Administration/Projects
Send project-related
questions (Fall Discovery Show, Winter Catalog, Reading the West Book Awards, Website)
plus bills, invoices,
and payments to:

MPIBA Administration
c/o Kathy Keel
208 E. Lincoln Avenue

Fort Collins, CO 80524

Mark Your Calendar!

Fall Discovery Show (Trade Show) 2017

October 12-14, 2017
The Renaissance
Denver Hotel

Fall Discovery Show 2016

Children's Author & Illustrator Breakfast: Sarah Taylor from The Bookworm of Edwards in Edwards, Colorado and Abbey Paxton from BookBar in Denver, Colorado wowed the crowd with their introductory song, "Get Your Wiggles Out."

"MPIBA has opened so many doors for me, including this show."

Quote above from a new bookseller attendee at the Show.

Click here for more photos and articles from Publishers Weekly and Shelf Awareness.

Click here to view the Fall Discovery Show 2016 overall slideshow on Facebook

Enjoy this 5-minute slideshow (click the "HD" button to view in high definition) of the just-completed Fall Discovery Show 2016, with wonderful moments captured in photos by Victoria Henson.

Thank you to everyone -- booksellers, authors, sponsors, publishers, exhibitors, MPIBA Board and Executive Director, MPIBA staff and volunteers, and The Renaissance Hotel -- who made this show so very special!

Click here to view the daily slideshows and photos on MPIBA's Facebook page

Photos by Victoria Henson - thank you!

Backlist Blind Book Swap: Stephanie Schindhelm and Liesl Freudenstein from Boulder Book Store in Boulder, Colorado.

"MPIBA is notable for being the most geographically vast regional booksellers association in the country,

stretching from the gulf coast of Texas to Canada, and the vast majority of booksellers flew in - making for a collegial gathering of distant relations. In all, 221 booksellers attended the event, executive director Laura Ayrey Burnett told PW, adding that the organization expanded by 15 new members this year."

-Read the full Publishers Weekly article here.

Last week, during the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association Fall Discovery Show in Denver,

I had the chance to add some vintage quotes to my collection

and to reflect on the extended family that is indie bookselling,

a "region" without boundaries.

It is a growing family. The 2016 MPIBA show had 221 booksellers in attendance, a solid number helped by the addition of 15 new bookstores.

"Both the board of directors as well as myself were elated by the turnout and success of this year's Fall Discovery Show," said executive director Laura Ayrey Burnett.

"With the onslaught of so many new booksellers this year you could feel the excitement in the air in the exhibit hall and at the author events. They were soaking up every bit of knowledge they could from our seasoned booksellers. I feel confident in saying it was our best show yet."

Anne Holman of the King's English Bookshop, Salt Lake City, Utah, summed it up nicely at the General Meeting when she said,

"Bookselling is a nice family to be in."

-Read the full Shelf Awareness article here.

MPIBA Board of Directors and Executive Director

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Bottom row (from left): Nicole Sullivan, MPIBA director; Danielle Foster, MPIBA treasurer; Christopher Green, MPIBA director. Top row (from left): Laura Ayrey Burnett, MPIBA executive director; Meg Sherman, MPIBA director; Anne Holman, MPIBA president; Heather Duncan, MPIBA v-p; Jeremy Ellis, MPIBA director.

Featured Authors

Author Banquet

From left: T.C. Boyle, THE TERRANAUTS, from HarperCollins Publishers/Ecco; Anne Lamott, HALLELUJAH ANYWAY, from Penguin Random House/Riverhead; Maria Semple, TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT, from Hachette Book Group/Little, Brown; David Grann, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, from Penguin Random House/Doubleday.

Children's Author & Illustrator Breakfast

From left: David Shannon, DUCK ON A TRACTOR, from Scholastic/Blue Sky Press; Erin Stead, THE UNCORKER OF OCEAN BOTTLES, from Penguin Random House/Penguin Young Readers; S.J. Kincaid, THE DIABOLIC, from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Authors of Buzz Books Breakfast

From left: Dan Slater, WOLF BOYS, from Simon & Schuster; Pete Fromm, THE NAMES OF THE STARS, from Macmillan/St. Martin's Press; David Welky, A WRETCHED AND PRECARIOUS SITUATION, from W.W. Norton & Company.

Authors of Future Releases Breakfast

From left: Lydia Reeder, DUST BOWL GIRLS, from Workman Publishing/Algonquin; Laura Pritchett, THE BLUE HOUR, from Counterpoint Press; Elan Mastai, ALL OUR WRONG TODAYS, from Penguin Random House/Dutton.

Reading the West
Book Awards Luncheon

From left: Sarah M. Hulse, Adult Fiction Winner for BLACK RIVER from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Lesley Poling-Kempes, Adult Nonfiction Winner for LADIES OF THE CANYONS from The University of Arizona Press; Eliot Treichel, Children's/YA Winner for A SERIES OF SMALL MANEUVERS from Ooligan Press at Portland State University.

Booksellers at the Show

Please see the slideshows on Facebook for MANY more bookseller, author, and exhibitor photos.

"I never miss the Show."

Karen Berg, founder of the Next Page Bookstore in Frisco, Colo, said she has "never missed" the show in all the years she has been a bookseller. "I get ideas, information and support from participating. It makes me feel like a small part of something larger."

-Click here to read the full Publishers Weekly article.

Backlist Blind Book Swap from left: Aaron Cance, new bookseller from The Printed Garden in Sandy, Utah; Emily Katzman from Off the Beaten Path in Steamboat Springs, Colorado; Becca Chavez from Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, Colorado; new bookseller Marcy Rizzi from Booked on 25th in Ogden, Utah; Heather Duncan from Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, Colorado

Talking books: Kelsey Myers and Susie Wilmer from Old Firehouse Books in Fort Collins, Colorado with Joni Montover from Paragraphs on Padre in South Padre Island, Texas

Backlist Blind Book Swap: Bobbi Smith from Between the Covers in Telluride, Colorado (and co-presenter with Vicki Law Burger of Wind City Books in Casper, Wyoming for the "Are You a First-Timer?" session for booksellers).

Backlist Blind Book Swap: Nicole Sullivan from BookBar in Denver, Colorado (Board member and co-presenter of the "Profiting from Non-Profit Partnerships" session with Claudia Maceo from The Twig Book Shop in San Antonio, Texas).

Exhibit Hall Opening Reception: Amanda Sutton, from Bookworks in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her son Winter. Amanda was a panelist on the "Increasing Book Sales at Events" session with Heather Duncan from Tattered Cover Book Store and Kelsey Myers from Old Firehouse Books in Fort Collins, Colorado.