Finished packing for next weekend’s Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair, one of the best provincial shows going, and my long-time personal favorite. But the world’s not making it particularly easy.
The cost of my Jet Blue ticket is up about 30% over pre-covid rates. They no longer fly nonstop flights every day, so I’ve had to leave a day earlier than planned to avoid a layover in Chicago, or Dallas, or wherever. That means booking an extra night at The Mediterranean Inn, which is also – big surprise – more expensive than it was in 2019. Same for all the meals I’ll eat, and all the drinks I’ll drink. Oh, and did I mention that it cost a little over $1000 to Fedex my books to Seattle? (I send my stuff to the local Fedex office, which will hold them until I pick them up for the fair – thus avoiding Caladex which would have charged me three times as much.)
The long and the short of it is that – despite Seattle promoter Bill Wolf’s heroic attempt to keep booth costs down – this pleasant little book show is getting pretty darned expensive for an east coast boy.
Not as bad as the ABAA Pasadena or Oakland events, but headed in that direction. I’m not saying it’s anyone’s fault. We’re all affected by rising costs and “supply-chain issues.” (At least one promoter – Eve Lemon – is attempting to get ahead of the trend by launching smaller, high-end events. Booths at her 2023 Georgetown book fair will cost $1000 – $2500, with only 29 spaces available. I suppose another way around the problem would be to hold fairs in sparsely-populated areas where rents are cheap. How about a Bastrop, Texas book fair with free booths for anyone who can figure out how to get there?)
This inflationary nightmare would be easier to bear if my books were rising in value as fast as the costs of everything else. But old books stolidly resist inflationary trends. Oh, I can see prices rising steadily for five, six, and seven-figure rarities. But in the two, three and four-figure world I inhabit, things are trending in the opposite direction, as we race to the bottom.
I offer this not as a complaint, but simply as an observation. The landscape is shifting again. Book fairs are becoming more expensive and logistically challenging. The relative ease and convenience of digital sales events offers a sort-of alternative, but their shortcomings have been widely discussed and need not be enumerated here. I’ll just say that we ought to stop referring to them as “book fairs,” which they most certainly are not.
The next thing trending seems to be the hybrid book fair which, depending on how you look at it, offers the best – or the worst – of both worlds. I think they’re running a digital event alongside the Seattle fair. I’ll let you know next week how that turns out.
Greg,
My observation is this, the larger and better funded dealers will continue to travel for the major fairs, the next tier down will take the plunge when extraordinary material is in their inventory, other than that most dealers will only be able to do fairs big or small that are local to them. L is off to LA in two weeks and I will run the booth in Sacramento.
Jeff
Count yourself lucky.
Some big name East Coast ABAA types are sneaking into provincial book /ephemera fairs not getting a booth, hiding as a shared booth with no inventory or taking the barest of booths and bringing oversized but minimum of items and putting them on pegboards like wallpaper with pretense of having inventory for sale.
All of course to get in early and take advantage of the early buying and cut out early…. With excuses like “ couldn’t commit to Sunday” all the while the “provincials” have to stay till the bitter boring Sunday end and then having to drive hundreds of miles back to there homes, often in snow or rain storms which the weather beating cheats have avoided.
This is a big thumb of the nose to the public and not in keeping with the By Laws of the ABAA as it pertains to fostering respect and Goodwill in the bookselling community at large.
You like a good irony and a civil complaint….
Well here is one….
It would be great if you publish this but I understand if your don’t because I consider you my friend.
Best
Bob Langmuir
Actually, Bob, that’s what I do.
All except for leaving a day early. Nobody gets away with that shit anymore. Ask my colleague Peter Blackman. He’s got a good story.
Great post, Greg. As a once fairly-successful regional book fair promoter, I agree with your observation. Having made the pivot to the online world, I intend to make it as easy as possible for dealers to make the transition to this form of selling as painless as possible. My virtual fairs draw 5-10 times more attendees than my in-person fairs ever did. The formula, ten times show expense (booth rent, plus lodging and transportation cost), that was sought by dealers when I ran live fairs was not often obtained as show expenses increased. By keeping my exhibitor fees low and with no travel or lodging expense, I see that multiplier achieved regularly. I receive many emails thanking me for allowing dealers who either do not wish or are no longer able to travel to keep selling. And I see an increase in the number of institutions who see the benefits and are adding to their collections from my online fairs. As soon as I figure out a way to replicate the after fair happy-hour, you’ll be the first to know.
All good, Marvin.
I just wish you’d come up with a better descriptor than “book fairs” – which they are most certainly not.
Marvin,
We have participated in several of your virtual fairs with some success. In reality it’s more of just highlighting some of the items we have already listed on the online venues, I guess it’s working. Still, we will be doing two live fairs next week.
Jeff