BEA 2016: Booksellers Connect With Publishers, Authors, Fellow ABA Members

For the first time in 12 years, BookExpo America returned to Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center, resulting in a higher number of Midwestern and first-time attendees. During the three-day event, which took place from Wednesday, May 11, to Friday, May 13, American Booksellers Association programming gave members the chance to meet and network with numerous publishers, authors, and other booksellers.

Brien McDonald, Event Director for BookExpo America and BookCon, the show’s consumer-facing event on May 14, said the change in venue after several years in New York City led to a different set of attendees, who furnished a “completely different business opportunity for booksellers and publishers, and the chance to change the landscape of publishing efforts throughout this region of the country.”

According to Reed, the show saw nearly 1,000 more overall attendees from Illinois and a significant increase in attendees from surrounding states. ABA member bookseller registrations reflected attendance from stores in all parts of the country.

“BookExpo America in Chicago was productive and successful for ABA, as it allowed us to interact with a large number of member stores we don’t regularly see at other industry events,” said ABA CEO Oren Teicher.

“We’re pleased our partner Reed understands that trade shows like BEA must evolve to address the needs of both exhibitors and attendees and, while we appreciate the many benefits of having the show in New York City, moving the show to new locations on occasion does help create new and more affordable opportunities for many of our members to attend,” he added. 

BookExpo 2016 in Chicago was the first BEA for Sara Grochowski, children’s buyer at Brilliant Books in Traverse City, Michigan, who said the conference provided an invaluable opportunity to make personal connections. And, while she loved that there were plenty of well-known authors in attendance, she especially appreciated the chance to hear about the newer authors that sales reps and publicists are excited about, like Caleb Roehrig, Box Brown, and Kate Beasley.

“As this was my first time attending BEA, I had no idea what to expect... other than massive lines. And there definitely were lines. Luckily, those lines were filled with booksellers, librarians, and bloggers who passionately and vocally love books, so there was always an opportunity for great conversation,” Grochowski said. “My favorite part of every conference is connecting with other book industry people that I often only speak to via e-mail or phone. Being able to connect in person is always wonderful and, because we all love books, there’s always something to talk about.”

Preceding BEA’s opening events, ABA’s IndieCommerce Institute welcomed 20 member stores to this year’s Hotel ABA at BEA, the Drake Hotel, on Tuesday, May 10, for a full-day program that provided actionable information for new and experienced users of IndieCommerce websites.

“The institute offered guest speaker Max Thomas, CEO of ThunderActive.com, who discussed how independent bookshops can optimize their website’s listing for local online search,” said IndieCommerce Director Phil Davies, who noted that three videos from Thomas’ presentation are now available on YouTube. “The videos give some very interesting insights into how ABA members can drive traffic and sales from local search results.”

That evening at the Drake Hotel’s International Club, Penguin Random House hosted an opening-night party exclusively for ABA indie booksellers.

Bookseller events at BEA formally kicked off on Wednesday, May 11, with the morning plenary session “Meeting the New Localism Challenge: Protecting and Promoting Communities and Local Economies,” presented by Stacy Mitchell, the co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Mitchell addressed the growth of the localism movement and discussed the challenges facing localism in a period of transition, and gave an overview of key policy issues and advocacy goals. Following the talk by Mitchell, booksellers took part in breakout sessions to discuss both issues raised by Mitchell and possible actions they could take in their own communities.

On Thursday, May 12, booksellers heard from Adult Book & Author Breakfast speakers Sebastian Junger, author of Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging (Twelve); Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad: A Novel (Doubleday); and Louise Penny, author of A Great Reckoning (Minotaur), the next Chief Inspector Gamache novel. NPR’s Faith Salie, author of Approval Junkie: Adventures in Caring Too Much (Crowne Archetype), served as the Master of Ceremonies. Apart from Salie, each author autographed books in the ABA Member Lounge following the breakfast.

Later that day, authors and illustrators of indie bookseller favorites were recognized at the 16th annual Celebration of Bookselling and Author Awards Luncheon, emceed by ABA Board member Annie Philbrick, co-owner of Bank Square Books in Mystic, Connecticut, and the newly opened Savoy Bookshop & Café in Westerly, Rhode Island. In turn, Indies Choice and E.B. White Read-Aloud Award winners in attendance accepted their awards and honors and thanked booksellers for their support.

