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BEA 2012: Shipshape Freight
Big news for publishers of any size who want an economical way to ship freight in and out of the U.S.: BookFreight, a U.K. company with global locations, is promoting its new services here at BEA. Marketing director Rochelle Sommer tells Show Daily, “The motivating factor for this new initiative was driven by a gap in the market. Many freight forwarders do not want to look after a small shipment of books, as the load isn’t big enough (under 100 pounds). Many publishers also find their options limited and often far too expensive to go through their normal agents, so will probably end up using a courier service.”
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BEA 2012: A Bookseller Campaign Did the Job
What could be one of the big books of the fall, Michael Ennis’s The Malice of Fortune (Doubleday, Sept.), a historical novel set in Renaissance Italy with undertones of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, almost didn’t make it into print. It took a determined agent, a writer willing to rework the manuscript (for years), and dozens of booksellers who read and liked an early draft to turn around its fate.
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BEA 2012: The Infinite Possibilities in Digital Publishing
The opportunities and mysteries of digital were at the center of the discussion of the panel, “Secrets from the Other Side: Lessons Learned from People Who Have Worked for Both Print and Digital Companies,” held June 5 at BookExpo.
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BEA 2012: One-of-a-Kind Goodies
Publishers here at BEA have a tradition of handing out some great freebies to convention attendees—anything from pens and customized sticky notes to the ubiquitous tote bags—not to mention books, blads, and ARCs of the coming season. But Princeton Architectural Press (4022) is offering something a little different.
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BEA 2012: One-of-a-Kind Goodies
Publishers here at BEA have a tradition of handing out some great freebies to convention attendees—anything from pens and customized sticky notes to the ubiquitous tote bags—not to mention books, blads, and ARCs of the coming season. But Princeton Architectural Press (4022) is offering something a little different.
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BEA 2012: Girls Say the Darndest Things
The transformation of Twitter feeds into books or creating YouTube videos that go viral is nothing new, but Sh*t Girls Say (Harlequin, Oct.) creators Kyle Humphrey and Graydon Sheppard never expected the explosion that followed the post-Twitter launch of their first YouTube video last August. Both men credit Justin Halpern’s groundbreaking Sh*t My Dad Says Twitter and publishing phenomenon for inspiration, but these guys definitely put their own spin on the precious words uttered by the female gender.
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BEA 2012: Power Readers at BEA
On Thursday, for the first time, BEA is opening its doors to the public. But not too far. This year there will be only a thousand consumers, aka Power Readers. To control attendance, BEA created invitations with a special code identifying which customers of which dozen New York City bookstores or patrons of the New York Public Library’s Science, Business and Industry Library—or Power Readers—found out about the show. “The concept of having consumers is more important than the number of consumers,” said event director Steve Rosato in a note to BEA’s executive steering committee. Power Readers, he believes, will encourage more readers to follow BEA, both through Web streaming and on social networks.
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BEA 2012: Globetrotters, Spiders, and Sharks, oh, Guinness!
Once again Guinness World Records shows that it is an equal-opportunity record-breaking organization by bringing along a sampling of superlative fun to BEA. A couple of years ago, the most tattooed woman graced the booth; last year the oldest female body builder was on hand to flex and take photos with attendees. This year Guinness brings along two record holders from the Harlem Globetrotters: at 7-ft.-8-in., Paul “Tiny” Sturgess is the tallest living basketball player, and teammate Kevin “Special K” Daley has made the farthest hook shot at 46’6”. Both will be in booth 3534 today, 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m., and again, 2–3 p.m., for a meet and greet and some Globetrotting showmanship.
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BEA 2012: How to Thrive in Business
For every Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Tumblr, and Foursquare out there in cyberspace, there are many Internet businesses you’ve never heard of but may some day. Amacom, with offerings that span a wide range of business and leadership topics, has a slew of optimistic books at its booth (3831) that tell not just of others’ successes, but also reveal the game plan to follow to try to get there yourself, if you are so inclined.
