October 12, 2006 TABLE OF CONTENTS: But there was one event in particular that really helped launch Water for Elephants : ABA's Winter Institute in Long Beach, California. The value of • Sara Gruen on ABA's Winter Institute .............. 1 connecting with so many of you in such an intimate setting was an experience • Rainy Day's Call to Action Draws a Reaction I won't soon forget. And from what I've seen and heard in my travels, and from what I have heard from Craig [Popelars, marketing director] at .......................................................................... 1 Algonquin, the booksellers in Long Beach felt the same way. • Rise Up: Michael Shuman on Launching a Small-Mart Revolution ...................................... 2 ABA is holding its second annual Winter Institute 2 -- this time in Portland, Oregon, February 1 and 2 -- and I just wanted to take a moment to encourage • Keys to Mystery Lovers' Success Easy to you to attend. Not only will you be treated to a stellar program of education, Deduce: Specialization & Innovation ................ 4 and not only will you have the chance to network with one another, but you will once again have a wonderful opportunity to meet and greet authors and to • Awards Round-Up: Nobel Prize, Quills, Man talk about books. Booker Winners, NBA Finalists ........................ 4 • An Open Book: Diary of a Soon-to-Be To find out more about the Winter Institute, visit ABA's website 3 . Independent Bookseller .................................... 6 • ABACUS Reports, Rebates to Begin Arriving Warm Regards, Soon ................................................................. 6 Sara Gruen • Pirates and Tigers and Books, Oh My .............. 7 ABA Education Director Len Vlahos told BTW , "We're honored • A More Intimate NCIBA Show Garners that Sara would take time out of her busy schedule to extend this Positive Feedback ............................................ 8 invitation. It underscores the important relationships that exist between authors and independent booksellers." • ABA Board Nomination Deadline Approaches .......................................................................... 9 Vlahos also noted that registration for the two-day education program, which is on a first-come, first-served basis and capped at • Workman Campaign Extols Local Flavor ......... 9 500 booksellers, is now more than half full, and he encouraged booksellers who wish to participate to register as soon as possible. BOOK SENSE THIS WEEK The Winter Institute education program, which is free for all ABA member booksellers -- owners and staff -- will be held at the • Orinda Books Celebrates 30 Years .................. 9 Doubletree Portland-Lloyd Center in Portland, Oregon, on • The Book Sense Mystery Bestseller List .......... 10 Thursday and Friday, February 1 and 2, 2007. The event registration deadline is Wednesday, November 15. MARKETPLACE ABA member booksellers can register 4 for the Winter Institute, as • Classifieds ........................................................ 11 well as make hotel reservations 5 , through the association's trade • Other Advertising .............................................. 11 website, BookWeb.org. The association has negotiated a special rate of $99 per night at the Doubletree Portland-Lloyd Center for attendees. All hotel reservations must be made through ABA; the hotel will not take direct reservations for this event. Booking is Sara Gruen on ABA's Winter Institute through the online form on the ABA site 6 . Hotel reservations, and changes, must be made by January 3, 2007. October 12, 2006 -- Education sessions and special events, which include most meals, On Thursday, October 12, Sara Gruen, author of independent fill the two days. ABA is encouraging booksellers to arrive in booksellers' handselling favorite Water for Elephants (Algonquin), Portland on Wednesday, January 31, as programming begins at sent the following e-mail to members of the American Booksellers 8:30 a.m. on Thursday with a Welcome Breakfast, followed by the Association: plenary session, "A Whole New Mind," featuring bestselling author Daniel Pink. Rainy Day's Call to Action Draws a Dear Bookseller Friends, Reaction October 12, 2006 -- Rainy Day Books of Fairway, Kansas, 1 The wonderful success of Water for Elephants this past year has been in no launched an e-mail campaign this week that seeks to keep a small measure thanks to the community of independent booksellers. You have my heartfelt thanks for everything you've done for the book and for me. developer from bringing a Borders Books & Music to the new Gateway development in nearby Mission. A day after the e-mail went out, the developer, The Cameron Group of East Syracuse, © 2006 American Booksellers Association. http://news.bookweb.org/ 1 BOOKSELLING THIS WEEK October 12, 2006 New York, acknowledged it had previously talked with Borders On Wednesday afternoon, Jennings and Valenti met for about two about the development, but denied it has any deal to bring the chain hours to discuss the situation, and the idea of Rainy Day