ELNO-BO Announcement

We've been hosting some great events for New Yorkers in the book world. We've had a lot of fun at our past events, but we want our next event to be for booksellers only. It's time for us to talk to each other about what we're doing, who we are, and where we want to go. Please join us at our first-ever ELNO-BO: Emerging Leaders Night Out - Booksellers Only!

Place: Three Lives Bookstore, 154 West 10th Street (here's a map)
Time: Sunday, March 18th at 7:00pm.
Agenda: Pizza, Beer, and Conversation
RSVP: emergingleadersnyc@gmail.com


This event is open to booksellers in the greater New York City area, who consider themselves part of the "next generation" of bookselling (usually 40ish and under, but everyone who is interested in thinking about the future of our industry is welcome.)

Thanks in advance to Toby Cox, proprietor of Three Lives, for hosting this event. We hope you'll join us, and please pass this along to any booksellers at your shop or other NY stores you think might like to join us. Let us know if you have any questions, and we hope to see you there!

ELNO in the news

Bookselling This Week, the news arm of the American Booksellers Association, covered the Summer 2006 Emerging Leaders Night Out (at the Brazen Head in Brooklyn) in this article. The piece also describes the genesis of the nationwide Emerging Leaders project and its founders.

Our Fall 2006 Emerging Leaders Night Out (at Union Hall in Brooklyn) apparently garnered enough buzz that the publishing scene blog GalleyCat had "a spy in attendance," who penned this report.

(Welcome to the strange New York phenomenon of going to a party and then reading about it the next day. I feel the reporter's boring conversation about Frankfurt was probably due to talking to too many other publishers and not enough booksellers. Someone needs to branch out.)
Maybe next time we can get Gawker to cover us... or not.

- Jessica

ELNO Winter 2006

The Winter 2006 Emerging Leader Night Out has been announced!

This time, we're celebrating the Small Press Book Fair, as well as enjoying the company of fellow book people. Here are the specs.

What: Emerging Leaders Night Out, Winter 2006 / Small Press Book Fair Edition
Where: Under the Volcano, 12 East 36th Street (btw Fifth and Madison)
When: Wednesday, November 29th @ 7:30pm
Who: YOU -- young booksellers and publishers in the New York City area

Feel free to forward this info to other bookish types in NY -- the more the merrier!

Please RSVP to emergingleadersnyc@gmail.com

For more about the Small Press Center and Book Fair, click here.
For more about Under the Volcano, click here.

Hope to see you there!

Origin Story

Once upon a time, books were in danger. Bookstores were failing. Publishers were losing their way. The literary establishment was in despair. "No one reads books, no one buys books," they lamented. And the young readers, who might have made things different, were isolated and powerless.

Then, from bookstore sales floors and entry-level publishing offices in New York City, a group of young people rose up. They looked around and saw that working together was the way to survive. They began to build a community for the next generation. They were not afraid of change. And the day was saved for books.

* * *

In a more literal sense, Emerging Leaders NYC was born from an idea that originated far outside of New York City, with four booksellers (1) who wanted to "create an opportunity for the next generation to find each other". Emerging Leaders was conceived by members of the American Booksellers Association as "tailored, but not restricted, to people forty or under, who plan on sticking with the industry for the next twenty years and demonstrate a passion for independent bookselling." The ABA created an Emerging Leaders Scholarship and hosted Emerging Leaders Meetings at Book Expo America in 2005 and 2006. But the project was "a movement, not a membership," and interested young people were encouraged to make Emerging Leaders happen on a local level.

Back in New York City after one of these meetings, a bookseller and a publisher (2) wondered if the project could be expanded. In this capital of the book industry, where so many large publishing houses and vibrant independent publishers are located alongside world-class bookstores, shouldn't young people in bookselling and publishing find each other? And the first Emerging Leaders Night Out was created. Booksellers, publicists, editors, agents, journalists, and journalists met in a bar, talked books, and made connections.

As it progresses, the New York City incarnation of Emerging Leaders (3) has developed a number of goals. It seeks to create an informal networking opportunity for young people in the book industry to trade ideas, information, and gossip, and come up with new partnerships. It seeks to remedy the disconnect that can sometimes exist between the office and the sales floor, as publishers, booksellers and literary agents break out of their isolation to learn how the other half thinks. It seeks to create a professional community for young booksellers who often think of themselves as "retail staff," when they are actually a vital link in the book industry and a source for new ideas. It seeks to draw attention to local literary events that enhance our community. And it seeks to make a place for young people who love books to enjoy each others' company.

Emerging Leaders NYC hosts a quarterly event, the Emerging Leaders Night Out (ELNO), often scheduled around a local literary event. This is an informal get-together at a bar or other venue, geared primarily toward booksellers and publishers but open to others in the book industry as well. As the project evolves, we hope to host more focused events where booksellers and publishers will discuss issues and actions for the future.

We're building our community and working for new ways of thinking, and we have high hopes for the future. We hope you'll join us.

Acknowledgements

(1) The original Emerging Leaders movement was conceived by four booksellers: Julia Cowlishaw of Shaman Drum Bookshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Cindy Dach of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona; Allison Hill of Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, California; and Neil Strandberg of Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver.

(2) The first Emerging Leaders Night Out in New York was conceived by Richard Nash, publisher of Soft Skull Press, and Jessica Stockton, bookseller at McNally Robinson Booksellers.

(3) The current organizers behind Emerging Leaders NYC are Amanda Lydon, manager of Good Yarns Bookstore in Hastings-on-Hudson; and Jessica Stockton, events coordinator at McNally Robinson Booksellers.

Thanks to those who have made this happen. We look forward to seeing who will help to take the next steps.