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Ten Promising Titles
There was no shortage of big books to talk about at this year’s BookExpo America. From art heists to mysterious islands, from the Cold War to the Iraq War, these are the 10 books that drew lots of attention at this year’s show.
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IDPF, Kobo, and Imago’s iSee Guides at BEA 2012
There was plenty of digital activity at this year BookExpo America, starting with the IDPF Digital Book 2012, which emphasized what IDPF executive director Bill McCoy said was the results of the “experimentation” and the “doers.” IDPF featured such “doers” as marketer and publishing maverick Seth Godin, once again hectoring the industry about its priorities. Godin lampooned traditional publishing for continuing to compete for “scarce shelf space,” instead of “the connection to readers that a company like Amazon has.”
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New Retailer Zola Premieres, Softly, at BEA
A “battle philosophy” is what agent-turned-entrepreneur Joe Regal said drove him to launch Zola Books, the new e-book retailer he, along with a handful of authors and tech industry veterans, recently unveiled. Regal is the first to admit that he never saw himself running a startup, much less becoming an online bookseller. That was until he realized he could no longer support his authors as an agent because, in his mind, the retailing equation became broken. Zola is, more than anything else, his attempt to fix that equation. To that end, it’s the anti-Amazon.
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A Buoyant BEA
A re-energized independent bookseller segment contributed to a vibrant 2012 edition of the BookExpo America convention held June 4–7 at New York City’s Javits Center. Indie booksellers were encouraged by a boost in their numbers—ABA reported that over the past year the number of member bookstores has increased from 1,512 to 1,567 as of May 15; the number of locations rose from 1,823 to 1,900—and despite challenges posed by e-books, independent booksellers were more confident of their place in the industry ecosystem. On panels and in the exhibit hall, the important role booksellers of all kinds play in the “discoverability” of books was a frequent refrain.
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BEA 2012: Boisterous Authors Breakfast at BEA Rattles Javits
Thursday's BEA authors breakfast in New York City started out sedately enough, but with actress Kirstie Alley as emcee and comedian Jimmy Fallon present, the event quickly turned into a boisterous affair.
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BEA 2012: Kids' Books in the Digital Age
In Wednesday's presentation, "Understanding the Children's Book Consumer in the Digital Age," Kelly Gallagher, v-p of Publishing Workflow Solutions, R.R. Bowker, offered some good news for children's booksellers, While e-books accounted for 24% of books purchased between April 2011 and 2012, e-book sales for kids up to age 12 is considerably smaller, closer to 5%. It is a different story for YA, now at 14%. But based on a succession of surveys of parents of children up to age 12, conducted in October 2010, October 2011, and April 2012, Gallagher predicts continued slow growth for digital books for young children.
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BEA 2012: Marvelous Middle-Grade Panel
The enthusiasm in the room was palpable as five children's book editors each introduced a middle-grade title that has them especially thrilled.
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Pannell Award Honors Two Bookstores at BEA
At yesterday's Children’s Book & Author Breakfast, two bookstores received the WNBA Pannell Award, given annually since 1983 by the Women's National Book Association to a pair of bookstores that excel in bringing books and young readers together. This year's winners are Book Beat in Oak Park, Mich., in the general bookstore category, and Monkey See, Monkey Do in Clarence, N.Y., in the children's specialty category.
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ABA Debuts ABC Children's Institute at BEA
Wednesday marked the first ever American Booksellers Association's ABC Children's Institute, and the day's agenda was chockful of educational sessions, roundtable discussions, networking opportunities, author hobnobbing, and other events. The idea for the daylong event, says Joy Dallanegra-Sanger, ABA's senior program officer, was conceived after the ABA-ABC merger.
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BEA 2012: Bestselling Authors Hold Court at Audiobook Tea
Lee Child, Debbie Macomber, and Daniel Handler joined narrator and host Dion Graham to celebrate the audiobook industry yesterday at the 12th Annual Audiobook and Author Tea at BookExpo America.
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BEA 2012: Big Books for Kids: Surveying the Scene
By all accounts this year's BEA was an upbeat show, and nowhere was that more evident than among children's publishers. Macmillan's Allison Verost said, "When the doors opened at 9 a.m., people were making a beeline to our booth for galleys."
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BEA 2012: Panel Highlights Multiple Publishing Formats
As moderated by Chris Kenneally of the Copyright Clearance Center, the “New Business Models for Publishers” panel offers a discussion on the dramatic shifts in publishing from print to multimedia that ensures publishers will stay in the forefront of a "new world."
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BEA 2012: The Power Readers Arrive
The first attempt by BookExpo America show organizers to let the public into the event was, not surprisingly, something of a mixed bag.
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BEA 2012 Attendance Up
As of noon Thursday the counts stood at book buyer attendance (retailers, booksellers, librarians) up 5%, to 14,057, with overall attendance that includes exhibitors and rights personnel up 1% to 22,365.
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BEA 2012: YA Marketing: Digital vs. Physical
Social media is important. Building connections between authors and readers (both in person and online) is important. Getting fans excited and involved early: extremely important. That was the message at a panel called "Beyond the Hunger Games: Young Adult Book Marketing and Strategies," held Tuesday morning at BEA.
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BEA 2012: At the Children's Breakfast, Dreams and Responsibility
If there was a theme to Wednesday’s Children’s Book and Author Breakfast, it was that reading books does not just educate and entertain young readers, it can inspire them to, in speaker Lois Lowry’s words, “fix this world.” National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Walter Dean Myers (l.) set the tone for the event in his welcoming remarks to a packed hall of 1,100 booksellers. “Reading has made my life, reading has transformed my existence,” Myers declared.
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BEA 2012: Is Brazil the Next Russia?
Representing an entire nation isn't easy, but fewer than 30 people are doing just that for Brazil at BEA. Most of the group is authors, who hope that their 2012 efforts to raise awareness of Brazil's rich literary environment will pay off in subsequent years—with the goal of becoming BEA's Global Market Forum country.
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BEA 2012: The Big Books: What They're Saying
The quest for booksellers on the floor of BookExpo America can take some unanticipated turns, like meeting Richard Ford at the entrance to the show. His latest book, Canada, he says graciously, is "old news," and he's just arrived at BEA, but he's looking forward to James Salter's new book, Cassada, out on September 11 from Counterpoint.
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PW BEA Show Daily, June 7, 2012
Keep up with all the goings-on at BookExpo America by reading the complete text of today's PW BEA Show Daily.
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BEA 2012: Swedenborg’s Many Offerings
Swedenborg Foundation Press, publisher of the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg in the U.S. for more than 150 years, is showcasing its newest titles. Despite publishing only 10 books a year, the Pennsylvania publisher sees benefit in attending BEA as part of the Independent Book Publishers Association at booth 3047.
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