{"id":2657,"date":"2017-02-16T10:30:49","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T18:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/?p=2657"},"modified":"2017-02-16T13:20:01","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T21:20:01","slug":"fair-ly-blue-in-the-face-thats-a-wrap-everybody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/?p=2657","title":{"rendered":"Fair-ly Blue in the Face… That’s a Wrap, Everybody!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The entrance to the fair!<\/p><\/div>\n

By Margueritte Peterson<\/p>\n

Well, another year has come and passed us by. Another Book Fair has come and gone. I would venture to say not just\u00a0any<\/i>\u00a0book fair, of course, but the\u00a0ABAA’s 50th California International Antiquarian Book Fair, to be precise. Despite no longer being an antiquarian bookseller personally, I still attend the California ABAA fairs to see such an amazing group of people in a fantastic setting. Without a doubt, the\u00a0ABAA\u2019s California\u00a0Fair is a beautifully set-up fair where one can find all manner of items. From incunabula to amazing pop-up miniatures – modern firsts to Hollywood movie posters! And let’s not forget the Tavistock Books Booth with an array of items from Dickens to\u00a0Americana! Everyone can find\u00a0something<\/i>\u00a0that suits them at the ABAA Fairs (whether or not they can afford it is a different question entirely).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_20170212_150408\"However, since I\u2019m now\u00a0attending the fair as an outsider, it is difficult for me to remark on certain aspects of interest to other booksellers and those attending other fairs around the country. In terms of\u00a0attendance, I was there on both\u00a0Friday<\/span><\/span>\u00a0evening and\u00a0Sunday<\/span><\/span>\u00a0afternoon and turn-out seemed steady and flowing. It was not often that I saw booths occupied solely by only their manager or owner. There was a healthy number of booksellers as well! Over 200 exhibitors signed up for and exhibited at the fair, and all that I spoke to said that, in terms of sales, it was a success (which is bookseller lingo usually means that they made the money they spent getting to and exhibiting at the fair back\u2026 so at least there\u2019s that!). To help with some of the questions specific to exhibiting booksellers, I got a bit of info from the Tavistock Team – Vic and Kate:<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: How painless was set-up and take-down as compared to other fairs you have exhibited at recently, especially compared to last year’s Pasadena ABAA Fair?<\/span><\/p>\n

Setup was rather drawn-out for us, though that was partly our fault \u2014 our original booth design looked better on paper, and it took a while to rearrange the various cases. Then electrical was slow to get all the booths wired, and didn\u2019t get to our row until late\u00a0Friday<\/span><\/span>\u00a0morning. It\u2019s hard to get everything situated just right when you can\u2019t really see what you\u2019re doing (or how clean the glass is!), and we were still futzing right up until the fair opened. But after our travails, we got it finished in time!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What were sales like? Was it a profitable fair for Tavistock Books?<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re happy to report that the good ship Tavistock stayed afloat. It wasn\u2019t a great fair, but it wasn\u2019t a bad one, either. Given our sometimes less-than-stellar track record, we\u2019re not going to complain, in fact, as Vic has been saying, \u201cWe\u2019re OK with OK!\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Q: Was turnout as grand as you expected it to be? Two years ago at the ABAA fair there were reportedly quite a few thousand people. Was it a similar experience this year?<\/span><\/p>\n

Other booksellers reported aisles too packed to walk down, so we presume the turnout was high. Our location [on the corner of the exhibitor space, across from the Bancroft Library\u2019s wonderful exhibit of California fiction] never seemed to get that kind of traffic, unfortunately. Though maybe that\u2019s just a case of the cash box being greener on the other side of the curtains?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What was the overall bookseller attitude toward the fair? Two years ago many were quite skeptical of holding the fair in Oakland, but the sales and turnout cured their skepticism! Was there any anxiety over how this year’s fair would hold up to the past in the bookseller community?<\/span><\/p>\n

