Booksellers Set To Gather For Fall Show At New Atlanta Venue

24-7 -- As many as 500 bargain book vendors and buyers for their wares are preparing to gather in Atlanta on Aug. 1-2 for the Great American Bargain Book Show.

Retailers attending the show buy bargain books and other items such as CDs, DVDs and computer software from vendors who specialize in remainders, returns and other bargain books and specialty items. The show is timed to permit retailers to buy products to stock their shelves during the coming holiday season.

According to Larry May of Knoxville, Tenn., the show organizer, remainders are books that did not sell during their run in bookstores and other retail outlets. Most are in pristine condition, never having left distribution warehouses to get to retail outlets. Some are lightly hurt returns from bookstores.

Buyers attending the show come from some of the largest chains and big box stores in the nation, on down to independent book stores and acquisition librarians.

May said a special effort was made this year to attract buyers for church book stores in the metro Atlanta area. "The church book store market is one of the fastest growing in the book industry," May said. "It's estimated that 5,000 local churches now operate book stores. These range in size from a table somewhere in the vestibule on up to megachurch stores with annual retail sales in the high six figures."

Atlanta is home to two of the three largest bargain book shows in the nation. In addition to the Great American Bargain Book Show (GABBS), it is also host to the Spring Book Show.

This year's GABBS show, held last year at the Georgia World Congress Center, will be at the Cobb Galleria Centre. Its sister show, the Spring Book Show, moved from the Georgia World Congress Center in March as a result of tornado damage to that facility.