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BEA 2011: Speak Out Against Censorship, Industry Urged
Led by moderator Joan Bertin, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship, three panelists provided an update during BEA on book banning in America, impressing upon their audience that assaults on the freedom of expression of writers and illustrators are as prevalent as they have ever been, if not more so.
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BEA 2011: E-book Future, Google, and Facts
Google, everyone's favorite 800-lb. gorilla, held a panel discussion on Tuesday and a presentation on Wednesday to parse the significance of the e-book explosion and to explain Google Books’ position in it.
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BEA 2011: Not Four of a Kind at Breakfast Panel
Wednesday’s breakfast was a terrific mashup of personalities, with four authors who strive for different audiences acknowledging one shared trait: a most serious love of reading.
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BEA 2011: BookStats Point Up
In a preliminary presentation for figures that will appear in July, representatives from the AAP, BISG, and Bowker explained the new process for how industry sales are being compiled and analyzed, at a Tuesday afternoon panel. The good news is that more than 1,100 publishers have supplied date to the joint AAP/BISG BookStats project, more than double the participation level of any other statistics endeavor. And in more good news, preliminary findings from the actual numbers show that sales, both in units and dollars, were up in the trade segment between 2008 and 2010.
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BEA 2011: Buzz Panel Hums
Speaking to a standing-room-only crowd at Monday's Buzz Panel, six editors made their pitches about the books they think, and hope, will edge out the competition this fall. While the offerings felt a little heavy on the women’s fiction side—Birds of Paradise, Running the Rift, The Underside of Joy, and The Night Circus all seem primed for that book club sweet spot—the editors proffered new and older writers as well as a mix of ballyhooed titles.
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BEA 2011: Teicher Calls for New Retail Business Models
American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher broke with tradition at this year’s annual meeting. Rather than report on association activities during the past year, he addressed the elephant in the Javits Center, e-books and the turmoil that bricks-and-mortar booksellers are feeling. "As I hardly need to remind everyone here, these are not normal times in the book business. We are living through a period of unprecedented change and staggering challenges. It can no longer be business as usual," he said.
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BEA 2011: Audiobook of the Year to 'Life'
The Audio Publishers Association held its 16th annual Audies Gala on May 24 at New York's TimesCenter to celebrate the Audies winners of its yearly audiobook awards. The two biggest Audies this year went to musician-memoirist Keith Richards and genre-hopping poet-author Walter Dean Myers.
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BEA 2011: Hitting the Floor Running
While complaints abounded about air-conditioning and construction inside the Javits, book publishing professionals thought BEA was getting off to a promising start on Tuesday. Although a divide down the center of the main floor of the Javits Center had the effect of making the show look smaller and, at worst, obscuring the fact that the show is twice as big as it initially appears, many on the floor said that traffic was strong and a general excitement about e-books was buoying the mood.
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BEA Show Daily 2011: Channeling Helen Keller
Readers on the hunt for inspirational reads will want to check out Swedenborg Foundation Press's two big titles this season, Helen Keller's How I Would Help the World (Apr.) and Grant Schnarr's The Guardian Angel Diary (May).
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BEA Show Daily 2011: 40 Is the New 30 for IPG
To mark its 40th anniversary this year, Independent Publishers Group is doing what a lot of us do when we hit middle age and assess both where we've been and where we're headed: the book distribution company is giving itself a little makeover. IPG is rebranding itself by officially rolling out a new logo and revamping its Web site.
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BEA Show Daily 2011: Who's 40 Now?
Ziggy, the familiar, frumpy, and much-beloved everyman of comics is turning 40. And Andrews McMeel will be honoring the occasion with the June publication of Ziggy, a hardcover collection featuring selected panels spanning all four decades of the celebrated cartoon. "We are thrilled to be celebrating Ziggy's 40th anniversary," says Kirsty Melville, publisher and president of Andrews McMeel Publishing's book division. "A mainstay in popular culture, Ziggy has a secure spot in the hearts of millions of fans and has endeared himself to us for his optimistic outlook despite all odds, and for lending himself to a variety of charitable endeavors, including World Food Day, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and Autism Speaks."
