Act-I-Vate Primer at Book Court, 10/29/09

I went to a fantastic event at Book Court last night. Act-I-Vate Primer, an anthology of graphic short stories by webcomic creators, was projected on a large screen. The stories were read and, in some cases, very amusingly performed, by each creator and one or more of their partners-in-crime. A very entertaining evening. There was a nice turnout, as often happens when multiple contributors are reading- each contributor brings a few friends along.

My favorite feature of the night, though, was the raffle. The authors raffled two copies of the book, for a dollar a ticket. A volunteer worked the entire room, and of course I bought a ticket (I’m sure almost everyone did). They must have taken in at least $50, more than enough to pay for two books. As a bonus for those who didn’t win, the winners were forced to perform one of the stories in order to win their copy! Much hilarity ensued.

It immediately occurred to me that this idea could be applied to almost every signing you hold. Not that I think your customers should be invited to get up to read alongside Michael Chabon, but a raffle could become, for the customers who don’t win, a powerful incentive to buy a book at your event. In the interval between the reading and the signing session, you could announce the winner of the book, and that person could come forward to happily claim their copy. What happens to the customers who didn’t win? Certainly some percentage of them will decide that yes, they really, really want to buy the book now.

The economics are very tempting- if 30 people come to you event, and you sell 24 tickets, you’ve covered the cost of the book, and you’ll probably sell a few more copies on top of that. If the event is lightly attended, keep the tickets for a monthly raffle for a free book- now you’re gathering email addresses for your mailing list. If a local organization comes in looking for a donation, offer to make them the beneficiary of a raffle at an upcoming event. With any luck, they’ll help you publicize the event, guaranteeing a bigger turnout.

Per this report in New York Magazine, McNally Jackson Books will soon have an Espresso Book Machine. John Turner, a buyer for the store confirms the rumor and reports that he’ll be running the thing. Will this make him a ‘book barista’?

There aren’t a whole lot of books available for it now, but imagine this future:

As of now, in addition to “millions” of public-domain books, the machine can only access about 175,000 backlist titles (you’d need to sell a couple thousand copies a year to make it worth your while). But millions of books are being digitized, and, Neller says he’ll have them soon enough. He’s talking to lots of chains, and not just bookstores. “Imagine libraries being a place where you can get books [that is, more books] and Staples, Kinko’s, coffee shops.” In two years, he says, “We’ll be having a different conversation.”

Read the New York article here.

Kristen McLean, executive director of the American Booksellers for Children, moderated the panel called Give It Away to Get It Back: Using “Thought Leadership” Marketing to Build Your Children’s Business as a follow-up to last year’s “Thought Leadership” discussion (Shelf Awareness, June 16, 2008), again building on Joel Kurtzman’s idea that “thought leaders” are people “widely recognized for innovative ideas that they share broadly with their organization or community.”

This year, the focus was on building relationships with teachers and the larger community through book fairs, book clubs and other indie businesses.

McLean suggested that bookstores:

• Give professional book talks
• Offer teacher in-service
• Form creative partnerships with local schools
• Teach a class in the community’s continuing education program about children’s books
• Create an in-store education information center
• Spearhead buy-local programs

Shelly Plumb, owner of Harleysville Books, a general bookstore in Harleysville, Pa., noted that children’s books are her bestselling category for which she has developed several programs:

• Participation in the Pennsylvania State Certification Program and offering PSCP courses to teachers. (Most attendees are private or parochial schoolteachers.)
• Establishing eight types of book fairs for schools, from preschool through middle school.
• A contest with schools where they earn “book bucks” and a prize goes to the school that’s read the most books.

Diane Capriola, owner of Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, Ga., started a book fair program with local schools when parents complained about the mass market titles and “gimmicky things” offered through Scholastic Book Fairs. Capriola said she “handpicked quality books” for the school book fairs, and that while it’s labor-intensive and doesn’t generate a lot of revenue, it does create a lot of good will.

“Teaching today is very different from teaching 10 years ago,” Capriola said, noting that teachers have to focus more on testing and the core curriculum. She said because of such demands on teachers, “bookstores have the opportunity to approach them with summer reading lists, book fair ideas and how to use graphic novels in the classroom,” with an educators’ discount. Little Shop of Stories has also partnered with other kid-friendly businesses such as toy stores, a candy store, and a music school that’s opening soon in their area.

Another way Capriola generated good will was by promoting at her store an event at the Carter Center where a sister indie, A Capella Books, was handling the book sales. A Capella did a shout-out to Little Shop of Stories, thanking the store for spreading the word, which resulted in attendees buying books from Capriola.

