GLBA Scratches Many a Niche at Trade Show

Dearborn, Michigan, was once again the venue for the Great Lakes Booksellers Association (GLBA) Trade Show, which was held on October 3 - 5 at the Dearborn Hyatt Regency. All indicators were up this year, as were the spirits of booksellers and vendors. The Dearborn location, just outside Detroit, has become a favorite for booksellers, authors, and exhibitors. Games of chance and skill, the presentation of the Great Lakes Book Awards, and a stellar line-up of authors contributed to the show's success.

Jim Dana, executive director of GLBA, was gratified by the overwhelmingly positive response to this year's show. "We kept all of the good things from last year's show, added some fun special events, and, although this has been a rough year for the industry, all of our numbers were up and people were very enthusiastic," Dana said. "Numbers of attendees were up by five percent this year. We had more booths, more exhibiting companies, and more attendee organizations."

Adopting the slogan "If It Niches, Scratch It," the show's educational sessions and events focused on methods, old and new, that independents can employ to capitalize on their unique status.

ABA's Information Technology Director Jeff Wexler demonstrates the new gift card program.

Educational sessions on Friday, October 3, included three sponsored by ABA. "Gift Cards, BookScan, and Other New Technologies" was moderated by Rita Williams of Books of Aurora in Aurora, Ohio, and included panelists Liz Murphy of the Learned Owl Book Shop in Hudson, Ohio; Mark Nichols, Book Sense marketing director; Nielsen BookScan's David Lopez; and Christian Waters of Random House. "ABACUS: Year One," led by ABA's information technology director, Jeff Wexler; "BookSense.com Co-op: Paying Your Dot.com Costs," presented by Nichols; and the technology session were frequently mentioned by booksellers as invaluable.

Emerging book categories, including graphic novels, and sidelines, including CDs and DVDs, were also the subjects of Friday's educational sessions.

Dana told BTW that Sunday's programming, which included "From Monica to the Patriot Act: Customer Privacy Today," moderated by Chris Finan, president of American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, and the plenary session "Creating New Readers," featuring authors Esme Raji Codell (How to Get Your Child to Love Reading, Algonquin) and Nancy Pearl, (Book Lust, Sasquatch), drew large, attentive crowds.

One satisfied attendee was Cynthia Compton, owner of 4 Kids Books in Indianapolis, Indiana. "The show was wonderful and the location excellent," Compton said.

Book Sense Marketing Director Mark Nichols speaks about the BookSense.com Co-op Reimbursement Program.

She was particularly impressed by the education sessions she attended including Nichols' presentation on Co-op Reimbursement, which, she said, "should be repeated frequently" at other events because "booksellers need to constantly work on the program to get the maximum benefit."

Compton has signed up for the Book Sense electronic gift cards because she "wants to be on-board with them as [the store] starts holiday sales. Customers like gift cards," she continued. "They don't have to be introduced to them -- they already know them. They're tremendously marketable. We're going to offer pre-priced ones during the busy fourth quarter. They [the cards] will drive sales and when we pre-activate some at various price points and keep them in the drawer, we can sell a lot of them very quickly."

Vicki Brown of the Ole' Book Nook, in Urbana, Ohio, told BTW that after reading about the electronic gift card, attending the workshop, and getting a hands-on demonstration on the trade show floor at the ABA/Book Sense booth, she signed up. It was, she said, "due to [the store's] need for a better tracking system and customers' interest in a gift card."

Brown found other useful information at the popular roundtable session on "Ideas that Work." "It's always good," she said, "to be with other booksellers, to share ideas, share our love of books, and support each other."

"The education classes are always good to attend," said Lisa Comer, owner of the Book Shoppe in Alma, Michigan, "even if you've already heard the stuff, you can compare notes with other booksellers and find out if there's a better way to do things." Comer will be able to put to good use the color inkjet printer and $50 gift card training session she won for visiting the ABA/Book Sense gift card demonstration.

Winners at other GLBA events were Suzanne DeGaetano, owner of Mac's Backs Paperbacks in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, for the first-time-ever GLBA team spelling bee sponsored by American Heritage and Jim Tiller of Kazoo Books in Kalamazoo, Michigan, who took first place in Late-Nite Poker, with Jim McManus, author of Positively Fifth Street (FSG), held Saturday night after the Booksellers Banquet.

According to Dana, the annual Great Lakes Book Awards Presentation, held on Friday, recognized the best of the previous year's writing about the Great Lakes region. Winner of the Fiction Award was Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (FSG); General Book Award winner was To Conquer the Air by James Tobin (S&S); and the Children's Award winner was Girl Wonder: A Baseball Story in Nine Innings by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Terry Widener (S&S).

During the banquet on Saturday, the first Get Caught Reading Photo Contest Recognition Ceremony was held, winners of the contest were recognized, and the "Readers of the Great Lakes" poster was unveiled.

Over 150 GLBA members shared "Breakfast With the Board" at the GLBA Annual and Town meetings on Saturday. New board members and officers were introduced, the annual report was reviewed, and booksellers were invited to share concerns. Yvonne Lowry, mother of outgoing GLBA president Tom Lowry of Lowry's in Three Rivers, Michigan, said that this was an outstanding show. "It's always good to see how others do things," she said. "The sessions are always valuable, like the seminar on children's books. They didn't just give us the top tier -- all the books we already knew about -- they gave us the next level -- books I hadn't heard of, but great choices, every one."

GLBA will return to Dearborn for the 2004 trade show. -- Nomi Schwartz