Books bookstore to its new mix-use development. moving to the Gateway development. Jennings noted that Valenti On Tuesday, October 10, Rainy Day Books' Vivian Jennings and was extremely interested in her store's successful event marketing Roger Doeren -- responding to persistent rumblings that Borders and saw that the events had the potential to draw a lot of people to would anchor a new development located on the former site of the store. As for taking Valenti up on the offer, "I have to think Mission Center Mall in Mission -- sent an e-mail to their store's about it," she said. "I feel like one always has to consider all customer base urging them to call the local companies participating possibilities, so I'll listen to what he has to offer." in the development project to let them know "that you don't support As for Borders coming to Gateway, Jennings said she would still their participation in a development that enriches out-of-town move forward with the idea that this is still a real possibility, developers at the expense of Kansas taxpayers and Kansas though she thinks her e-mail did prompt Valenti to reconsider businesses." The Gateway development is less than two miles from bringing in a chain. Overall, "what this shows me is that we made Rainy Day's Fairway, Kansas, location. the right decision to give people a heads up. We're continuing as if 9 In their e-mail, Jennings and Doeren noted, "The Gateway is being Borders was still a real possibility." -- David Grogan financed with the help of Kansas taxpayer dollars.... There is no projected market growth for the retail book business in Johnson Rise Up: Michael Shuman on Launching County. Without question, this taxpayer-subsidized store will a Small-Mart Revolution cannibalize sales from book retailers around it. Two of these stores are Rainy Day Books and I Love a Mystery, community-based, October 12, 2006 -- Michael Shuman, vice president of enterprise locally owned booksellers that have contributed to the Kansas City development for the Training & Development Corporation and community for years." co-founder of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), has long been an advocate of buying local: A periodic Karen Spengler, owner of I Love a Mystery, first heard rumors commentator for National Public Radio, Shuman has written about Borders coming to the old Mission Center Mall site back in 7 articles for The Nation , Weekly Standard , Washington Post , and November 2005 and penned an op-ed about it for the Kansas City New York Times . He is also the author of seven books, including Star . In March 2006, she "took the bull by the horns" and moved Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age. her bookstore 8 to a much larger space, one that is farther away from the new development. Her new store is now 2,600 square feet, In his latest book, The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local three times the size of the previous store. Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition 10 For a while, it didn't appear that anything would be happening at (Berrett-Koehler), Shuman further explores how buying, planning, the Gateway in the near future, Spengler said, but then the rumor and thinking local is not just a marketing strategy, but a movement, mill began heating up again. Soon after, she called Jennings to or small-business revolution, with the capacity to revitalize and discuss the situation. improve various aspects of community -- economy, environment, security, and overall quality of life. The exploration includes eight Said Jennings, "After Karen called, we decided the matter was practicable trends that dispute the argument that "bigger is better" serious enough that we're going to warn [residents] instead of when it comes to business. waiting.... We're going to let people know, while they can do something about it." Shuman recently spoke to BTW via e-mail about ways that independent retailers can effect a Small-Mart Revolution. A precedent had already been set in Mission in 2004: When residents had learned that Wal-Mart wanted to build on the Mission Mall site, their concern that the superstore would drive local BTW : According to a report issued recently by the Office of retailers out of business, and a subsequent petition drive, prompted Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration, small local politicians to pass new zoning laws that deterred the business continues to drive our economy. The report noted that superstore from building on the site. The zoning change limited a in 2005 small businesses represented 99.7 percent of all the store's footprint to 50,000 square feet, required that 75 percent of nation's employer businesses, yet, as you note in The parking be in a garage structure, and that structures conform to Small-Mart Revolution, big businesses get nearly all of the $50 Mission-style architecture. The hope for Jennings is that Mission billion taxpayers spend each year to attract or keep these residents will once again band together -- this time to keep a companies in their community.