When Capriola heard that Daren Wang (formerly of Spoken Word), author Thomas Bell and others were thinking of starting a book festival in Decatur in February 2005, she offered to provide children’s book authors for a “Children’s Stage” event. The Decatur Book Festival launched Labor Day weekend in 2006 and has grown to draw more than 70,000 attendees; and the Children’s Stage generates the most revenue, Wang told Capriola and Little Shop co-owner Dave Shallenberger. A YA stage made its debut at last year’s festival.

Speaking of teens, Shannon Mathis, the children’s book buyer for Books Inc., with headquarters in San Francisco, Calif., is perhaps best known for founding the “Not Your Mother’s Book Club,” which is now four years old. Mathis called it a “literary salon for teens.” Among its “rules”: participants don’t have to read the book before meetings, every event is a party and Books Inc. gives away prizes such as iPods. Through the book club, Books Inc. has made a name for itself with teen readers in the Bay area as well as with the San Francisco public library system.

Some San Francisco residents used to pay to have people facilitate book clubs in private homes, Mathis noted. Books Inc. saw this as an opportunity and offers a speaker at a book club as a prize at school auctions. The stores also sponsor book talks called “Lattes and Literature” and give out book lists with the bookstores’ addresses. Mathis also urged booksellers, “Don’t underestimate teen reading lists.” She distributes summer reading list order forms and receives orders from schools as far as 30 miles away.

McLean reminded booksellers of the “posse” that last year’s thought leadership panelist Emily D’Amour Pardo started at Books & Books, Coral Gables, Fla.: teens who interned in the store created a teen blog on the store’s Web site about both titles and events. Teens reach teens most effectively, she said.

McLean also urged booksellers to incorporate the articles she includes in the ABC Toolbox e-newsletter on their own Web sites where appropriate. After all, it’s all about “innovative ideas that [we] share broadly with [our] community.”–Jennifer M. Brown

-From Shelf Awareness (subscribe)

Here’s the info for the two catalogs in our territory:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jun/04/dave-eggers-buck-up-print

(with thanks for Chris Kerr, who received this from Mark Kohut)

The Big Announcement: Greenlight Is Go!

(Ironically, she recently defended her father the theologian Reinhold Neibuhr’s authorship of the popular prayer “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.”)

I have a lot of problems with her conclusions, and independent of this post, will argue that she is sadly typical of many editors who just don’t get the larger consumer and reading trends at work.

–>read “The Nation: The Long Goodbye? The Book Business and its Woes” by Elizabeth Sifton

The beauty of getting food delivered to the Javits is that you can get a much better meal than at the cafeteria, for about half the price, and in a fraction of the time. All you have to do is plan ahead.  You just call 30 minutes to an hour before lunch, and plan to meet the delivery person at the concierge desk (it’s on the lower level, near the shuttle bus dropoff). The restaurant will take your cell phone number and call when they arrive. Most places take credit cards, too- you give your info over the phone, and sign for the food when it arrives.

Here’s a list of places that deliver to the Javits (download pdf of their menus here):

Manganaro’s: A ‘Manganaro Special’ will feed two. According to the menu it’s “mix meats, cheese and peppers”. If you’r from Philly, you’ll call it a hoagie, but it’s a little different and very, very good. Closed Sunday. (488 9th Ave, 212-563-5331)

Manganaro’s Hero Boy: Similar to Manganaro’s and just next door. Some say they’ve been fighting for the name for a half century. At least they’re open on Sunday. (494 9th Ave, 212-947-7325)

Kam Wei Chinese Restaurant: If you’re manning the booth Sunday, you’ll miss out on your weekly dim sum pilgrimage. Golden City will take care of those Chinese food cravings. (630 10th Ave, 212-459-9859)

Sandwich Planet: Just about any kind of sandwich, plus salads and soups. Closed Sunday. (534 9th Ave.; 212-273-9768)

Stage Door Delicatessen: Famous diner/deli across from Penn Station. The menu runs to nine pages-if you can’t find what you want here, you’ll just have to leave the convention center for lunch. (461 8th Ave at 33rd St, 212-868-9655)

As usual, we’ll be dodging the high convention center food prices by ordering out. If you’d like a set of menus for restaurants and delis that deliver to the Javits Convention Center, just send me an email at “seanconcannon AT parsonweems DOT com”.

