Penguin Putnam has announced it will return to BookExpo America in 2003, ending a six-year hiatus for the country's second-largest publisher and its authors. Responding to a call from PW, Penguin spokeswoman Marilyn Ducksworth said the company would be taking a booth on the floor, but was not yet certain how much space it would occupy. She said the company was "returning in full," noting that Penguin is drawing up plans for promotional and author events. But Ducksworth was quick to stress that Penguin was committing only to 2003 and would make a decision on future shows after the convention takes place and it can determine the show's value. "We haven't been there for awhile. We want to see how things have changed," Ducksworth said.
Penguin Putnam has never attended BEA as a combined company. In the fall of 1996, before the two had merged, Putnam announced it would bow out of the 1997 show, citing economic reasons. At that time, Penguin also said it wouldn't attend in 1997, joining the flock of companies still miffed about the American Booksellers Association price discrimination lawsuit against the publishers. (ABA of course sold the show to Reed before the 1997 convention, but the shift in ownership did little to change many publishers' minds about the show.) The next year the combined company made its decision not to attend and has stuck to it ever since.
Some attributed Penguin Putnam's policy of not attending to Phyllis Grann, who was on record as saying she didn't find the show cost-effective. Speculation had it that with Grann out of the picture and the lawsuit a distant memory, Penguin and new president David Shanks would attend in 2002. But apart from the usual rooms for international rights and children's (which it takes ever year), Penguin was not present at the Javits Center. Ducksworth said a major reason to attend the 2003 BEA, which will be held in Los Angeles, was the chance to give new authors a national platform to gain exposure. "We hope BEA will prove to be most effective at helping us generate new and interesting visibility for first novelists, and new author talent in general, where the challenges continue to be the greatest," Ducksworth said.
BEA 'Thrilled'
Penguin's return is a coup for BEA show manager Greg Topalian. He told PW he was "thrilled to have them back." Despite Penguin's cautious one-year commitment, Topalian said he was unconcerned about another departure. "I'm confident that once they come back, they'll want to stay." Topalian said that despite the fact that Penguin has been away for so long and missed this year's space draw, it ended up with a "pretty good" spot on the floor, because it was among the first to sign up after the draw took place. He also called the Penguin booth for 2003 "reasonably sized" and "very much in line with the size of the company."
