Miami Book Fair International

My husband Bob and I have just returned from the Miami Book Fair International. This is an achievement returning, that is. Because we drove. A CAR, not a TANK!

A tank would have felt a little bit safer as the trucks hauling goods to the port were rerouted en masse thru town due to an accident on a causeway. This inconvenience caused massive traffic jams which irritated the truckers and the auto traffic. Generally Miami traffic is bad, I hear, but this was ridiculous.

Miami has not only the usual rare book dealers, the used book dealers and the publishers but you find parades, authors, dancers, writing workshops, consulates from Venezuela, Italy, Chile and more, countries selling travel books, lots of authors and publishers in non-English speaking languages as well as Cuban, Latin and Asian food vendors (this puts the International in the Book Fair International!).

This is part book fair and part book festival! A celebration of books in the very broadest sense not exclusively rare books or remainder books or discount books but some of each. A book fair which can also be enjoyed by the family members not interested in spending a full day browsing rare book booths with their family bibliophile.

I picked up a copy of Pages; The Magazine for People Who Love Books which I hadn’t seen before (www.ireadpages.com). This Nov/Dec, 2002 issued features Scott Turow on the cover, had 112 pages of articles about 2002: The Year in Books, Tartt Redux, Jeffrey Eugenides, Alice McDermott, ads and a follow up article about Savannah eight years after the publication of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and more. This is Vol. 10, issue 11/12, costs $3.95 at the newstand and the articles are really quite good reading.

Bob and I did want to watch Dave Barry, Amy Tan and the rest of the Rock Bottom Remainder Players sing on Saturday night but we were invited to attend the Authors’ Party on the terrace of the Miami Marriott and decided to do that instead.

We left Sunday a.m. and on our way home across Alligator Alley we saw at least 6 very large alligators out sunning themselves. This was a nice ending to a short weekend getaway and certainly worth the ride if you or your kids haven’t crossed Alligator Alley.

So, next year on the weekend prior to Thanksgiving, I suggest that you make sure your car insurance is in order and take your tank (or throw away car), load up the kids and head over to Miami for the book fair. It will be bigger and better than ever because it will be the 20thanniversary ‘edition’. The Board of Directors is already starting to plan the event.

According to one of the Board of Directors, the booth fee is $450 and it is first come, first served. If all of the booths are rented by rare book dealers first then the flavor of the show is different than if the remainder companies rent them first. Only the rare book annex vendors are screened (except for being book related) and there are only 7-9 booths available inside.

For additional information: http://www.miamibookfair.com or Miami Book Fair International, 300 N.E. Second Ave. Suite 1515, Miami, FL 33132.

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Madlyn Blom is owner of CenterAisleBooks.com and can be reached at 941-639-7397, Inquiries@CenterAisleBooks.com or at the the St. Petersburg Book Fair, March 7-9, 2003. She also has a book booth at the Harbour Inn Antique Mall, Charlotte Harbor, FL and will be doing a rare book appraisal for the Commodore Club residents on March 16, 2003. Member IOBA and the Florida Antiquarian Booksellers Association.

The 2002 Oregon Antiquarian Book Fair

On November 23  and 24, 2002, the Oregon Antiquarian Book Fair  was held at the Convention Center in Portland, Oregon.  This was the first year that this book show was produced by Palmer/Wirfs & Associates in conjunction with their Collectible & Antique Show, and it was dedicated to the memory of Oregon bookseller Leonard LanFranco, the tireless organizer of the book show in years past (and former IOBA board member) in “honor of his great knowledge of books, his passion for them and also the vision that he had to bring this group together.”

It was also the first time that we had participated in a book show that was part of an antique show – and there was a bit of culture shock involved.  While the number of booksellers in the ‘book fair’ corner was fairly typical of a small to medium sized fairs (about 45 dealers), the overall show was huge by book show standards with over 600 booths of collectible and antique dealers.   Palmer and Wirfs seemed to have the logistics of loading and unloading well-organized, but the sheer quantity of dealers with material to drop off made this a unique experience for us.  The book fair portion of the show was at the far end of the huge hall – but one of the pluses for this became apparent at the end of the show when the book dealers were allowed to drive into the hall, and almost right up to their booths to load up, while the line of trucks and vans and cars waiting to use the loading dock snaked around the block.

The other difference from the typical book show was the hours during which the show was open:  set up was as early as Wednesday before the show – and while Friday was officially a ‘set-up’ day, a limited number of pre-admission badges were sold and the show was open to the public from 10 AM to 6 PM that day.  Instead of just the usual dealer pre-show sales, collectors also got to watch you unpack.   While it was not mandatory to remain in your booth that day, it was recommended – and, for us, worth it, since our sales on Friday covered the booth fee.  Saturday was open from 8 AM to 6 PM and even Sunday was 10 AM to 5 PM.   Antique hunters might be dedicated enough to get to a show by 8 AM (in fact, there was a long line waiting when the show opened), but most book lovers don’t seem to be – so the early morning hours were rather quiet at our end of the exhibit hall.

