Casey, with a book: NCIBA Recap + Haul

Hello lovely bookish friends,

Last week I told you I was going to my first ever booksellers conference. Specifically: The Northern California Independent Bookstore Association's trade show. And, as I teased in my Sunday Post, I brought home FOUR tote bags full of books.

Below, I recap the event and show you the books. Buckle up, grab the popcorn, etc. because it's a long one!

Recap

So, for people who have never been to this kind of function, let me give you an idea of what goes down:

Rep Picks

The way indie bookstores work is the buyers (the people who buy books for a the bookstore) meet with reps from each publisher they carry (such as Penguin, Scholastic, etc.) to go over the publisher's catalog. The reps, who are generally the same for all the bookstores in a given region, build a rapport with each bookstore and help determine what's going to sell in that store. Side note: I think I'd totally love to have this job one day.

The first session of NCIBA was rep picks, so we heard the reps from each publisher highlight their favorite things on their catalogs and what they thought was going to be big (while we made sure we ordered enough for the holidays)

This part was fun, but since I'm not a buyer, it wasn't too important to me.

Lunch

Next, we had lunch, which sounds average but was actually really cool. While we ate, we listened to eight different speakers talk about their new books. The speakers covered all different genres, and so I heard from people I normally wouldn't have, like a poet who witnessed civil war in El Salvador, and a physician who spent 15 years writing a World War II book.

Of course, my favorite speakers were the YA and Children's Lit people: Jacqueline Woodson, Andrew Smith, and Marc Barnett.

I also learned a thing about how these lunches work. When your reps get to know you as booksellers, they might invite you to sit at a table with one of the authors they're promoting. It's considered an honor. I wasn't invited to any table beforehand, but while in line for lunch, our Hachette rep invited me to sit at a table with athlete Valerie Kondos Field.

Keynote

At this point I had a choice between a brainstorming session called "Budgeting for Your Bookselling Career" and a keynote presentation by Jarrett Krosockza, author of (NBA longlisted) Hey, Kiddo, in conversation with David Levithan.

Guess which one I picked?

My only familiarity with Jarrett's book, Hey, Kiddo, was that it was a graphic novel that was longlisted for the National Book Award. During his keynote, I learned that it was a memoir about growing up with his grandparents while his mother was addicted to heroine. His mother actually passed away from an overdose while he was in the process of writing this book.

He also did a TED talk on the subject if you're interested in what his keynote was like:

Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka
YA graphic memoir, 320 pages
September 25, 2018 from Graphix
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It seems like it will be a really important book -- not necessarily for every young adolescent person, but for young people who experience things like drug addiction in their family it could be life changing. And I'm sure it will be deeply moving for me as well.

Author Reception and Show Floor

At the end of the day came the best part: An open floor for booksellers to roam. In one room was an author reception, where authors were installed at small tables around the room and you could go up and get a signed ARC or comp (a free hardcover). In the other room were publisher's booths where there were ARCs galore! (This is where 90% of my haul comes from... read on!)

Haul

Although I took home four tote bags, I have very limited space on my bookshelf so I had to sort through them and choose wisely. Immediately below are the books I kept, divided by release season. After that are some books I decided to re-home with colleagues and friends - but I still want to show them to you!

To make this haul more interesting, I'm going to give you a one-sentence teaser of each book, since I don't know all the synopses.

Fall 2018

Art Boss by Kayla Cagan
YA Contemporary, 344 pages
October 2, 2018 from Chronicle Books
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"8/12 3:13 pm // How can so much happen in three days?"

A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos

YA Fantasy, 468 pages

September 22, 2018 from Europa Editions

Pages

NCIBA Recap + Haul

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Recap

Rep Picks

Lunch

Keynote

Author Reception and Show Floor

Haul

Fall 2018

Winter/Spring 2019

Middle Grade and Children's Literature

Picture Books

For Colleagues and Friends

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