Nearly 240 booksellers from throughout the Pacific Northwest gathered a week ago at the Holiday Inn on the Columbia River in Portland to meet authors, browse books and learn about the latest in bookstore innovations.
David Hartz, owner of Book ‘N’ Brush in Chehalis, invited me to join bookseller Sherry Nickerson at the annual three-day Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) Trade Show.
I was able to attend only on Monday, but that alone proved exhausting.
It thrilled me to see representatives from 86 bookstores gathered for the trade show, proof that Amazon hasn’t killed all the brick-and-mortar stores selling books, crafts, art supplies, gifts and other items in communities throughout the region.
In fact, the PNBA newsletter noted that the number of tradeshow exhibitors was the highest since 2019, and the show also had more bookstores represented than in any year since 2013.
That’s fantastic news, and enthusiasm among the 70 authors, 14 librarians, 196 exhibitors and booksellers proved that bookstores and print books are far from dead.
“Attending the PNBA trade show is a wonderful gift,” said Nickerson, who has worked about a dozen years at Book ‘N’ Brush and attends the event nearly every year. “It is a sensory overload weekend with the benefit of feeling recharged energetically due to being with like-focused people.”
Booksellers see the titles highlighted in their holiday catalog campaign and upcoming spring releases and meet many of the authors who wrote them.
“We get to gush about previous titles with fellow booksellers around the region, exclaim about new releases, and talk shop about what genres or sideline products have been doing well in our stores,” Nickerson said. “There is an education component that revolves around the industry of book creating and selling that is ever-changing.”
Booksellers learned about an online platform to streamline business for bookstores, publishers and distribution houses and discovered an accreditation program for independent bookstores and sellers “to validate owning and running a bookstore as a career choice,” Nickerson said.
“The fun part of the two-and-a-half-day show is the exposure to individual authors giving their five-minute elevator pitches during meals, walking the showroom floor talking to reps about the titles or products they are most excited about and, of course, receiving advanced reader copies to take home at the end of the show,” she said.
I found the nearly 200 exhibitors staffing tables in the ballroom a bit overwhelming, but it paled in comparison with the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference I attended at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland in 2019, which drew more than 14,000 people and 800 exhibitors. The same holds for the American Library Association’s annual conference, which had about 800 exhibitors in the 1990s when former librarian and debut children’s author Sara T. Behrman, of Portland, attended. She described her first PNBA trade show as “a much more manageable, pleasant experience.”
“My feet didn’t hurt from walking miles through exhibit halls, I could interact and chat with publishers, and I actually ran into a few booksellers I knew from past storytime events and book signings,” she said.
As part of the show, she signed copies of her book, “The Sea Hides a Seahorse,” published in April by The Collective Book Studio.
“The PNBA Trade Show offers publishers a chance to introduce their authors to the region’s booksellers and librarians in a comfortable and engaging setting,” Behrman said. “As a Portland-based author, I got to meet booksellers from Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Washington, as well as those from throughout Oregon.”
I also learned more about the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, which author Garth Stein had mentioned to me this summer. He chairs the Author Leadership Circle for the BINC Foundation, a nonprofit that provides emergency money to booksellers in need across the United States, such as those experiencing devastation because of Hurricane Helene.
Nickerson said Book ‘N’ Brush hasn’t ever needed help from BINC, but I’m sure it’s nice to know the safety net exists.
People who paid $30 for a BINC sticker on their name badges received free books at the tradeshow, which was a gift in itself.
I loved meeting authors and booksellers from California, British Columbia, Alaska and parts in between. I hope to persuade some to teach at the Southwest Washington Writers Conference next September.
Driving home after the long day, exhausted, I wondered how Nickerson found the energy to spend three days at the tradeshow.
Then a tire on my Corolla blew out on Interstate 5 north of Kelso, and all thoughts fled my mind except survival. After waiting three hours for AAA to change the tire — I thought of doing it myself but decided I’m too old nowadays to struggle with it — I dragged myself home and launched into work.
But the afterglow of the trade show, which takes place in Spokane next fall, remained with me all week.
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