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BEA 2012: Hooked by Heroism
Terry A. Tegnazian, president and co-founder of Aquila Polonica Publishing, based in Los Angeles with an office in England, is not Polish, not of Polish descent, not married into Polishness, and is a lawyer by training, not a publisher. Yet she finds herself scouring archives and histories for unknown accounts about Poland during World War II because Aquila Polonica’s sole purpose is to bring out books about the Polish experience during that war. (Aquila polonica is Latin for “Polish eagle,” and the company is so named for the eagle that adorns the Polish flag.) The house brought out its first small list three years ago, and Tegnazian is still enthusiastically dedicated to her mission.
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BEA 2012: Who You Calling Dummy?
It has become part of the lexicon. You name a topic, and there is likely to be a “For Dummies” book about it or in the works. But it all started in 1991 with the publication of DOS for Dummies. Going into its 21st year, For Dummies has come a long way, having been part of Wiley since 2001.
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BEA 2012: Parenting Goes High-Tech
Some of the ideas in Vicki Lansky’s Practical Parenting Tips (Book Peddlers, June) are just as relevant today as they were when the book was first published by Meadowbrook Press in 1980. For instance, when your child throws a tantrum, whisper in his or her ear: the screaming may stop or the child may giggle. If that doesn’t work, disappear into another room for a while. But other tips—like running the vacuum to make white noise so that a fussy baby will go to sleep—have fallen out of favor when there’s an app for that.
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BEA 2012: Panting Over a Tea Bag?
It had to happen: a parody of the bestselling 50 Shades of Grey. And who better to pull it off than author Andrew Shaffer (Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love), whose witty Twitter alter egos, @EvilWylie and @EmperorFranzen, are followed by hundreds of book reviewers, journalists, and book bloggers.
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BEA 2012: At 50, Still Brainy, Still Lucid
Director of the MIT Press Ellen Faran tells a joke enjoyed in-house among her colleagues: “We only sign ’em up if they are hard to market!” With titles that challenge easy categorization, it’s not hard to understand the humor. “We often publish books in new areas, and we need help from booksellers to literally find a place to shelve them in the store,” says Faran. “We sometimes publish a textbook before there is even a course for it.”
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BEA 2012: Ig’s Big 10
If Robert Lasner hadn’t written his first novel, Ig Publishing might never have been started. “I was an English major in college, but I didn’t know anything about publishing, and to be honest, I wasn’t that interested in it.” He was dating his future wife, Elizabeth Clementson (Clementson is publisher of Ig; Lasner is editor-in-chief), who then worked at a literary agency, and a friend with some extra money suggested they all start a press to launch his novel.
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BEA 2012: No Sleep for Akashic
Illustrator Ricardo Cortés is in Javits today promoting two Akashic 2012 releases that are sure to create some buzz for the press, each in its own way. One—a children’s picture book, the press’s first—is meant to soothe, while the other—an illustrated picture book for adults, another first for Akashic—is a lot more caffeinated: Seriously, Just Go to Sleep by Adam Mansbach, illustrated by Cortés (May), and The Secret History of Coffee, Coca, and Cola (Dec.), which Cortés wrote as well as illustrated.
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BEA 2012: Welcome, Pannell Awardees
At this morning’s Children’s Book and Author Breakfast, two bookstores will receive the WNBA Pannell Award, given annually since 1983 by the Women’s National Book Association to two bookstores that excel in bringing books and young readers together. This year’s winners are the 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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BEA 2012: It’s Children’s Day!
Today marks the first-ever American Booksellers Association’s ABC Children’s Institute, and the day’s agenda is chock-full of educational sessions, roundtable discussions, networking opportunities, author hobnobbing, and other festivities.
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BEA 2012: Browsing the Booths, Chapter 2
For those navigating the booths of children’s publishers today, here is a preview of new books on display, authors to greet, and giveaways being offered.
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BEA 2012: A Bountiful Breakfast Menu
Those attending this morning’s Children’s Book and Author Breakfast will get their fill of entertaining fare. After an opening welcome from Walter Dean Myers, the reigning National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, breakfasters will listen to an impressive lineup of speakers: emcee Chris Colfer, John Green, Lois Lowry, and Kadir Nelson.
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