By Cheryl McKeon of Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, Washington
Moving to suburban Seattle from its traditional Portland, Oregon locale, the fall Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Trade Show attracted enthusiastic booksellers, publishers, and authors to its September 19 - 21 gathering.
ABFFE President Chris Finan has begun a special Banned Books Week Tour for his new book, From the Palmer Raids to the PATRIOT Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America.
The retail sales slump at bookstores continued in June. Preliminary figures recently released by the Bureau of the Census show a decline in retail sales at bookstores in June 2007 of 6.6 percent as compared to June 2006. This was the 12th month in a row that book sales failed to keep pace with the previous years' results.
June 2007 bookstore sales are estimated at $1,130 million, compared to sales for the previous June of $1,210 million.
Last November, Pubnet unveiled Instant Response, an alternative to the direct electronic order (DEO) dial-up systems that several publishers began phasing out with the introduction of ISBN-13 in January. Instant Response allows bookstores to place orders and receive backorder acknowledgements, invoices, and advance shipping notices through standardized electronic methods.
This past weekend, several ABA staff members joined front-line booksellers at celebrations marking the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Here are reports filed by ABA COO Oren Teicher at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona; ABA Information Director Dan Cullen at Other Tiger in Westerly, Rhode Island; and Book Sense Marketing Director Mark Nichols at The Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington Depot, Connecticut.
By ABA COO Oren Teicher at Changing Hands Bookstore
The town of Gualala, California, hangs over the Pacific Coast, almost two hours away from the nearest MacDonald's, Wal-Mart, Borders, or Safeway. To the south, cows walk unfenced across the only highway into town. In wet weather the river to the north inevitably floods, shutting off all traffic till it recedes. Fewer than 2,000 locals live here year round.
Steven Hall, author of The Raw Shark Texts (Canongate), an April Book Sense Pick, provides an entertaining look at his experiences on a cross-country promotional tour.
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Moving to suburban Seattle from its traditional Portland, Oregon locale, the fall Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Trade Show attracted enthusiastic booksellers, publishers, and authors to its September 19 - 21 gathering.
