Just 500 or so of our "best friends": National Book Club Conference will limit size to keep the literary ambience.

WHEN CURTIS BUNN STEPPED out on faith and founded the National Book Club Conference (NBCC) three years ago, he honestly did not know what to expect. What he hoped for was that other authors would experience the feeling he had every time he attended a book club meeting--that warm burst of camaraderie and fellowship.

"Almost spiritual," is how Bunn, an Atlanta journalist and author of Baggage Check (A&B Distributors, 2001) and Book Club: Books Are Their Life and Their Life Is a Book (Upstream, 2003), describes the sensation. He set out to replicate that feeling by convening a national book club conference.

What started as a fanciful notion is now an unparalleled success. The 200 book lovers who registered for the conference in 2003 rubbed elbows with such best-selling authors as Walter Mosley. In turn, the authors connected on a personal level with their readers in a more intimate environment. Mosley, no stranger to literary gatherings, called the NBCC the best book event he had ever attended.

"There's something very honest and pure about it," says Mosley, whose most recent books are Fortunate Son (Little, Brown and Company, April 2006), The Wave (Aspect, January 2006) and Cinnamon Kiss (Little, Brown and Company, 2005).

More than 500 people, representing 70 book clubs nationwide, as well as more than 50 authors, attended the 2005 NBCC. As Bunn makes plans for the 2006 National Book Club Conference--to be held, as it is every year, at the plush Intercontinental Hotel in Atlanta's ritzy Buckhead section, August 4 through 6--he is faced with a dilemma that a less-earnest organizer probably wouldn't consider much of a dilemma at all.

Word of mouth has created such demand for the conference that it is in danger of losing what made it so unique in the first place-- its intimacy. So Bunn has decided to cut off the number of registrants at 550, and he will accept them on a first-come-first-served basis.

"What has separated the conference from everything else is the access you have to the authors" says Bunn. "I don't want this to become a flea-market environment. That would be a disservice to the people who spend their money to come to Atlanta.

"I got into this for one reason: to put together people who love to read, with authors in a place that is calm, peaceful and relaxed, not helter-skelter," he adds.

The Comfort Factor

Bunn's decision is good news to book club members who savor the intimacy of the NBCC.

"The whole conference made everyone feel so comfortable," says Lisa MaRie Heyward, founder of the Philly African American Book Club, who attended the NBCC for the first time in 2005. "You got to meet the author and intermingle with members of other book clubs; not to mention it was a nice hotel."

Heyward says the convention atmosphere reminds her of her own book club's bimonthly gatherings. "When we have guest authors come to our meetings, we feel like we have a closeness to them," she says. "I felt the same way at the conference. It was like the authors weren't untouchable. No one was."

The conference offers plenty of encounters with authors. How about having your picture taken with Walter Mosley? Or going out for an impromptu chat about storytelling with J. California Cooper on the hotel's sun-drenched patio? Those are the types of experiences that the NBCC encourages, and they are just as gratifying for authors as they are for readers.

Among the authors scheduled for the 2006 conference are Nick Chiles, Denene Millner, J. California Cooper, E. Lynn Harris, Donna Hill, Brandon Massey, Terry McMillan, Mosley and Diane McKinney-Whetstone. McMillan, the 2005 Walter Mosley Author of Distinction Award winner, will give an emerging young author an award this year.

The $275 registration fee entitles attendees to admission to all workshops, signings and activities; breakfast, lunch and apple martinis at the reception on Friday; and lunch and dinner at the banquet on Saturday.

Something for Everyone

For best-selling mystery writer Valerie Wilson Wesley, the conference provides a gathering that African American readers and writers can call their own.

"For so long, the publishing industry kind of ignored black readers. I'm old enough to remember that," says Wesley. Her recent books include Dying in the Dark: A Tamara Hayle Mystery (One World/Ballantine, 2005) and Willimena and Mrs. Sweetly's Guinea Pig (Hyperion, 2005).

Additionally, the book club conference acknowledges all fiction writers, unlike venues that "tend to focus on a certain genre, like erotica or urban literature, sometimes to the detriment of writers who write other things," Wesley says. "A conference like Curtis's gives us all a chance."

Kimberla Lawson Roby, a two-time NBCC attendee whose latest women's fiction title is Changing Faces (William Morrow, February 2006), says, "This is one of the best opportunities for authors to interact with readers. This is the type of publicity and marketing you couldn't even pay for." The exposure the conference offers to established and emerging authors is welcomed in these belt-tightening days in publishing.

"The publishing world is a marketing world. It's not the same relationship. At this point, it's about selling" notes Wesley.

More and more, authors are forced to market themselves. "Even with a book tour, if you're lucky enough to get one, readers don't come out, and you don't get the chance to interact," she adds.

Wesley attended the 2005 conference and hopes to return this year. "It was like a big party," she says. "It's a great hotel, and I got a chance to see my friends, like Jill Nelson [Finding Martha's Vineyard: African Americans at Home on an Island, Doubleday, 2005] and Bebe Moore Campbell [72 Hour Hold, Knopf, 2005], who are both great writers."

That's the kind of feedback that keeps Bunn on his mission. Sure, he could make more money, "but that's not why we're in it," he says. "This may sound corny, but we're in it for service."

Months after the 2005 conference, Bunn says he still receives e-mails from readers telling him what a great time they had and what great people they met.

"That right there is the most meaningful thing," he says.

For updates and to register for the conference, log on to www.nationalbookdubconference.com, or write to: NBCC, Inc., 1561 Duren Fields Way, Lithonia, GA 30058.

PROFILE

What: 2006 National Book Club Conference

Where: Intercontinental Buckhead Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia

Who: 500 Attendees from 70 clubs, and 50 Authors

When: August 4-6, 2006

Organizer:. Curtis Bunn

To Register, Go to www.nationalbookclubconference.com

Meeting in the Motherland 

The 2007 NBCC will take registrants to Ghana, August 3 through 12. This book lovers' trip to West Africa will celebrate the fifth anniversary of the conference and bring readers and their favorite writers together in the Motherland.

The 10-day trip will re-create the luxurious weekend event participants have enjoyed, this time in the fabulous La Palm Hotel in Accra, followed by four days of exploration of the West African literary scene, including readings by popular authors and visits to major historic sites. Adventurous book lovers may also add a two-day side trip to the Cape Coast slave castles and the Kumasi, the Ashanti capital and center of art and culture.

Look for pricing and other details online at www.nationalbookclubconference.com and www.bibookreview.com.

Annette John-Hall writes about art and entertainment for the Philadelphia Inquirer and covered the 2005 National Book Club Conference for the paper.