Yesterday the ABA board continued a tradition going back to the administration of Herbert Hoover of presenting books to the president: most of the board and CEO Oren Teicher went to the White House in the morning and gave a selection of titles to President Obama. The group spent about 15 minutes in the Oval Office with the president, who asked for recommendations of titles for his daughters and gave the board members signed copies of The Audacity of Hope, according to ABA president Michael Tucker. Obama showed he isn't living in too much of a presidential bubble: when he handed out his book, he said, "I don't want to see these on eBay."
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Despite uncertainty and "the colossal rate of change taking place in the industry," when "virtually nothing we do in stores is what we did 20 or even five years ago," booksellers have some good news to celebrate, ABA CEO Oren Teicher said yesterday.
"An array of independents" had a "pretty good holiday season," with sales higher than in either of the past two years, he said, and total units sold were "significantly better." Moreover, in the last week before Christmas, indies sold more books than in the same period in any of the past five years. "The business is coming back," he commented. "The market is coming back."
In related news, in the last two years ABA membership numbers have been stable. "The long period of decline is over," Teicher said.
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This year's Winter Institute is more international than ever. Besides attendees from Norway, Sweden and Israel, there are representatives of the booksellers associations of the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, who are going to sessions as well as meeting formally with the ABA.
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HarperCollins rep Anne DeCourcey had a geographical bit of synchronicity occur in her life this week. On the road, she stayed Monday night in Arlington, Vt., drove Tuesday to her home in Arlington, Mass., then traveled Wednesday to the Winter Institute in Arlington, Va. "At least I didn't have to go to Arlington, Texas, too," she said.
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Hero of the day award goes to Kelly Gallagher, v-p of publishing services at Bowker, who chased a man who stole Laura Duksta's purse from the Winter Institute hotel lobby and got him to drop the purse. Duksta is the author of I Love You More; her next book, You Are a Gift to the World, comes out in April. (The books are not about Kelly.) --John Mutter
