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From: "Mary Ellen Lepionka" <vze1o6h5@...>
Subject: Report on NEBA
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 16:06:22 -0400
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IPNE/PMA at NEBA: A Post-Show Report, September 20, 2006


On September 15-17, the Independent Publishers of
New England (IPNE) exhibited members' and
affiliates' products at the 33rd Annual New
England Booksellers Association (NEBA) Trade Show
in the Providence (Rhode Island) Convention
Center. We had our first opportunity to put up
two large new signs with our name and logo,
created for us by Sean Gibney of Gloucester
Graphics, Inc. and generously donated to the
organization.



IPNE's Workshop
The event started on the morning of September 15,
when IPNE hosted a workshop as part of NEBA's
educational programming. Our workshop on
Essential Business Software for Running a Small
Publishing Office ran from 9AM to noon and
featured Cate Monroe of Monroe Accounting
Services, Steve Carlson of Upper Access, and Ron
Lawrence of Publishers' Assistant.



Thirteen publishers attended in addition to the
presenters and participated in question and
answer sessions following the powerpoint
presentations. We served refreshments and
accepted donations. The workshop was videotaped,
and we hope to be able to make it available soon
to those who could not attend.



Attendees included Meredith Rutter of Vander Wyk
and Burnham, Jack Crowl of Thistle Hill
Publications, Bonnie Kreitler of Charger
Publications and Kreitler Media Services, Deirdre
and Gary Smerillo of Smerillo Associates, Joan
Creamer of Silver Snowflake Publishing and her
guest Bob Smith, Annie Kay of Life Arts Press,
Bob Trexler of Zossima Press, Robert Ellis Smith
of Privacy Journal, Mary Ellen Lepionka of
Atlantic Path Publishing, Tordis Ilg Isselhardt
of Images from the Past, and Pam Fenner of
Michaelmas Press.



IPNE-NEBA Alliance
IPNE's Treasurer, Tordis Isselhardt, and Board
member Pam Fenner attended another NEBA
educational program on Friday: "Shop Local:
Forming Business Alliances in your Community,"
moderated by Oren Teicher, CEO of ABA, with
panelists Betsy Burton of The King's English,
Salt Lake City, UT; Stacy Mitchell, Senior
Researcher for the Institute for Local
Self-Reliance; Laury Hammel, Board Co-chair of
the Business Alliance

for Local Living Economies (BALLE), whose book, Growing Local Value, will be

published in November; Frank Kramer of Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA;

Chris Morrow of Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT; Susan Porter of

Maine Coast Book Shop & Café in Damariscotta, ME; and Allan Schmid of Books

Etc. in Falmouth and Portland, ME.



Tordis reports: "Each attendee was given a copy
of Stacy Mitchell's new book, Big-Box

Swindle. On Saturday Betsy Burton signed copies
of her book, The King's English, about
spearheading "Buy Local First Utah" from her Salt
Lake City bookstore.... I now have signed copies
of both and am all fired up to see what I can do
here in Bennington, and what we independent
publishers might do in solidarity with the
independent bookstores in New England. There were
excellent presentations and also many handouts
about the experience of the top-notch panelists,
a list of informative titles on the importance of
building and strengthening a vibrant local
economy, and various URLs (e.g.,
www.bigboxtoolkit.com)."



The IPNE Board plans to discuss the role we might
play in Directive #3 of NEBA's new Strategic
Plan: " to assist booksellers in their efforts in
their own communities to shift consumer culture
toward supporting locally-owned businesses." See
the whole Plan at

http://www.newenglandbooks.org/strategic-plan_2006.html.



IPNE at the NEBA Trade Show
IPNE was among 249 publisher exhibitors at NEBA,
visited by between 850 and 1,000 book buyers and
independent bookstore owners (NEBA's official
statistics are not yet out). Mary Ellen Lepionka
and Tordis Ilg Isselhardt anchored the exhibit
staffing throughout the weekend, which included
displaying books of PMA members as well as those
of members of IPNE. Clint Richmond, who had
organized IPNE's presence at NEBA in 2004 and
2005, reviewed procedures and helped staff the
display on Saturday and Sunday. The IPNE-PMA
tables attracted buyers' attention. IPNE members
Bunker Hill Publishing, Images from the Past, and
Storey Publishing had their own tables nearby.



Special thanks to Deidre and Gary Smerillo of
Smerillo Associates (back office services for
independent publishers) and author Allan Lohaus
for setting up the PMA display, and to Saturday's
staff: Heather Fluornoy of Vital Health Books,
Maureen and Doug Johnson of Live Model Books,
Portia Little of Panntree Press, Jack Crowl of
Thistle Hill Publications, JoAnn Pellecchia of
Diversified A+ Publications, Clint Richmond of
Muddy River Press, Pam Fenner of Michaemas Press,
and Taylor Lockwood and Medea Minnich (also an
indexer and editor) of Taylor Lockwood
Publications. Thanks also to Sunday's staffers:
Diane Rapaport of Quill Pen Press, Yetti Frenkel
of Snow Tree Books, Paul Enos of New River Press,
and again Clint, Portia, Taylor, and Medea. We
couldn't have done it without you.



