It's 72 degrees and sunny. Four hundred authors—from the literary to the celebrity—participate in discussions and readings and interviews in the course of two days. Tens of thousands of readers fill a lush environment with one thing in mind: buying books. Sound like a bookseller's dream?
For nearly 200 booksellers, the eighth annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, held April 26 and 27, proved to be just that, when approximately 165,000 eager readers flooded the University of California Los Angeles campus for the event.
"It's become the centerpiece in Southern California bookselling each year," said Sheldon McArthur, owner of the Mystery Bookstore. "Perhaps the biggest mystery surrounding the festival is how few from the New York publishing community understand just how big the festival has become."
"I don't think people realize what a strong literary community Los Angeles is," observed Robin Benley, publicity director at Book Soup. The local retailer held back-to-back signings in its booth and never saw a break in traffic. Then again, 165,000 people in attendance will do that. "At times it felt like all of them were in our booth," Benley added.
In two days, attendees faced a wealth of riches, with the likes of Michael Crichton, Ray Bradbury, Elmore Leonard, Alice McDermott and Mary Higgins Clark on the program. A night-before interview by Steve Martin with the Rock Bottom Remainders—i.e., Dave Barry, Amy Tan, Mitch Albom, Scott Turow et al. (although sans Stephen King)—set the tone for an event that provides positive proof that reading and books are premier entertainment. Thousands lined up for events with Christopher Hitchens, Gay Talese, John Lithgow, Sandra Cisneros, Arianna Huffington and Carl Reiner. Even the panels on publishing were packed.
PW ping-ponged across the campus trying to get a taste of everything, and it did seem that everything was on the menu: from a panel with George Plimpton shamlessly pimping the Paris Review and its 50th-year anthology from Picador, to Jorge Ramos switching back and forth between English and Spanish, to Nigella Lawson in pink high heels talking about the intimacy of cooking at home. A couple of married couples drew large crowds—Faye Kellerman interviewed hubby Jonathan; and James Ellroy appeared with his wife, author Helen Knode.
Regulars to the festival expect the unexpected, so seeing rocker Gene Simmons at the pavilion and hearing Lou Reed recite Poe's The Raven fit right in. (Not since Jesse Jackson's rendering of Green Eggs and Ham on Saturday Night Live has there been a better match of poem and reader.)
There were also many serious panels. The media bias discussion with Eric Alterman, Ann Louise Bardach and William McGowan was so packed that even PW couldn't get in. No matter, there was always something else on the schedule of interest—and that's not even touching on the extensive children's programs.
"The L.A. Times Festival of Books has turned into a miracle every year," observed Bob Weil, executive editor at Norton, who has had an author nominated for a book prize for the past four years. "It is a terrific way to celebrate the book," he said of both the prizes and the festival. "The Times has created the formula to make it work for everybody."
Last year, Walker publisher George Gibson, a LATFOB first-timer, told PW that he would never again miss the event, and he was true to his word. "We sit in our ivory towers in New York, and we think we know what's going on in publishing," he said at a publishing seminar. "But the rubber really hits the road in places like this." James Atlas, publisher of Atlas Books, a second-time attendee, called himself a convert. "I go as a writer and as a publisher," he explained. "You get exposure to the audience, as well as exposure to the writers." Ecco Press publisher Dan Halpern is always a regular, but confessed he's from the area.
Steve Wasserman, editor of the L.A. Times Book Review, told PW that he was disappointed that New York publishers do not recognize the significance of the book festival. "To the best of my knowledge, there was not a single booth taken by a major publisher," he said. "Instead, it is a festival of booksellers and readers and authors."
Although it does feel a bit like a well-kept secret, booksellers are not complaining. "It's like a mini-Christmas," said James Fugate, co-owner of Eso Wan, the Los Angeles African-American bookstore. "I've never seen anything like it in my life." Involved since the festival's inception, Fugate said it was a success from the very beginning and keeps building. "I think there were about 60,000 people at the first one," he told PW.
"We do almost the equivalent of a month's worth of business in two days," observed Mystery Bookstore's McArthur. "This festival was as good as, if not better than, last December."
Reuben Martinez, owner of Libreria Martinez in Orange County, and also one of the founders of the event, said this year was the best ever for his store. "And in difficult times, too—with budget cuts, the war and depressing times. But the readers were there. The first year, I sold one Spanish-language book. This year we sold five to six per minute, with two registers going."
Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena no longer runs a booth at the festival, but sent three bus-loads of customers to it. Logistically, it was difficult for a bookstore 40 minutes away to set up shop there, but publicity director Linda Urban said the store didn't want to miss out. "It's become so popular," she said. "We play games on the bus and give away galleys. And on the way back, we served homemade cookies and milk."
While sales and attendance figures point to a success, the festival has had challenges. A festival of its size could not be staged without corporate sponsors with deep pockets. Its corporate sponsorship—Target, Barnes & Noble and, to a lesser extent, Borders—is an issue, for obvious reasons, that did not sit well with independent booksellers.
"At first that bothered me," Fugate told PW. But booksellers said the L.A. Times Festival organizers have worked hard to make sure the independents are not outshined by their chain-store counterparts. A B&N spokesperson told PW that the L.A. Times Festival of the Book is its largest annual event, and that the company was pleased the coordinators made it possible for all booksellers to participate. Barnes & Noble has its own stage area and a huge tent, but most booksellers PW spoke with said they were too busy in their own booths to notice. The independents are assigned the task of selling books for the various event venues, and the festival managers parcel them out fairly, booksellers said.
More than anything, the independents said the festival reaffirmed their commitment to bookselling.
