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Current Trends at Local Bookstores: Lunch with Minnesota Book Buyers
September 17, 2014 @ 5:30 pm
$20.00Those who work in book publishing spend a lot of time thinking about—surprise!—readers. What are they looking for, what are they reading now, what haven’t they seen yet? What trends in the book market seem to be waning, or emergent; what’s going to make a person choose that book from a full table of options? And how do we really, in our region, get a sense of this all in the moment? Who better to ask than some of the local bookstore owners and booksellers, who see these narratives unfold in their own stores daily.
As we begin (already!) the climb into the fall and holiday season, join us for a lively, wide-ranging discussion about what area booksellers and book buyers have been seeing in their stores: what’s hot, what’s not, what’s trending and what’s slowing down. What seems to be working for publishers these days, especially in terms of a relationship with bookstores and frontline staff? Or even, what kinds of covers seem to be connecting with readers, whether for fiction or non-fiction, regional or national, young adult or picture books.
There will be no shortage of potential topics, so please lend your voice to a fun discussion with some of our area’s esteemed booksellers, book buyers, and store owners.
Presenters
Judith Kissner is the owner of Scout & Morgan Books in Cambridge, Minnesota. In 2002 she opened her first bookstore, Log Cabin Books, and in 2007, expanded and moved to her current location in the downtown Cambridge area. She has served on the Cambridge City-Wide Read Committee since its inception in 2008.
Mary Magers is part of the management team at Magers and Quinn Booksellers where they buy and sell new, used, antiquarian, and remaindered books, and where she has been in the business since before any of it was done on computers. Her responsibilities include overseeing inventory management of new books, including purchasing, marketing, events, and monitoring sales and returns. Katie McGinley is a manager and buyer at Wild Rumpus Books, a children’s bookstore in Minneapolis. She is definitely a generalist, reading and recommending books from all genres for kids of all ages, but is a special fan of graphic novels for kids and teens.
Martin Schmutterer is the general manager and front-list buyer at Common Good Books in Saint Paul. A bookseller with over twenty years of experience, he has worked in chain stores and independents, including the late-lamented Ruminator (nee Hungry Mind) and Bound to Be Read.