Though some (who would prefer to remain nameless) described themselves as “exhausted,” “scrambled,” and/or “zapped,” the mood on the final day of BEA was overwhelmingly chipper. Though crowds were noticeably thinner, a 9:00 a.m. presentation by Google drew a healthy crowd of about 80, and the Insight Stages were well-attended for sessions on Russian authors (featuring Natasha Perova and Olga Slavnikova), and middle-grade fantasy books (led by Ron Hogan). If you were among the audience for celebrity authors Jane Lynch and Jane Fonda, you wouldn’t have guessed the crowd was diminished: both were jam-packed SRO affairs with spectators lined up two and three deep around the rim of the stage area.
Everyone PW spoke to agreed that the third day of BEA was absolutely worthwhile, a question with increased weight after last year’s two-day event. Hyperion publicist Lana Goldsmith reported that, on top of the turnout for their author Jane Lynch, every giveaway copy of Liz Murray’s Breaking Night, new to paperback, had been picked up by 2 p.m. Bellevue publicist Molly Mikolowski noted a significant increase in bookseller attendance over the past few years, and was impressed that the positive vibe of the show lasted until the very end. Though the last day of BEA is referred to by some as “University Press Day”—as in the day attendees finally get around to visiting the academic presses—MIT Press senior publicist Amanda Atikins said that traffic had been steady across all three days, making Thursday a much less draining experience.
Also helping to overcome the diminishing crowd situation was an influx of swag-hungry but well-behaved bloggers at Javits for the BlogWorld & New Media Expo, who exhibitors were happy to accommodate—where possible. Naturally, many exhibitors were running out of galleys by Thursday, though there were a few notable holdouts: Image Comics drew expo-goers with an especially plentiful selection of “Image First” issues to give out, including the debut entries from popular titles The Walking Dead and I Kill Giants.
Things also went well for late-comer Vertical. A small press that publishes Japanese books in translation, Vertical wasn’t able to make BEA at all until Thursday morning. Perhaps best known for Koji Suzuki’s the Ring series (source material for the Japanese film Ringu, remade in America as The Ring), Vertical had author Kumiko Ibaraki at the booth to sign copies of her cookbook, The Worry-Free Kitchen. Publicist Ed Chavez (a former writer for PW) described the pace of visitors as “brisk,” thanks in part to Vertical’s colorful array of paperback covers but most certainly helped by the scent of Ibaraki’s chicken bites, which were handed out on toothpicks alongside cookies from her other cookbook, The Worry-Free Bakery.
Publicists at DK’s booth were pleasantly surprised with the turnout for Dr. Laura Berman, Orpah Winfrey’s favorite sex therapist (with a show on the OWN network). Berman was too busy to make it to the expo before Thursday afternoon, and therefore wasn’t eligible for BEA’s official autograph area, so set up camp at DK’s booth. Although DK was afraid no one would show on BEA’s last day, they ended up burning through galleys of Berman’s latest, Loving Sex, in about 15 minutes, leaving a number of fans unsatisfied. “Tears were shed,” joked Rachel Kempster, DK’s director of marketing and PR, who said Thursday "was a good day for us."
