Politics & Prose Does Indies Proud at National Book Festival

Being the sole bookseller for the 14th Annual Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., “far exceeded our expectations,” said Politics & Prose co-owner Bradley Graham. “We knew from past festivals that the crowds could be overwhelming and so, in the back of our minds, we were prepared to handle crowd surge — but we didn’t think we’d get it to the extent that we did. Nonetheless, we held everything together.”

Three floors of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center were dedicated to author events, signings, and book discussions during the August 30 event, which was moved indoors this year due to the reseeding of the National Mall. The change to an indoor venue on a holiday weekend left a big question about whether the festival would draw its typical 200,000 attendees.

“The fact is that moving the festival indoors and shifting it to Labor Day weekend did not appear to dampen the turnout to any degree,” said Graham.

Politics & Prose, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary of business this month, secured its spot as the sole bookseller at the festival earlier this summer, the first independent bookseller to get the contract in the history of the event. In looking for ways to feature fellow independent bookstores, Graham worked with the American Booksellers Association to develop a wallpaper display that featured the names and locations of more than 2,000 bookstore members. Five 12-foot by 8-foot displays were set up in the selling space, which spanned 200 feet by 80 feet on the second floor of the convention center, alongside the author signing lines.

“The National Book Festival turned into a wonderful opportunity to showcase indie bookstores, and the Politics & Prose crew made all of us proud for the superb way in which they handled the sales of thousands and thousands of books,” said ABA CEO Oren Teicher, who was among the volunteers helping Politics & Prose work the event.

Graham heard festival-goers comment on the wallpaper as he moved through the crowds in the sales pavilion, and saw people throughout the day standing in front of the wallpaper to identify bookstores in their hometowns.

“One of our objectives in going for this contract in the first place was to demonstrate what an independent bookstore could do in managing a book festival as large as this one,” said Graham. “From what we could tell, the Library of Congress staff and others were pleased with our results. This is a huge undertaking and it went amazingly smoothly.”

Though an official count of attendees has yet to be released, the 18 cash registers in the sales pavilion and the staff on hand worked hard to keep the checkout line moving. A total of 80 people helped out in the sales pavilion, including 60 Politics & Prose staff members as well as staff from ABA, Ingram, and cash register provider IRT. “It was a great team effort on the part of not just P&P but several other companies. Everybody — P&P staff, the folks from ABA, Ingram, and IRT — just rose to the occasion,” said Graham.

This year’s indoor location allowed for evening programming, something usually constrained by the need for daylight. There were also more author pavilions than in previous years. The sales area was open from 9:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m., with a satellite shop open in the evening to serve the nighttime events until 10:00 p.m. Politics & Prose worked with Ingram to stock the more than 20,000 copies of 200 titles, as well as non-book items. In terms of sales, “it was like Christmas several times over,” said Graham, adding, “The whole experience was very instructive about how to order for this particular audience. We found that many who came to the festival had different interests in books than our regular store customers.”

Staff members were assigned to each table of books to help shoppers, which worked well because there were plenty of questions. “We thought one area in which Politics & Prose could demonstrate the things that independents are known for — expert advice and personalized service — was at these tables,” said Graham. “And we were given many opportunities to show off our staffs’ knowledge of books.”

Seeing so many families and shoppers of all ages in the sales pavilion was “tremendously gratifying,” Graham added. “And there just was great energy and enthusiasm in the crowds, and people were wonderfully polite and respectful of each other. It got very, very packed during the middle of the day but everybody seemed to be in a great mood and seemed to be enjoying themselves.”