Attending publishers with specials and promotions:

Brookings Institution Press (booth 3129)

• Special: 10+=46% and free freight
• In Booth: pick up galleys, pens

Continuum (booth 4115):

• Special:+2% on backlist. Free freight with 15+ books. (expires June 15)
• In Booth: enter to win  an iPod and a complete set of the 33 1/3 series titles

Cornell University Press (booth 2536): 

• Special: 5+=50% , free freight (expires June 30)
• In Booth: Candacy Taylor, author of Counter Culture, serving pie and coffee (Friday, 2:30pm)
• In Booth: James Fisher, author of On The Irish Waterfront (backstory of the movie classic “On the Waterfront”)(Saturday, 10:30am)

Creative Company (booth 907)

• Special: 5+=45% and free freight
• In Booth: posters, new books by J. Patrick Lewis and Roberto Innocenti, Etienne Delessert, more

Diamond Book Distributors (booth 2758)

• Special: $250+  retail=51%
• Special: 25+=70% on select Marvel backlist, celebrating 70 years of Marvel Comics
• In Booth: cocktail party to celebrating 70 years of Marvel Comics (Saturday, 4pm)
• In Booth: enter to win graphic novel prize packs and pick up free comics

Inner Traditions (booth 2876)

• Special: 10+=50% and free freight (show orders only)
• Signing Area: Mantak Chia signs Six Healing Sounds (Friday, 3:30pm)
• In Booth: Zecharia Sitchin signs The Earth Chronicles Handbook (Saturday, noon)
• In Booth and Signing Area: Vatsala Sperling signs Ganga: The River That Flows From Heaven To Earth (Signing Area: Saturday, 11am/In Booth Sunday, 10am)
• In Booth and Signing area: James Wasserman signs  The Secrets of Masonic Washington (Signing Area: Saturday, 2pm/In Booth: Sunday, 11am)

Interlink (booth 4952)

• Special: 50% on 0rders placed at show
• In booth: pick up galleys, ARCs, wooden spoons

John F Blair, Publisher (booth 2564)

• Special: 10+=50%, free freight
• In Booth: enter to win a one year membership to Baseball Hall of Fame

Little Pim (booth 337)

• Special: +10% for $125 or more
• In Booth: view Little Pim’s foreign language instructional DVDs for children
• In Booth: Enter to win an ipod touch loaded with Little Pim videos!

Louisiana State University Press (booth 3710)

• Special: 45% on trade titles, 40% on short and academic trade (’at’). Free freight on orders written at the show (use code ‘04BEA09F’)

The Mountaineers Books (not exhibiting)

• Special: 10+=50% and free freight

Music Sales Group (booth 4459)

• Special: 10+=47%, free freight (ongoing for sales rep orders)
• In Booth: Meet Amanda Evans, author of Bikini Guitar Method, who will give you a guitar lesson and pose for a picture with you  (Friday and Saturday, on the hour 9am-3pm ; see ad in PW Show Daily)
• In Booth: Meet Monte Melnick, author of On the Road with the Ramones(Friday,  noon)

Plexus Publishing (booth 2558)

• Special: 10+=45% and free freight
• Signing: Meet J. Louis Yampolsky, author of A Boardwalk Story, at Table 14 in the signing area (Sunday, 10:30am)

Routledge (booth 2962)

• Special: 45% on T/F/V titles; must include 8 2009 pubs and a minimum of 15 units; free freight on backorder releases, code 428EO

Soundprints/Studio Mouse (booth 926):

• Special: free freight on orders written at show.  $200 retail=48%

Temple University Press (not exhibiting)

• Special: 12+=50% 

University of North Carolina Press (booth 2851)

• Special: 50% (no minimum). Expires 6/30/09
• In Booth: pick up Blues CD to promote Give My Poor Heart Ease by William Ferris

University of Pennsylvania Press (booth 2637)

• Special: 10+ backlist =45% and free freight
• In Booth: galleys and swag (mints in ‘coffin’ tins, metal bookmarks) for The Anatomy Murders

Wilderness Press (booth 4530)

• Special: 10+=48%, free freight (Nature Study Guides min 12 assorted)

Publishers with exceptional terms:

• Capstone Press (booth 332): 15+=50%, free freight
• Children’s Press/Franklin Watts (Scholastic Library) (booth 302): 10+=46% , free freight
• Chooseco (not exhibiting): 25+=50%, free freight, backlist only
• Heinemann Library (not exhibiting): 25+=50%, free freight
• Jessica Kingsley Publishers (booth 3564): 50%, free freight
• Kensington Publishing (not exhibiting): 46%,free freight, with no minimums
• Rutgers University Press (booth 4851): 50% on regional titles
• The Toby Press (not exhibiting): 45%, free freight, no minimums

Also exhibiting at BEA 2009:

Cardinal Publishing (3708); Island Press (booth 3227);   Sylvan Dell (booth 540)