The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association fall show opened in Spokane, Wash., this weekend. On Saturday, booksellers and exhibitors were greeted by the Lilac City Welcome Committee at a pre-show event at the renovated Spokane Central Library, hosted by PNBA Award-winning author and writing education specialist for Spokane Public Library Sharma Shields. Featured local authors included Travis Baldree (Brigands & Breadknives, Tor Books), Kelly Milner Halls (Cryptid Sea Monsters, Sasquatch Books), Sarah Mackenzie (Dear Duck, Please Come!, Waxwing Books), and Maya Jewell Zeller (The Wonder of Mushrooms, AdventureKEEN).
The authors introduced attendees to the sides of Spokane they love most. Baldree finished his first manuscript of Legends & Lattes in a café only a couple blocks away from the library, while Zeller found herself (and her next book) among the vibrant flora and fauna of Spokane's woods. While raising six children, Mackenzie found the time to launch her own publishing house, Waxwing Books, and Halls has spent decades visiting Spokane schools and challenging children to use evidence to draw their own conclusions.
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| (l.-r.) Katelyn Foutch and Bre Pickens (BookPeople of Moscow, Moscow, Idaho) with Catherine Chapman (Artisans Books and Coffee, Everett, Wash.) at Auntie's Bookstore. | |
Spokane continued to reveal her charm at an evening reception at Auntie's Bookstore, a staple of the downtown community since 1985. There PNBA attendees mingled and got a sense of what the Spokane literary community has to offer: "reasons to stay hopeful."
Annual Meeting
The fall trade show officially launched on Sunday morning with the annual membership meeting. After a record high attendance last year at the fall trade show in Portland, Ore., PNBA expected a decrease in attendance for this year's show. Canadian exhibitors' registration fell due to the turbulent political climate in the U.S., and the distance from the Interstate 5 corridor resulted in fewer day-trip attendees, yet attendance expectations for this year were surpassed. Executive & marketing director Brian Juenemann estimated more than 175 members had registered.
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| Tiffany LaSalle, PNBA program support, and Warwick Schaffer, founder of CirclePOS Software. | |
For the 2024 fiscal year, revenue was $583,376, and expenses were higher, leading to a deficit of $55,000. As has happened for other regionals, ad sales for the holiday catalogue are down significantly (despite an increased PNBA store commitment).
PNBA is responding in several ways. "We need to be nimble," Juenemann said. "We need to double down to make sure the industry knows how much this means to us, how much we put into this." Juenemann encouraged booksellers to emphasize the importance of the holiday catalogue to their sales reps. "Despite inflation and increased challenges, [book sales] have increased because of the work booksellers are doing. So why," Juenemann asked, "are they leaving us out of the planning equation? That's what I'm going to work hard to solve."
Booksellers are concerned about Barnes & Noble's moves in the past several years that confuse the indie brand, said PNBA president Christine Longmuir of Two Rivers Bookstore, Portland, Ore. These actions include buying Tattered Cover in Denver, Colo.; agreeing to buy Books Inc., in the Bay Area; and taking over the general books department at the University Bookstore in Seattle, Wash.
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| (l.-r.) Hanna Fischer and Rebecca Crosswhite of Rediscovered Books, Danielle Sherwood of AdventureKEEN, Briana Ryan of Wicked Words, and Laura Stanfill of Forest Avenue Press during the welcome reception at Auntie's Bookstore. | |
When asked how B&N's aggressive growth strategy can be addressed, American Booksellers Association CEO Allison Hill explained that "although Barnes & Noble's purchase of independent bookstores feels predatory, it's not predatory as defined by law." She speculated that the company's aggressive growth strategy is short-term, but acknowledged that "they can do a lot of damage in the short term." Within the past two years, ABA has surveyed independent bookstores that have had a B&N open within 10 miles of their location. Indie bookstores that subsequently closed described B&N's arrival as "the final nail in the coffin."
Rosa Hernandez, vice-president of PNBA and marketing manager at Third Place Books in Seattle, encouraged booksellers to seek solace in solidarity: "We as booksellers have so much knowledge, creativity, and ingenuity. Whether you are a general bookstore, BIPOC-owned, queer, pop-up, or a bookstore rooted in activism, we can learn so much from each other." Despite the heavy pressure of "book bans happening in our community schools and libraries, pushback for carrying and hosting Palestinian authors, attacks on our queer and trans community members, and ICE raids in our neighborhoods," said Hernandez, booksellers can "join our regional bookselling community where we can learn and lean on each other." --Madison Gaines