New England Independent Booksellers Association Conference 2010 gathered booksellers, authors, and publishers in Providence, Rhode Island to talk shop and exchange ideas. Unsure if there would be a haze of bookseller lamentation over the future of the industry, NEIBA 10 was an upbeat, optimistic yet practical outpouring of book industry love.
Friday’s activities started off with an energetic and entertaining author breakfast featuring authors Richard Peck, Liz Murray, Charles Cumming and Simon Winchester. Originally in the line up Michael Cunningham canceled only to be replaced by Charles Cumming, an able and energetic pinch hitter is there ever was one.
Author of Trinity Six, a modern spy thriller that retells Soviet moles at Oxford, Cumming a real-life would-be spy and author started off the session well detailing the birth of his book. The lean and sandy haired Cumming explained a Scottish opera singer read an article about him. Which lead her to hand over a box full of research documents, accumulated by a relative for an unwritten Cold War spy novel, giving Cumming a massive inspirational burst that eventually became Trinity Six.
An almost breathlessly nervous Liz Murray, author of Breaking Night her memoir about becoming a homeless teen and dealing with drug
addicted parents (who would both be lost to AIDS,) took the stage and left more than a few hearts wrenching in both sorrow and inspiration. Murray, who endearingly twirled her hair while reading a passage from her memoir, was the passionate voice of success from potential disaster. She also ensured attendees were not left viewing her parents as some pathetic drug demons. Instead Murray reminded the audience her mother and father were caring and loving parents, gifting her with her intelligence and ardor for life.
Author Richard Peck was theatrical and unabashed as the former English teacher turned prolific novelist, engaging the attendees during his talk. Dropping the mantle of teacher in 1971, Peck embarked on a writing career that would span over 20 books, leading to his most recent work Three Quarters Dead, a story of girl not killed in a car wreck that wiped out her entire social circle. Of course, the story of that clique does not end at death.
Winchester, erudite, charismatic and a favorite of the B3 team, spoke about his newest non-fiction work, Atlantic, chronicling the history and the peoples of the Atlantic Ocean. How to organize a sprawling sociological, oceanographic and economic history of the Atlantic was solved by a book of poetry, explained Winchester. From Lord David Owen’s Seven Ages: Poetry for a Lifetime, Winchester realized that Shakespeare’s related Seven Ages of Man would serve as the perfect frame work for the life of the Atlantic and those who live, work and die along its shores. With that skeleton Winchster, a one time geologist turned journalist and color blind foiled Royal Navy officer candidate, fleshed out an eagerly awaited book about this most daunting sea.
What made the author breakfast so perfect was opportunity to see the creative process, hearing the personal stories that birthed these works. And these literary luminaries interacted with attendees, engaging in conversation and of course, obliging with autographs.
That same morning, bookstore buyers and reps gathered in a panel discussion on how they interact and what kind of changes or efficiencies should be made during the sales process. The topic that rose to surface and generated a bit of conversation was the Edelweiss digital catalog system. While there were proponents, there were some detractors. The ability to mesh technology from publisher to point of sale seems to be a key for sellers in the coming years. Yet technology seemed to be viewed, by some, as that odd troll under the bridge.
Bloggers few and far between, and those we did run into like @bostonbibliophile and @jchristie were welcome sights. We share Boston Bibliophile sentiments on possible blogger participation into the future. Perhaps in coming years, as the number of attending bloggers grow, there might be an opportunity for the cream of the regional blogging crop to contribute. Importantly, bookseller bloggers communicating with blogging reading reviewers often create a synergistic bipedal effect that might serve as a spring board for future NEIBA conferences.
The conference built up to Saturday with a traditional publisher and bookseller style expo at a Rhode Island Convention exhibit hall. Scaled down from previous years and with several hundred publishers in attendance the exhibition portion of NEIBA 10 allowed sellers and publishers to mingle, discuss backlist and frontlist, as well as soon to be released offerings. The more intimate exhibition had a steady flow right from the moment doors opened and bustled. There were the browsers, the chatters, the book laden sherpas and the networkers, moving about like a bookish flow chart.
Publishers, including those only known through Twitter handles, were generous and fantastic to the pair of bloggers we sent down to the conference, demonstrating that lots of real character can come out of 140 characters. Book mavens like the insightful Ann Kingman and contagiously friendly Anne DeCourcey showed the passionate soul of the publishing industry.
We left reminded that books are a fascinating beast. They are both solitary and communal. They are personal yet commercial at heart. We often read alone, in a vacuum, yet are eager to share and talk about our beloved books in groups. Yet the chance to really socialize, to branch out in a “uber-book” environment is what makes expos like NEIBA, or BEA or the upcoming Boston Book Fest, so wonderful.
Gatherings are the social flesh and blood hub of writers, publishers, agents, buyers, sellers and readers. And without such expos or conferences in an era of diminishing bottom lines, we fear the industry and readers would truly be lost. One cannot plant a seed without going into the field.
Tags: NEIBA 2010, NEIBA conference 2010, NEIBA conference Providence RI, NEIBA10, New England Independent Booksellers Association
One Response to “NEIBA 10 Round-Up”