PMA at NEBA
IPNE displayed 109 books of PMA members, arranged
by genre. Some buyers examined the selections
closely, and we observed special interest in
titles in the Business/Career and Gift Book
categories, such as Home Builder Contracts
(Builderbooks) and Treehouse Chronicles (TMC
Books). Arts and crafts and photography books
that were beneficiaries of the curiosity and awe
factor included Smattwords' rubber band
sculptures, Bess Press's Voice of the People, and
Simply Nantucket (Eaglemont Press). In the
reference section, several people looked things
up in the slang dictionary (Kiku Education
Institute) and the cocktail dictionary
(Drinktionary). One visitor informed us that the
self-help book Power of the Persona by Roy Taylor
(Book Surge) had been adopted for use as a
supplemental text in a college course. The
hurricane and tsunami books for children (Bumble
Bee Productions and Shen's Books) attracted
special interest, as did Firebelly, published by
IPNE member Philograph Press. Near the end of the
show we gave away The Journey of the Little Red
Boat (George Smith Publishing) to a little girl
who had admired it and her bookstore buyer mom.
This is just a sampling of observations on the
interesting and diverse array of offerings from
PMA.



IPNE had the pleasure of escorting PMA member Dr.
Allan Lohaus to his Saturday autographing session
for his book "Mayday! A Physician as Patient."
Mary Ellen Lepionka accompanied Allan, and IPNE
Board member Doug Johnson took some great photos
of him at his signing as well as of our IPNE/PMA
tables and bookracks (photos attached).



At the end of the show IPNE and PMA books were
donated to Windham County Reads, a literacy
program in Vermont, which was the designated
non-profit recipient at NEBA this year.



Opportunities for Regional Distribution and Sales
IPNE was approached by Webster Bull, publisher of
Commonwealth Editions of Beverly, MA
(www.commonwealtheditions.com), who was seeking
new products to include in their 4-color catalog.
They expressed particular interest in Jack
Crowl's forthcoming Dateline Vermont, Paul Enos's
historical title on Rhode Island, Portia Little's
Cape Cod seafood cookbook, Diane Rapaport's book
on New England Court Cases, John DiCocco's New
England Golf Guide, and some Vermont titles
published by Tordis Isselhardt. Commonwealth
Editions has expanded its successful publishing
operation to become a distributor of regional
titles. They are interested in seeing any product
by an independent publisher that has a New
England place name of any kind in the title. IPNE
member On Cape Publications is already in their
catalog.



Barnes & Noble Booksellers Inc. is looking to
expand its regional buying. Eric Berger is
interested in seeing regional-themed non-fiction,
history, and travel books by independent
publishers, which potentially could be
distributed to all B&N stores in New England or
other regions, as relevant. Contact him at
eberger@... (212-633-3357) or Jim Scaife of
the Small Press Dept. at B&N, jscaife@...
(212-633-3377).



Demand for products for regional and local
markets seems to be strong in areas outside of
New England as well. Some New York booksellers
and book buyers at NEBA targeted our titles with
New York themes, such as Portia Little's cookbook
on Finger Lakes recipes.



Information from College Stores
Sarah Potter, Director of Bates College Store,
asked us to send publishers' catalogs (in genres,
no children's books) for possible acquisition.
She is interested in supporting the efforts of
independent publishers with products for her
market that meet industry standards. The Bates
College Store shows trade hardcovers only at
Christmas, when students select gifts for their
parents. Students buy titles that extend the
curriculum and gift books, whereas faculty
members tend to buy women's fiction, vegetarian
cookbooks, and books on natural health. Send
catalogs to Sarah E. Potter at Chase Hall, 56
Campus Ave., Lewiston, ME 04240 (207-786-6121,
fax: 207-786-6119), spotter@....



College stores are very individual and diverse in
their needs. Brown University is looking for all
types of trade books, fiction and nonfiction, for
example. The Brown buyer also advised us that
supplemental textbooks need to be well reviewed
(trade journals, library journals, peer reviews)
to reach faculty. Assumption College, on the
other hand, buys only bestsellers and textbooks
ordered by faculty.



New IPNE Members
We made some new friends at NEBA who are joining
or have recently joined our organization, such as
John DiCocco of New England Golf Guide (Belmont,
MA), Jim Kelley of Bangzoom Publishers
(Braintree, MA), Jean Creamer of Silver Snowflake
Publishing (East Greenwich, RI), Meredith Rutter
of Vander Wyk and Burnham (Acton, MA), Michael
Rubin of Wachtel and Martin LLC (Portsmouth, NH),
Nancy Randolph of Just Write Books (Topsham, ME),
Jane Smolik of MidRun Press (Wenham, MA), and
possibly others. We welcome them, and will do
further outreach with other New England
independent publishers who exhibited at NEBA this
year.



IPNE at NEIBA Next Year
NEBA has officially changed its name to NEIBA,
New England Independent Booksellers Association,
to better reflect its membership and focus. IPNE
plans to exhibit at NEIBA next year and looks
forward to representing your products there.



Our advice: Send products that meet industry
standards and have a regional focus or tie-in to
New England or any of its member states. Also,
books in the nonfiction genres and children's
books attracted the most attention. If you have
holiday titles, NEIBA sells advertising for their
special annual Holiday Catalog (see their web
site for details), which is distributed to all
their member stores.



The IPNE Board will be discussing possible
participation in "Book Buzz," a new program in
which publishers can have 15 minutes to present
the "pick" of their lists to book buyers. In
addition, for a fee, publishers can pay to have
an autographing session at the NEIBA show for one
or more of their authors, with IPNE staffers
serving as escorts. Something to think about!



IPNE at NELA
We're certainly excited about all the prospects,
and happy for the IPNE and PMA exhibitors who
benefited from participating. And thanks again to
all the helpers. IPNE will be exhibiting at the
New England Library Association (NELA) book show,
October 22-24, and invites participation by
affiliate members. See our web site
(www.ipne.org) for details.



Mary Ellen Lepionka

Independent Publishers of New England

talktous@...














Mary Ellen Lepionka
Atlantic Path Publishing
P.O. Box 1556, Gloucester, MA 01931-1556
978-283-1531 Fax: 866-640-1412
http://www.atlanticpathpublishing.com



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