Upper Midwest Booksellers Gather for a Lively Forum

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The American Booksellers Association continued its 2004 Booksellers Forum schedule on Saturday, March 6, in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, where ABA staff met with upper Midwest booksellers. The ABA Booksellers Forum, co-sponsored by the Upper Midwest Booksellers Association (UMBA), was held at the Comfort Inn-Airport. Many booksellers who attended the ABA/UMBA programming also visited the Minneapolis Gift Mart Spring Show.

The forum, conducted by ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz and COO Oren Teicher, gave booksellers the chance to ask questions and to discuss key issues, including the Internet sales tax initiative and plans to celebrate Book Sense at Five. A new financial seminar, "The 2% Solution," was also part of the day's programming.

UMBA President Peggy Bieber of Little Professor Book Center in Aberdeen, South Dakota, told BTW that this year's forum was well attended, with about 40 booksellers participating in a lively discussion. "People asked really good questions," she said. "Someone asked about the challenges ABA was facing. Avin said one was trying to keep bookstores viable and more profitable."

People also asked about the Internet sales tax issue, said Bieber, who expressed her hope that stores would continue to press appropriate tax officials and state legislators to enforce their existing tax laws.

Reporting to the Book Sense Bestseller Lists through Nielsen BookScan was another forum topic. Bieber noted, "Many booksellers decided to report once they learned how easy it is and that BookScan would walk them through the process." Bieber also mentioned that many more booksellers were receptive to electronic gift cards after the Book Sense gift card demonstration. "People have to see it to want to participate," said Bieber. "I talked about how we use it at my store and that it works really well."

Waupaca, Wisconsin's Ellen Davis of Dragonwings was a gift-card fan even before she attended the forum. "It seems like such an obvious choice to me," she told BTW. "We have a children's bookstore, and the children respond really well to the cards. They know exactly what they are and think they're extremely cool to get and carry in their purses, pockets, or wallets."

Scott Yanke of Scott's Books in Delano, Minnesota, was finally convinced of the benefits of plastic cards over paper certificates. "I'd been waffling, but after hearing from other stores how easy it is to use and transition into offering cards, I made up my mind," he explained.

Both Yanke and Davis appreciated the financial seminar, "The 2% Solution," presented by Domnitz. Yanke said, "It was helpful to talk about renegotiating your lease." Post-seminar Yanke met with another bookseller who had recently renegotiated her lease, and she shared information with him about the process.

Davis thought that Domnitz's suggestions during the seminar were practical and doable. "I liked the way he spread out [potential changes] in small bites. I picked up a lot of little things to change that could add up to a big difference." One area Davis thought she would finetune was her public relations policy. "Avin recommended instituting a public relations plan. I do a lot of press releases and public relations events, but I don't have an organized plan. I thought it was a good idea." Another income-boosting strategy inspired by the seminar was to start advertising to local businesses through the Chamber of Commerce newsletter to inform them of services Dragonwings could provide, such as ordering books for business conferences, Davis said.

Overall, Bieber reported that this year's forum was helpful and informative. "It went well," she said. "There was lots of really good give-and-take between booksellers and ABA." --Karen Schechner