From what we\u2019ve heard so far, it sounds like just about everyone is happy with how the fair went. Given the unusual and somewhat bizarre array of circumstances working against this fair\u2019s success \u2014 the proximity of the New York fair, the recent enactment of California\u2019s new law about signed material [AB 1570], the Mission Impossible-style theft from a London Caladex facility of three booksellers\u2019 wares before shipment to the fair, and the emergency landing of a plane bearing another bookseller\u2019s books in the remote arctic en route to California \u2014 that\u2019s saying a lot. Kudos to all involved, and a big \u201cthank you\u201d to fair coordinator Michael Hackenberg for his tireless efforts, as well as all the good folks at White Rain Productions!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Though

Though you wouldn’t know it looking at them, these two have pains shooting up their legs and out their eyeballs!<\/p><\/div>\n

The ABAA Fair\u00a0coming\u00a0only a week\u00a0after\u00a0the Pasadena Book, Print, Photo & Paper Fair\u00a0offers\u00a0a wonderful\u00a0twofer\u00a0for out of town booksellers and customers, but in all truthfulness,\u00a0it can be\u00a0quite stressful on the booksellers themselves. You would never know it to look at the smiling faces behind\u00a0the beautifully-arranged display cases, but by the\u00a0Sunday<\/span><\/span>\u00a0of the second fair there is more than one smiling face masking an exhaustion only known by those who spend whole days in a row on their feet being charming. Oftentimes, people who don\u2019t know antiquarian bookselling think of it as a somewhat lonely job – sitting in a dark corner sniffing dust-covered leather tomes and muttering to yourself in between inhaling on your pipe – but despite the fact that at times it is a solitary life (and often preferred that way), most people don\u2019t understand that the level of sociality experienced in the few days of a book fair can\u00a0amount to the equivalent of months’ worth of gabbing by the water cooler in an office setting<\/span>. Book Fairs are an amazing place to really see what the sellers are made of\u2026 they are cool under pressure, they are charming even if their sales are down the toilet, they smile even if they have pain shooting up their legs and out their eyeballs!<\/p>\n

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Michael Thompson of Boreas Fine Art showing some of his trickiest and most beautiful pieces!<\/p><\/div>\n

In terms of interesting items at the fair, a few things that caught my eye were the colorful miniatures at new-ABAA member (and friend to Tavistock Books) Kim Herrick\u2019s booth for her business\u00a0The Book Lair<\/em>, and the larger-than-life art books shown to me by\u00a0Boreas Fine Art<\/i>\u2019s Michael Thompson. Not to mention that even in the Tavistock Books booth something fun caught my eye\u2026 a circa 1850 Gold Scale used in the California Gold Rush – in its original manufacturer\u2019s wooden case! Now that is something you don\u2019t see every day!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Vic giving his Book Collecting 101 speech at the fair on Sunday!<\/p><\/div>\n


\nA few events also stuck out in both attendee and exhibitor minds alike, as the ABAA Fairs always put on interesting and educational seminars and receptions. Alongside other seminar speakers like Western Americana-expert Gary F. Kurutz and William Blake specialist John Windle, our very own Vic Zoschak gave his usual two seminars (usual because they are helpful and beloved by all)\u00a0Book Collecting 101<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0What\u2019s This Book Worth?<\/i>\u00a0on Sunday<\/span><\/span>\u00a0afternoon. I stopped in on these speeches (that I personally witnessed at the ABAA California Book Fair in 2013) and can say with certainty that they are an absolute necessity for those starting out in the trade or in the antiquarian book-buying world and are unsure of how or where to begin.\u00a0On Friday<\/span><\/span>\u00a0evening the trade also held a Women in Bookselling reception for the growing number of ladies involved in the book business! Now, along with the socializing of the day and the bookseller dinners in the evening\u2026 a full weekend was on everyone\u2019s schedule! And, as usual, the booksellers we know and love handled it with unbelievable grace and charisma. And now, let us return to our dark corners to catalogue new fair finds and smoke our pipes in peace.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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