I have mixed feelings about the effectiveness of combining a book fair and antique show into one, with each in their separate section. The organizers apparently did a very good job of publicizing the show (according to many people who came) and even the fact that the Convention Center was under construction did not seem to deter the crowds.  On the other hand, most of the attendees were not there to find books – and the location at the far end of the hall meant that only a small amount of casual traffic came all the way to the book booths. 

It is hard to say if the show would generate more sales if the book booths were interspersed among the others (there were a few paper/book/magazine dealers who had done the Palmer/Wirfs shows in previous years, and who were not in the book fair section, but over in the general section.)  Traffic was fairly steady throughout much of the show, despite the extended hours, and unlike the book dealers who had reservations about the dual set-up, several of those attending expressed their approval of the combination – and we had a few people who came by the booth who had never been to a book show before.

Although some of our stock (and that of some other dealers) was selected with the aim of appealing to antique lovers, one of the ironies of the show for us was that our best selling items were modern science fiction books:  there was a small science fiction convention in town, and there was some crossover traffic from that show.

There were other differences in the way the show was organized and run:  the cost of the booths were very reasonable, but tables, chairs, table coverings, etc. were all ‘extras.’  The size of the show made it practical to have a company on hand that provided credit card processing for those exhibitors who did not already have this ability.   There was also a “restoration row” (which included a bookbinder) that was   open during the whole show, both for the experts there to demonstrate their crafts and to answer questions.

And, of course, there were all the usual benefits of doing a book show, including meeting up with old friends, getting to meet booksellers who might only have been a name before, as well as meeting some of our customers for the first time.  In addition to the books being offered by the other booksellers, I also managed to find some interesting items over in the main portion of the show.  The drawback, of course, of doing an out-of-town show is that the truck was already loaded with books – and that makes scouting difficult – but somehow, even when it seemed that not another bag would fit in, we found room for more –

At any rate, visiting Portland was worth it for us – the weather almost co-operated with only occasional light rain; Lynn DeWeese-Parkinson recommended a wonderful authentic Mexican restaurant (one that is almost worth a trip to Portland all by itself) and on Monday, when we hit the road on the way back, the weather was sunny, so a detour to the coast became mandatory!

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OP MAGAZINE: A New Book Magazine

By: Dee Stewart, Editor – P. Scott Brown, Publisher

While the buying and selling of books is undergoing tremendous change, it is ironic that the book itself has remained relatively impervious to innovation. The physical format of the book was established a millennium or more ago when scrolls were first folded and bound into boards for easier reading. The invention of moveable type in the 1550s was the last major advance. Techniques for reproducing photographs revolutionized newspaper and magazines in the 20th century but books have not followed suit. The text is still the most important element of most books printed today, and black type on white paper is still the best way to deliver that text.

Electronic books and digital text will grow in importance in coming years, but they are not likely to replace books until a handy device with a long-lasting energy source can be read easily in bed, on a bus, on the beach, or in the bath. Steven Spielberg conducted extensive research with futurists for his movie, Minority Report, yet he still shows commuters reading the newspaper on New York’s subways–although the content was electronic, the format of the paper was unchanged. The picture closed with characters in front of a fire reading books. Books aren’t going away for a long time.

That’s why we decided to start OP (named for the standard abbreviation for out of print), a magazine printed and distributed on paper. We like magazines, books and paper. We believe that our target audience–book collectors, booksellers and general readers–does, too.

We recognize that a print publication needs an Internet component. The Internet has changed the rules of the game for the casual book buyer, serious book collectors, and booksellers of all sorts. On our website, http://www.opmagazine.com, we have posted information about the magazine, the contents of the current issue, an article or two to whet the reader’s appetite, and reviews of books and bookstores. Our subscription page includes secure online sign ups as well as mail-in forms.

OPMagazine.com also hosts an extensive calendar of book-related events, including auctions, book fairs, classes, and author signings. Visitors to the site can post their own events with our easy-to-use Add Events interface. OP costs $21 for a one-year (six-issue) subscription in the U.S. and somewhat more elsewhere. We also cover current events of interest to booksellers and book buyers in an email newsletter. For starters, you can just sign up for the free online newsletter, but eventually it will be available only with a subscription.

Shortly after we announced that we were going to publish OP, one of our subscribers wrote, “We need another magazine. I am always embarrassed that they have more magazines on the subject in England than we have here.” Many interesting topics are not explored in any other magazine and we will do our best to fill the gap. At its heart, OP is about the one thing book collectors and booksellers have in common: the love of books and the printed page. The response to the magazine has been so strong that we think we’re onto something.

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