Robin Agnew
Usually I write a bookfest blow by blow in this space, but this year we on the bookfest board were spared some of the more onerous physical labor that we've had to do in the past and I could focus more on the actual selling of books. It's never been an afterthought after all the time I spend programming the day, but sometimes our actual store booth is an afterthought, and my husband and I (and kids) are caught running back and forth to the author's tent with boxes of books to sell.
This year I took a more coordinated approach to the whole matter. I had my programming locked down early and I started splitting bookselling duties with another local bookseller, Nicola. After that my wheels again began to turn: why not program our booth just as I had programmed the author's tent?
I started to fill it in in half hour increments, and was helped mightily by the fact that the first two panels of the day were all mystery authors. In addition, Loren Estleman, our Community Book Award winner, had a brand spanking new collection of Amos Walker stories available. Available because on the Friday evening of bookfest weekend, I drove to Thompson-Shore, the printers (who happily are local) and picked up 25 copies. By the skin of my teeth. They closed at 4:30 and I was there at 4:45. Luckily the delightful Angie was still in the building and she cheerfully loaded two boxes of books into the car.
Saturday I had about 50 of the speakers and their families over for a drink and dinner and lots of conversation. I ended that evening sharing a beer with Steve Hamilton and Bryan Gruley, feeling very short, and listening to them talk about hockey and the Shamus awards.
Thanks to my turning wheels, the booth schedule became more and more filled up, and the latter part of the day took on a car theme. (We ARE near Detroit). This year, Dan Johnson, an author with another brand new book out, The Detroit Electric Scheme, a mystery about the early workings of the car business (circa 1910 or so) brought a friend who brought his 1916 electric car. It was gorgeous, and made me think we always need a prop of one kind or another, as people were walking around it admiringly all day.
I had scheduled myself a free hour at the end of the day to walk through and look at all the other exhibitor's booths - we have 110 or so, which pretty much fills up the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market. Little did I realize that by the end of the day, by dint of running from the tent to the booth to our other venue across the street I not only looked as beautiful as the road runner but my legs probably felt pretty much like his did. A little rubbery.
I did get to take a walk through though and was impressed by the variety, from jewelry to notebooks made from old album covers to fairy wands to, or course, lots and lots of books, many of them of the used variety. Most of the sellers I talked to seemed pleased, and I hope they were.
The program overall was certainly successful. The panels were all full - a dream I've had since I started to help with programming 7 years ago - and Nicola mentioned to me that the program was almost too good. There was almost too much going on.
And the Thursday after, when I was doing the inevitable return routine, I encountered yet another bookseller - looking for the Amos Walker book - who had also moderated a panel. He looked at all the boxes that covered the store and he said, "That's the book business, isn't it? You stack up the books, you pack them up, you sell them, you move them somewhere else, you send them back." I heartily agreed.
While returns were many so were sales, and we left with a much lighter car than we'd started with. We also estimated about 4,000 people enjoyed the day, many of them friends - lots of librarians who had come to town for the day to spend it shopping and enjoying hearing their favorite authors speak.
Friday morning, we started talking about next year's event. 2011, here we come!
