BookExpo America 2000
Kevin Howell -- 5/8/00
A new millennium in a familiar setting
What's the word from on the floor at BEA 2000? Check out our show dailies!
 | Click here for a BEA 2000
schedule of events |
It's baaaack! in Chicago, that is. The BEA returns to the Windy City after a breather in Los Angeles last year (some breather--most of us were out of breath due to the fact that last year's BEA had to be pushed up a month earlier than usual to accommodate convention space).
There's a new wrinkle in the authors' autographing area. This year, the BEA has introduced CookBookExpo--a special area near the rear of the show where various chefs and cookbook authors will hold cooking demos, food tastings and, of course, book signings.
Another BEA first is the introduction of three new exhibit areas on the trade show floor. The Spanish Language Pavilion features Spanish publishers and U.S.-based publishers selling Spanish titles. The Licensing Arena (sponsored by the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers Association) features an area for the intellectual property licensors and licensing agents. The third new area is the Publishing Technology Pavilion (sponsored by Cahners Printing and Converting Group), which will bring together the leading publishing technology players.
Last year's BEA in Los Angeles broke attendance records for exhibitors (more than 2,000--including booth shares), because the location encouraged the attendance of smaller West Coast publishers. One month before BookExpo America, and with straggling publishers still signing up, exhibitors are at the 1,600 level (including booth shares) spread over 300,000 square feet of exhibit space at McCormick Place convention center.
As it did last year, the BEA has changed from its traditional Friday through Monday schedule to a more weekend-friendly Thursday through Sunday. The show will once again be dedicating each day to a specific group. Friday is Bookseller Day. No BEA conference sessions have been booked so booksellers can concentrate on the first day of the trade show with few distractions. The Celebration of Bookselling Awards luncheon from 2-3:30 p.m. features Jane Alexander, author of Command Performance (Public Affairs) and AAP president Pat Schr der. This luncheon bestows the industry's highest honors by presenting the AAP's Curtis Benjamin Award, along with the presentation of the Charles S. Haslam Award for Excellence in Bookselling and the Farrar, Straus & Giroux New Bookseller Award. This day ends with the ABA's Celebration of Bookselling reception from 5-6:30 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom, with the ABA handing out the newly christened Book Sense Book of the Year awards (formerly the ABBY awards) to this year's handselling favorites.
Saturday is Independent Publishers Day. A luncheon, awards and contest happen on this day. Rodale Press hosts the luncheon to promote Imagine: What America Could Be in the 21st Century, featuring contributing authors Marianne Williamson, Eric Utne, Thomas Hartmann and Sarah Ban Breathnach. ForeWord magazine hosts its Book of the Year awards from 3-4 p.m., announcing winning presses in 23 categories plus a $1,000 Editor's Choice award for best fiction and nonfiction. Guest speakers include Esme Raji Codell, author of Educating Esme (Algonquin); Jim Harrison, author of The Road Home (Washington Square Press) and John Maxwell Hamilton, author of Casanova Was a Book Lover: And Other Naked Truths and Provocative Curiosities about the Writing, Selling, and Reading of Books (Louisiana State Univ. Press). The Independent Publishers Day contest will award $2,500 in cash to the bookseller who signs the highest dollar-value order with an independent publisher at the show. Completed vouchers must be dropped off at the Bookstore Cafe and the winner will be announced at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Sunday is Author Day, with authors signing at their publisher's booths. Sunday's Literary Luncheon boats an introduction by Liz Smith, author of Natural Blonde (Hyperion) and features Bill Bryson, author of In a Sunburned Country (Broadway), Thomas Lynch, author of Bodies in Motion and at Rest (Norton), Anchee Min, author of Becoming Madame Mao (Houghton Mifflin) and Anna Deveare Smith, author of Talk to Me (Random House). Also featured will be Mexican novelist Silvia Molina, author of El Amor Que Me Juraste (The Love You Promised Me), published by Curbstone Press/Fondo de Cultura Economica Press of Mexico.
If you're hungry for more authors, you can check out the following author-food combos. On Friday morning, you can breakfast with Julie Andrews Edwards, author of Dumpy the Dump Truck (Hyperion Books for Children); Peter SÃs, author and illustrator of Madlenka (FSG/Frances Foster) and Dinosaur! (HarperCollins/ Greenwillow); and Philip Pullman, author of The Amber Spyglass (Knopf). Saturday offers breakfast with Ted Koppel, author of Off Camera (Knopf), Terry Tempest Williams, author of Leap (Pantheon), and Jerry Stiller, author of Married to Laughter: A Love Story featuring Anne Meara (S&S). Finally, Sunday's breakfast features Sister Wendy Beckett, author of Sister Wendy's American Collection (HarperCollins), Michael Ondaatje, author of Anil's Ghost (Knopf) and Katie Couric, author of The Brand New Kid (Doubleday).