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BEA Show Daily 2011: From Scrooge to Weddings
The busy schedule for Shadow Mountain Publishing this week highlights a list packed with everything from Scrooge to weddings.
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BEA Show Daily 2011: Life Is Like a Game of Poker
Bookselling is a lot like poker: it's all in the luck of the draw. Some seasons, publishers deal you a great hand, their books fly out the door, and you rake in the cash. Some seasons, you're stuck with books that just don't sell. And then there's the competition from chain stores, mass market retailers, and online retailers, all of them vying for that pot of book sales.
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BEA Show Daily 2011: Flowers for the First Ladies
Sellers Publishing hopes to get show attendees buzzing about Nancy Clarke's My First Ladies: Twenty-five Years as the White House Chief Floral Designer (Oct.).
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BEA Show Daily 2011: Warner's Walkabout
Looking for a hero? At BEA, Warner Bros. Consumer Products is focusing on some new additions to its family: the superheroes Green Lantern, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. In March, Warner Bros. Consumer Products became the licensor for DC Entertainment's superheroes, which include those characters as well as DC Super-Pets.
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BEA Show Daily 2011: Overlook's First 40 Years
Despite a inauspicious start, Overlook Press has thrived for the past four decades. Founded in 1971 by Alfred ("Fredy") Mayer, a retired glove manufacturer, and his son, Avon Books head Peter Mayer, Overlook's first office was an apple shed in Woodstock, N.Y. Its inaugural list contained a single title, in German. But on the strength of that one book, Aufbau, Penguin agreed to distribute Overlook, which it does to this day, and Fredy was encouraged to ask his son, "Aren't there some other books we could do together?"
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BEA Show Daily 2011: William Joyce Is Back
More than a decade has passed since William Joyce, author and illustrator of George Shrinks, Santa Calls, and other titles, has published a children's book. His fans will be pleased to learn that he is back. The Guardians of Childhood, a series of seven picture books and six chapter books that tell the formative stories of such childhood icons as Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman, debuts in September from Atheneum. The inaugural releases are a picture book, The Man in the Moon, which has a 350,000-copy announced first printing, and a chapter book, Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King, coauthored by Joyce and Laura Geringer and illustrated by Joyce, which has a 150,000-copy initial print run.
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BEA Show Daily 2011: Movie Time for Judy Moody
Judy Moody's humorous mood swings and adventures have won her many fans since her first appearance in 2000. Published by Candlewick, Megan McDonald's original Judy Moody spawned eight subsequent novels starring this character, plus three featuring her and her spunky brother, Stink (who is featured in his own series, now totaling eight books); two activity books; a coloring book; and a journal—all illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds. The series is now available in 22 languages, has won more than 30 awards, and has a worldwide in-print tally of 14 million copies.
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BEA Show Daily 2011: Storey Time for Kids
Best known for its adult titles for DIYers on gardening, crafts, animal raising, and cooking, Storey Publishing in North Adams, Mass., has begun introducing project-driven books in the same categories for kids. Rather than create a separate children's imprint, Storey's books for kids are catalogued and sold alongside those for their adult counterparts. "The big premise for us," says Storey president Pam Art, "is that we're not going to diverge too far from adult categories. If we stay in the same categories, we can sell them into the same accounts and keep them in alignment with our message: practical information in harmony with the environment."
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BEA Show Daily 2011: Browsing the Booths, Chapter 2
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (3438) welcomes Chris Van Allsburg to its booth today, 11 a.m.–noon, to sign limited-edition posters from The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales (HM). Also available are ARCs of this October release, which compiles stories written by children's book luminaries to accompany Van Allsburg's illustrations from his 1984 picture book, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
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