, which was led by ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz with Vlahos and Smith. Topics of discussion included Above the Treeline, Constant Contact, and author events.

"I'm excited to get started with Above the Treeline," said Saturn's Miner, about the online software product designed to help bookstores improve finances by optimizing inventory selection. Miner, who took advantage of the special discount offer for ABA member booksellers, signed up for Constant Contact at the Winter Institute.

Both Summer Stories' Moser and Liberty's Gaylord are considering giving Above the Treeline a try, too. "It sounds really great," Moser said.

"Constant Contact really captured my interest the most -- a profitable newsletter you can create yourself," said Gaylord. "That was very interesting."

In terms of author events, GLBA's Dana noted that the forum discussion revolved around what associations and booksellers themselves can do to get authors to appear at their stores. "They talked about how it works, how publishers make decisions, and the store's responsibility," he said. "It tied into the PR seminar that we did in the morning, and it became a pretty good organic discussion [on author events]."

Following the forum was the GLBA Update. The update began with "The Big Switch -- The 13-Digit ISBN Is on Its Way," which detailed how, beginning January 1, 2007, the whole publishing industry will officially switch to the 13-digit ISBN. This session provided an overview of what the change means, information about resources for booksellers, and a checklist of steps that need to be taken to assure that a business is ready.

"The whole ISBN-13 is a passionate subject for me, and people are not prepared," Miner reported. "[Many booksellers] were totally taken aback that they had to do anything at all" in regards to the ISBN-13. Stressing that more booksellers need to take action to ensure that their POS is compliant with the change to 13 digits, she warned, "What happens when [you] go to do an e-order [in 2007], and it just doesn't work anymore?"

"Many booksellers are not really aware of what's going on with ISBN-13," Dana said. "We suggested that stores start planning right now to get the changeover done."

Following the ISBN overview, GLBA presented "The Spoken Word: Brought to You by Independent Bookstores Nationwide." Here, attendees heard how GLBA and seven of other regional associations have teamed up to back the nationwide launch of The Spoken Word, an hour-long, weekly NPR program that features authors reading or talking about their writing.

Overall, attendees who spoke with BTW were pleased with the day's programming. "It was my first forum and I loved it," Moser said. --David Grogan