SEBA Trade Show Promises Authors, Education, and Fun

The 2005 Southeast Booksellers Association (SEBA) Fall Trade Show will be held from Thursday, September 15, through Sunday, September 18, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, at the M.C. Benton, Jr. Convention and Civic Center.

Expanded education programming will include two sessions sponsored by the American Booksellers Association: "Independent Retailing in the U.S.," a panel discussion moderated by ABA COO Oren Teicher, and "It's in the Payroll!," presented by Len Vlahos, director of BookSense.com.

ABA will also have a booth on the trade show floor, where the focus will be on education and information. Booksellers are encouraged to stop by the booth to meet with ABA staff, including Book Sense Marketing Director Mark Nichols. Visitors to the booth can drop off their business card for a chance to win airfare and hotel accommodations for ABA's Winter Institute or an inkjet printer. (ABA is encouraging booksellers to contact ABA staff members prior to the show if they have questions, suggestions, or comments. Questions and requests for information about ABA's participation at SEBA may also be directed to Kristen Gilligan, associate director of programming and constituent groups liaison, at Kristen@bookweb.org.)

New SEBA offerings at this year's show include the Spoken Word Reading Room and the Sunday Morning Readings Breakfast.

Wanda Jewell, SEBA executive director, who is very enthusiastic about this year's show, noted, "North Carolina is such a strong bookselling state that we expect this show to be the biggest since pre-9/11. Winston-Salem is the perfect size for us. Both hotels and the convention center are all connected, and the show is shaping up to be great on every front -- strong exhibitor presence, high quality education, and top-notch authors. It is going to be a fun and productive show for all involved."

On Thursday, September 15, SEBA will offer an all-day program, "Bookseller School Tackles Co-op Advertising," featuring Miriam Fleischmann, who will focus on how to optimize co-op advertising dollars to impact a store's bottom line. Covered topics will include outsourced co-op opportunities, such as the BookSense.com co-op program, and streamlining the co-op process to generate increased revenues. (The Bookseller School requires purchase of a $75 ticket, which will admit up to three people per store.) A Rep Appreciation Reception will cap the day.

On Friday, programming begins at 8:00 a.m. with "Breakfast and Annual Meeting With the SEBA Board," featuring Nancy Pearl, author of More Book Lust (Sasquatch).

Other Friday morning programming includes ABA's "Independent Retailing" panel, featuring retailers from several different industries, who will talk about the challenges and opportunities facing Main Street merchants, and SEBA's "How to Merchandise and Sell Graphic Novels" and "Authorless Events: Beyond Author Signings and Reading."

The "Kick-Off Book Award Winners Lunch," at noon on Friday, will feature SEBA Book Award winners Ron Rash (Saints at the River, Henry Holt); Celia Rivenbark (We're Just Like You, Only Prettier, St. Martin's); Frank Stitt (Frank Stitt's Southern Table, Artisan); and Ridley Pearson (Peter and the Starcatchers, Hyperion).

Lunch will be followed by a full afternoon of programming including a presentation of "It's in the Payroll!" by ABA's Vlahos. The focus of this session is payroll control, the single largest component on the expense side of the ledger, and arguably the most difficult issue for booksellers to handle successfully. From an examination of what is included in the payroll line (total compensation) to providing practical, usable tools for budgeting, scheduling, and controlling payroll, this seminar will provide invaluable tools and information, regardless of the size of a bookseller's store.

Other educational offerings on Friday include "Taking Advantage of Publisher Resources: Business-to-Business Programs" and "Mysteries Magnify Mainstream With Molly Weston."

Authors abound at three afternoon panels: "What a Character," "Southern Voices," and "Children's Authors." Among the numerous authors scheduled to appear are Stephanie Kallos, (Broken for You, Grove/Atlantic); Jack Pendarvis (The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure, MacAdam/Cage); George Singleton (Novel, Harcourt); William Baldwin (A Gentleman in Charleston and the Manner of His Death, University of South Carolina Press); Mike Berenstain (The Berenstain Bears Go Back to School, HarperCollins); and Patrick McDonnell (The Gift of Nothing, Little, Brown).

The day will end with the "SEBA Supper," featuring Edmund White (My Lives, Ecco); Michael Connelly (The Lincoln Lawyer, Little, Brown); Nikki Giovanni and Bryan Collier (Rosa, Henry Holt); and Robert Hicks (The Widow of the South, Warner Books).

On Saturday and Sunday, dozens more authors are speaking, taping, reading, feasting, and signing. Autographing will take place from 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, and on Sunday from 9:00 a.m. -1:00 p.m. The trade show floor will open on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. and will close from noon - 1:30 for lunch. On Sunday, it will be open from 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Saturday begins with "A Taste of HarperCollins Breakfast," featuring Sujata Massey (The Typhoon Lover); Joni Rodgers (Secret Sisters); Dixie Cash (My Heart May be Broken But My Hair Still Looks Great); and Loraine Despres (The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell).

Throughout the day on Saturday, the inaugural "Spoken Word Reading Room" will feature a different author taping a 20-minute selection of his or her work for broadcast on The Spoken Word Radio Show, which is sponsored by SEBA and produced by Public Radio South. Authors of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry will be taped every half-hour throughout the day and will sign copies of their books following their readings.

On the schedule for the Saturday "Children's Book & Author Luncheon" are Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel (The Great Fuzz Frenzy, Harcourt); Laura Numeroff (If You Give a Pig a Party, Laura Geringer Books); T.A. Barron (The Great Tree of Avalon: Shadows on the Stars, Penguin); and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming, Roaring Brook Press).

The day's programming ends with "The Moveable Feast of Authors," a gathering of almost 50 authors including Adrienne Yorinks (Quilt of States: Piecing Together America, National Geographic); Haynes Johnson (Age of Anxiety, Harcourt); Marcie Cohen Ferris (Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South, University of North Carolina Press); E.R. Frank (Wrecked, S&S); and Nancy Raines Day (Flamingo's First Christmas, Abrams).

On Sunday morning, the Readings Breakfast, a first-time event, will include authors Karin Slaughter (Faithless, Random House); Susan Reinhardt (Not Tonight, Honey: Wait 'Til I'm a Size Six, Kensington); Kaye Gibbons, The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster (Harcourt); Hal Crowther (Gather at the River: Notes From the Post-millennial South, Louisiana State University Press); Scott Ely (Eating Mississippi, Livingston Press); and Bobbie Ann Mason (An Atomic Romance, Random House).

For registration information, including ticket information, a full schedule with times and locations, and updates to this information, go to the SEBA website, www.sebaweb.org or send an e-mail sebajewell@aol.com --Nomi Schwartz

(Watch for a preview of the New England Booksellers Association trade show, which will be held from September 16 - 18, in next week's BTW.)