Publishers Weekly new owner and president George Slowik, Jr., kicked off the Authors Lunch at BEA yesterday, announcing the sales rep of the year: Ronald Koltnow of Random House, who is also celebrating his 20th anniversary with the company. Koltnow acknowledged that he’d rather be home reading a good novel but that his network of friends, colleagues and booksellers all had to work toward the common goal of getting books into the hands of readers. Reading is private; bookselling is sharing, he said. And for the human interest piece: the rep he replaced when he first started? He married her!
Bookseller of the Year went to City Lights Booksellers of San Francisco, the gold standard of bookstores and booksellers. Head buyer Paul Yamazaki too talked about collaboration and, most importantly, curiosity, adding that these times are challenging but also give rise to creativity.
Comedian Patton Oswalt introduced the writers on the panel, but not before mentioning his own forthcoming book, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland, coming from Scribner in January 2011. Oswalt called the book “an autobiography in a collection of funny essays” and “Sex and the City for fat shut-ins.” Oswalt was a bright spot in an uneven few hours.
Christopher Hitchens pitched his memoir, Hitch 22, just out from Twelve (which Oswalt effusively praised with “It’s crack!”). Hitchens mesmerized the crowd with limericks, which he explained to a snickering crowd “are not just a delivery system for filth,” and he recited limericks covering Shakespeare, the Russian Revolution, and T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland. Then had to leave to catch a plane to London, which prompted Oswalt to compare Hitchens to James Bond.
Next came Sara Gruen, talking about her much anticipated second novel from Spiegel & Grau (after Water for Elephants), Ape House, about a family of bonobo apes. Gruen went to great lengths to be able to meet these apes in their scientifically controlled environment at the Great Ape Trust in Iowa, and she explained how they have mastered language, are matriarchal, and engage in sexual contact approximately once every hour and a half. Gruen didn’t say much about the book, but went on for a long time about her interaction with them, especially a female named Panbanisha (to whom the book is dedicated). Ape tea party in the forest? Fruit of the Month Club? Insider tip: they like M&M’s.
And lastly, the charming William Gibson, who coined the term “cyberspace” and has a new novel, his ninth, Zero History, coming in September from Putnam. It’s set in London and Paris and deals with the financial crisis of last year, but Gibson claims he “can’t really say what it’s about;” he’s “waiting for the reviewers and the booksellers.” It might have helped if they were there for the lunch.