This year marks the ABA's 100th year in operation. In the hopes of making a festive occasion even more so, the surprisingly subdued ABA would like to share its centennial celebration with any bookstores that have existed for a century or longer. Instead of contacting Willard Scott, the organization is asking bookstores 100 years or older to contact the ABA with a brief store update and photo. Owners of centenarian bookstores may contact the ABA's Jill Perlstein at (800) 637-0037, ext. 1283 or jill@bookweb.org.
The trade show exhibit floor will be open from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Sunday.
This year the Rights Center will have expanded hours: it opens two days before the exhibit. On Wednesday, it will be open from noon-6 p.m.; on Thursday it will run from 9 a.m.-6 p.m.; on Friday and Saturday, it will be open 8 a.m.-6 p.m.; and on Sunday it will run from 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
Contests
In addition to the Independent Publishers Day contest, there are two other contests booksellers can enter by placing orders at the trade show. Exhibitors have donated hundreds of prizes that will be announced all day long during all three days of the trade show. The I Do Business at BookExpo contest can be entered by dropping off completed order vouchers at the Bookseller's Cafe. The third contest, aptly named Die Hard Sunday, takes place on the last day of the trade show. Booksellers have a chance to win $500 in cash by picking up a ticket whenever they visit a booth on Sunday. Blue tickets will be found in booths with authors and red tickets will be found in booths without authors. With each group of five tickets collected--and it must be a combination of red and blue tickets--booksellers will be eligible to enter the five drawings for a $500 cash prize. Multiple entries are encouraged. The drawing will take place at 3 p.m. on Sunday in the Bookstore Cafe.
Seminars
As usual, the Publishers Marketing Association is first out of the gate with its all-day PMA University classes (taking place at the Downtown Marriott); more than 64 sessions are planned over the two days. On Tuesday, it has a special half-day introduction to its concurrent seminars, which is free to first-time attendees. Not to be outdone, the ABA has resurrected its two-day Prospective Booksellers School on Thursday and Friday. Just 60 slots are available.
And while we're at it, we may as well toot our own horn: several seminars will be moderated by PW editors. John Baker starts it off with "How to Find the Right Agent--And Get Published" (Wednesday, 1-2 p.m.); Steve M. Zeitchik runs "E-Publishing Today: The Mainstreaming of Digital Distribution and Its Hierarchical Impact" (Thursday, 10-11:30 a.m.); Calvin Reid presides over "Selling Graphic Novels" (Thursday, noon-1:30 p.m.); Paul Hilts moderates "Retailing e-books and Books-on-Demand" (Thursday, 12:30-2:30 p.m.); and Lynn Garrett oversees "Selling Religious Fiction" (Thursday, 2-3:30 p.m.).
Longtime bookseller Clara Villarosa, who recently sold her bookstore, The Hue Man Experience in Denver, Colo., will welcome booksellers to the annual African-American Booksellers Conference beginning at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday and running all day. She'll be introducing luncheon speaker Andrea Davis Pinkney, executive editor at Hyperion imprint Jump at the Sun. Keynote speakers will be Rubin "Hurricane" Carter and James S. Hirsch, author of Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter (Houghton Mifflin).
As in the past, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) will hold its annual Silent Auction to raise money for the organization that fights against censorship. This year has been a busy one for ABFFE. It has joined Denver's Tattered Cover in opposing a search warrant for the book-buying records of one of the store's customers and the group has also taken a leading role in launching Muggles for Harry Potter, the group that is fighting school restrictions on J.K. Rowling's novels. This year the auction will be located at the main entrance of the South Hall (adjacent to the children's publishing area).
See below for further event information for BookExpo America 2000.
Click here for BEA 2000 Schedule of Events information. For bargain book companies and for BEA, times have changed big time--and for the better. Read about it here. Click here to see an extensive list of BEA 2000 Exhibitors. What's Going on in Chicago
Exhibitors, concerts, plays and sporting events will take place in Chicago during the BEA show, and here is a sampling of events happening BEA weekend (all area codes are 312 unless otherwise indicated). Plus, what's new, what's closed, and all the secret places only Chicago natives know about. Dining in the Windy City
Here are some of our favorite restaurants in Chicago, all accessible from McCormick Place and environs. Some are local favorites, some are hidden gems and some are new and changing establishments. Plus, Chicago after dark... Sweet Home, Chicago
V.I. Warshawski's creator on how Chicago won and kept her heart Irreverently Yours, Chicago
Dan Santow and Todd Savage give brazen answers to everything from what's so great about the Magnificent Mile to finding elusive bathrooms
Back To Top
Back To Features
---> |
