Weather Calm, Booksellers Active at SEBA Trade Show

With the threat of Hurricane Isabel lurking behind the scenes, the Southeast Booksellers Association (SEBA) Annual Fall Trade Show was held on Jekyll Island in Georgia from September 19 - 21. Not only was the weather "perfect," said SEBA Executive Director Wanda Jewell, "I can't think of anything that didn't go well." Jewell renamed the spot "SEBA Island" and spoke of polling members to make Jekyll Island the show's permanent venue. "On this island, I have a captive audience; I have to remember that," Jewell quipped.

All the booksellers contacted by BTW agreed that this might very well have been the best show ever. The final registration numbers were not available at press time, but every event, from early morning to late night, was filled to capacity. Jewell said that the new "Late Night Readings," held at 10:00 p.m. on Friday night, was standing room only and filled to the limits of the fire codes. Silas House, Kathy Trocheck, George Singleton, and Ron Rash were the popular readers that evening. Education sessions were well received, and rooms were packed. Thursday's all-day "Bookseller School," had a capacity crowd of enthusiastic new booksellers. Jewell said that she heard "lots of buzz about the Patriot Act panel [led by ABFFE President Chris Finan] and BookSense.com. The ABACUS session [led by BookSense.com Director Len Vlahos] was also mentioned as very useful."

Kathryn Kolker, buyer for Newsstand International in Charlotte, North Carolina, a complete general bookstore with 5,000 different magazines, is a SEBA show veteran after 13 years with the store. For the past two years, she's attended with one or both of the store's new owners, Dan and Kathryn Hutson. This year, Kolker, with Dan Hutson, found the show "more heavily attended" and "the mood definitely brighter … people were -- shall I say -- hopeful." Kolker told BTW, "I always enjoy going to SEBA. I always learn something new -- a much better way to do that."

This year, Kolker and Hutson were very interested in both the new Book Sense gift card program and Book Scan. "The Book Scan session was very informative, and we registered the store at the show," Kolker said. "Dan was very enthusiastic about the gift cards. Since BEA, he has been thinking about it and was finalizing details at SEBA. We are going to have it in place by Christmas. It makes a great marketing piece -- a package can be displayed out in the store in a really nice way."

At the ABA/Book Sense booth on the trade show floor, Vlahos and Jill Perlstein, ABA's marketing director, were busy throughout the show presenting demonstrations of the new Book Sense electronic gift card program. Sally Brewster of Park Road Books in Charlotte, North Carolina, was the Grand Prize-winner of a free gift card training session and a color inkjet printer for participating in a gift card demonstration at the booth. Daniel Elam of Branch's Chapel Hill Bookshop in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, won a free gift card training session.

Vlahos also led a well-received session on the BookSense.com Co-op Reimbursement Program, which prompted several stores to sign up to participate. Through the Reimbursement Program, booksellers can offset a significant portion of the monthly cost of their BookSense.com sites.

Rona Brinlee, owner of The Book Mark in Atlantic Beach, Florida, and Park Road Books' Brewster were installed as new SEBA directors at the show.

"It is a wonderful spot for this show," Brinlee said of the Jekyll Island site. "It's accessible -- you run into people more often [than at other convention centers] so it's a good opportunity to talk to other booksellers and share ideas." Brinlee spoke of the bookseller roundtables, ABACUS, and the Nielsen BookScan panel as highlights. "Data collection is always good, but these sessions helped me to understand how important these tools can be. I saw how BookScan really benefits booksellers and publishers." Brinlee was pleased that some attendees were able to visit her store, which is an hour and a half from Jekyll Island.

SEBA President Jerry Eidenier, who runs Duke University's The Gothic Bookshop, in Durham, North Carolina, agreed that the show was great and sessions were very well attended. He mentioned the Public Radio South's presentation of The Spoken Word, which is sponsored exclusively by SEBA, as a most interesting session.

Jake Reiss of the Alabama Booksmith in Birmingham agreed that the Spoken Word session was a standout. "We're excited about the show for our store, which focuses on author events," Reiss explained. The Spoken Word features author readings and talks and performances about literature and the arts that are recorded around the Southeast. The program will be syndicated and broadcast weekly to radio stations throughout the region from a rotating list of SEBA-member bookstores. (For a previous article on The Spoken Word, click here.)

Reiss called this year's show, at which he took advantage of the many show specials and placed more orders than in previous years, "the best one of the last 10 years."

An early adopter of both Book Sense and BookSense.com, Reese credited the store's newsletter link to a BookSense.com product page as partly responsible for the success of an event held at the store by author Suzanne Hudson on September 22.

Brinlee credited effective pitches at the show of both BookScan and ABA's gift card program for moving her closer to updating to a point-of-sale system at The Book Mark. "I guess I'm a Luddite," she told BTW, "but [since the presentations] I can really see the advantages of having these two programs at the cash register." --Nomi Schwartz