SCIBA Feast & Trade Show Earns Rave Reviews

The 2008 Southern California Independent Booksellers Association (SCIBA) Authors Feast & Trade Show, which was held Saturday, October 18, in Los Angeles, wowed booksellers with a mix of education, authors, and community. "It was great," said Adrienne Newell of Warwick's in La Jolla, California. "What I really liked about the trade show was having the time to spend with colleagues, sharing stories. There was a great sense of community."

Though an uncertain economy continues to be this holiday season's biggest X factor, numbers at this year's show were up, said SCIBA President Sherri Gallentine of Vroman's Bookstore. "There were six more bookstores represented over last year," she told BTW. Overall, Gallentine said, "it was fabulous -- everything went smoothly" and feedback from attendees was positive.

For SCIBA Executive Director Jennifer Bigelow, "the highlight of the day was the optimism for the future and the love of the business of bookselling" that she witnessed. "Yes," she added, "the economy is not what we would like it to be, but we will get through it to better times."

Among booksellers who spoke to Bookselling This Week, two sessions managed to stand out in a stellar education program: "Business to Business: 10 Great Ideas You Can Implement at Your Store" and ABA's "Connecting to Your Customers and Community With IndieBound."

"I did the IndieBound session, which was a refresher for me," said Julie Swayze of Metropolis Books in Los Angeles. "[ABA COO] Oren [Teicher] provided really good information." Tips included making sure that you publicize in-store that you have an e-commerce website where customers can order when they can't make it to the store.

Maryelizabeth Hart of Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego, California, attended an IndieBound session at both SCIBA and the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association trade shows and found it helpful both times. "There was new content at the SCIBA IndieBound session," she explained. "There were particulars about holiday-specific stuff, so it was worth going to again." (See related story.)

Both Hart and Swayze commended the Business-to-Business session, and Gallentine reported, "[It] was probably the session I've heard the most about. It was received very well."

Other programming receiving special mention, said Gallentine, was SCIBA's offerings for children's booksellers, which was presented by Kristen McLean, executive director of the Association of Booksellers for Children. For the first time, the programming was open to teachers and librarians as well as booksellers.

"I thought the Bookseller Luncheon/4 Authors Speaking! was the highlight," Gallentine continued. "Mary E. Pearson [Adoration of Jenna Fox, Henry Holt] was the emcee, and we had 40 teachers and librarians there, as well as booksellers. All the authors signed their books afterward. Everyone really enjoyed it."

"The lunch was amazing," Newell concurred. "There were four very different authors who each in their own way explained how important independent booksellers have been to them. There was great energy, and the authors had wonderful stories to tell."

On the trade show floor, which opened at 1:30 p.m., Hart said she found a lot of new things. Traffic was "steady the whole time," said Gallentine, adding "I heard good things from sales reps."

The day culminated in a well-organized Author's Feast, featuring more than 50 authors and the presentation of the SCIBA Book Awards. "I thought they did a great job," said Hart. "It was good to see some local authors take home some awards, too!" This year's winners were David Benioff (City of Thieves, Penguin) for fiction; Jeanne Kelley (Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes, Running Press) for nonfiction; Dean Lorey (Nightmare Academy, HarperCollins) for children's novel; and Dan Hanna (The Pout-Pout Fish, FSG) for children's picture book. Joseph Wambaugh was the recipient of the T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award for Hollywood Crows (Little, Brown). --David Grogan