As I pass the baton to the next person after an unprecedented 10 years as President of NAIPR let me say thank you to the board of directors, executive directors past and present, and to the membership who have been so wonderful to work with over the years. I am moving across the aisle, so to speak, and concentrating my efforts in another area of the book world, Wicker Park Press Ltd, which I started at roughly the same time I became President of our august organization. I’m lucky that I get to keep on working with a set of wonderful independent sales groups across the country and the world. These relationships built over the years are lasting, and I will continue to do everything in my power to assist the cause of NAIPR.
I was a charter member of NAIPR in 1989. We find ourselves on the threshold of a new era as NAIPR faces the brave new world of technology with a newly-minted agreement with Ann Arbor, MI-based ABOVE THE TREELINE. This marriage was born of fire as NAIPR and TREELINE had what was originally perceived of as competing services in the world of electronic catalogs and ordering systems. As President I never saw it this way, and I always viewed NAIPR as being a candy-counter concession stand in a kind of grand movie theater that TREELINE created with it EDELWEISS ordering system. Well, “bless my homeland forever” as the song goes, we were able to come to an agreement with this fine company. Our goals and reasons-for-being are remarkably the same. NAIPR is an organization created for the benefit of its members, who inherently help publishers, their clients, and bookstore owners, their customers, in succeeding to sell more books.
TREELINE never posited a negative view of sales reps, and they came into the business to help book store owners succeed in their businesses, and by extension sales reps were an integral part of the process. By way of example, in the EDELWEISS system sales reps of any stripe (independent and house) could annotate online entries for new books. Reps could sit with book store buyers while they were making their choices and use the system to actually get a bigger order. And because the order was created within EDELWEISS it would be 100% accurate and ready to send in to publishers right away. This was a winning situation for the book store owner, the rep, and the publisher.
NAIPR’s system FRONTLIST PLUS UNIVERSAL was created and updated as an e-catalog order form. Its beauty lies in its utter simplicity. It did one thing, ordering books. And NAIPR relied on its membership and the tireless efforts of Laurie Graham, formerly of WORDSTOCK, and Bob Rooney (Sean Concannon, the late Paul C Williams, and Mark Follstad) to assemble an up-to-date, seasonal list of books, in catalog order no less, that would allow for a time savings for everybody.
And now with the integration of EDELWEISS and FRONTLIST PLUS UNIVERSAL booksellers have a greater array of choices, and NAIPR can continue its mission to provide services to the book industry.
And what are benefits that NAIPR brings to the big table? The answer is varied and multi-layered, and I’ve talked endlessly about this before, so I will leave you with a story well-told by member Jock Hayward of HAND ASSOCIATES in the Western US territory. He wrote me about Dick Kolbert of Oakland, CA, a consummate professional who is retiring at the end of this season. Here are Jock’s words:
I have followed Dick into accounts in the past. He called on Colorado stores, before we redistributed accounts a dozen years ago. To this day, many of the buyers, upon my arrival, demand that I tell them about Dick. A couple even ask me what books he's read, and one wants to know that movies he's seen!
Two years ago, Dick told me that he planned to visit Denver with his wife, Nancy. Without thinking, I mentioned to buyers that Dick would be passing through Denver. It's possible that some buyers had heart palpitations when they heard about the visit, but all demanded to visit with Dick while he was in Denver. I reported back to Dick. Dick was surprised. In some cases he was baffled. He didn't remember a close affinity with certain buyers who were determined to see him.
Then things took an ugly turn. The itinerary, when it was finalized, only allowed for part of an afternoon in Denver. At best, there might be time for a brief visit with one or two conveniently situated buyers, before driving South to stay with long-time friends. When word got out that the visit to Denver would only be a few hours, between the airport and a drive to another part of the state, there was consternation. Buyers who learned that they would not see Dick, even though he would be in Denver briefly, were frustrated and disappointed. Fortunately, everybody survived and most were quick to forgive him after the trip.
My background with Hand prepared me for this. When I joined Hand in 1979. I replaced Roger Sydnor. Roger stopped at the Grand Canyon on the way back from New Mexico to Los Angeles. He got up early one morning to take pictures. His camera was found, but his body was hundreds of feet below. When I called on his accounts the first season, there was a lot of hand-holding to do with buyers I was meeting for the first time. Several women buyers became teary-eyed, when I arrived for the appointment. I quickly learned that it wasn't because of Hastings House catalogs, or even the U of Washington Press catalog.
Next season, I will have to recount, to a dozen more new buyers, what Dick is doing. The downside is that I will have to commiserate with them on the first call. The upside is that I will instantly be a confidant with important information about a revered friend …
Eric Miller
President, NAIPR