Following the event, booksellers headed to the lounge to meet the winners and honorees autographing their books, including 2016 Indie Champion Award-winner Richard Russo; J. Ryan Stradal, author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest (Pamela Dorman Books/Viking); Gavriel Savit, author of Anna and the Swallow Man (Knopf Books for Young Readers); and Kate Beaton, author of The Princess and the Pony (Arthur A. Levine Books).

The second day of BEA ended with ABA’s Town Hall meeting, where booksellers were free to bring up any issues or concerns with the ABA Board, followed by ABA’s Annual Meeting, which began with a special recognition for outgoing board member Sarah Bagby, owner of Watermark Books & Café in Wichita, Kansas, for her six years of service on the board. The board also welcomed two new board members at the meeting, who will each serve three-year terms: Kris Kleindienst, co-owner of Left Bank Books in St. Louis, Missouri, and Chris Morrow, who owns Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont, and Saratoga Springs, New York.

At the Annual Meeting, ABA Board of Directors President Betsy Burton, who owns The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah, reported on the first year of her presidency. ABA Board Vice President Robert Sindelar, managing partner of three Third Place Books locations in the Seattle area, reported that ABA Regular member companies now stand at 1,775 stores, an increase from 1,712 stores in 2015.

ABA CEO Oren Teicher reported the seventh straight year of growth for indie bookstores and praised the hard work of booksellers over the past year. Teicher also emphasized that the ABA will continue to do whatever it can to ensure the continued growth and success of independent bookstores.

Booksellers queued up in the ABA Member Lounge on Friday, May 13, to meet the Children’s Book and Author Breakfast speakers autographing their books there: Gene Luen Yang (Secret Coders: Secrets & Sequences, First Second Books); Sabaa Tahir (A Torch Against the Night, Razorbill); Dav Pilkey (Dog Man, Scholastic); and Jamie Lee Curtis (This Is Me: A Story of Who We Are and Where We Came From, Workman), who served as the Breakfast’s Master of Ceremonies.

On Friday morning, ABA members who signed up for the association’s second annual Publicists Speed Dating event had the opportunity to attend a round of one-on-one meetings with publicists from different publishing houses, where they promoted their stores and booked new events.

Kim Britt, owner of Orlando, Florida’s Bookmark It, who was attending her first BEA, said Friday’s Publicists Speed Dating event was the most informative and productive event of the whole conference, hands-down.  

“In less than half a day we were able to not only make contacts with a half dozen influential publicists face-to-face, but we received terrific feedback regarding our recent shift towards an experience-based sales model and even brainstormed some great program concepts for the fall — all that from the comfort of a cushy chair, which after three days of show floor walking was greatly appreciated,” she said.

Steve Salardino, owner of Skylight Books in Los Angeles, California, said he and store events manager David Gonzalez both thought the session was well-organized, and they appreciated the chance to meet with different publicists from a number of houses.

“For each table [we had] different objectives and different kinds of interactions,” said Salardino, who brought publicity packets for larger publishers to promote the store’s ability to do larger, offsite events like they’ve done with Jonathan Franzen and Miranda July at local theaters. For smaller publishers, their goal was to see which books or authors would be right for their customers and audience.

“While speaking with the publicists, we often came away with an idea for an event we had not requested or considered previously, so it seemed that the publisher representatives were doing a good job of matching up Skylight Books’ personality with the right books and authors,” Salardino said. “We found it completely rewarding. The structure, time limits, and number of meetings seemed to work perfectly for us. We had already set up other meetings with some individual publishers, so this was a great opportunity to sit down with them in an even more concentrated way.”

The final day of the conference concluded with a series of children’s-oriented events staged by the ABC Children’s Group at ABA and the Children’s Book Council, including the ABC/CBC Speed Dating Lunch With Children’s Authors and the ABC/CBC Tea with Children’s Authors and Illustrators.

Over the course of the three-day conference, representatives from the ABA insurance program, LIBRIS, the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc), and Shelf Awareness met with booksellers in the ABA Member Lounge. Association staff was also available in the lounge to discuss advocacy, education, and member benefits, and ABA’s IndieCommerce team held one-on-one meetings with stores to discuss their websites.

BookExpo America 2017 will take place at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City from Wednesday, May 31, to Friday, June 2. BookCon will take place immediately following, on Saturday and Sunday, June 3–4.