Bookselling A couple of weeks ago Book Expo announced a preliminary count of 7,425 attendees at the mots recent, saying the group was “comprised primarily of booksellers, librarians, retailers and media.” But a new infographic from the show provides a more precise count of 1,289 booksellers & retailers, and 1,597 librarians in attendance. We asked about the composition of the remaining 4,414 attendees tabulated, which included 860 press registrants, and who came from “various categories including Distributors, Educators, Film & TV Professionals, Licensing Professionals, Literary Agents and Wholesalers among others.” The show spokesperson says they will provide further details once the […]
BEA17
Book Expo Announces A Modest 7,425 Attendees; Book Con Reaches 20,000 Goal
As reported ahead of the show, Book Expo was small this year — in square footage, in length (two exhibition days), and in scope (reduced conferences) — and organizers confirmed in a letter on Wednesday that attendance was modest as well, in line with their stated intention to “curate a high-quality attendance of the people exhibitors told us they value the most” that vetted “self-published authors, bloggers, digital service providers and consultants.” Show director Brien McDonald said their preliminary count registered 7,425 attendees, “comprised primarily of booksellers, librarians, retailers and media.” In the past media has been counted separately, in its […]
A Call For Diversity at the Children’s Author Breakfast
Friday’s Book Expo children’s breakfast began with the presentation of the Women’s National Book Association’s Pannell Awards. The General Bookstore Award went to the Bookworm of Edwards in Edwards, CO, while Children’s Book World in LA won the award for Children’s Specialty Bookstore. Afterwards, Savannah Guthrie hosted the panel featuring Jason Reynolds, Marieke Nijkamp, Jennifer Weiner, and Isla Fisher. Fisher, author of picture book Marge in Charge (Harper Children’s, 10/3), said that she’s worried “that books are dying for our kids,” with the prevalence of technology and mobile devices. Politics were off limits — Guthrie stopped Weiner from making a Trump […]
Hillary Clinton on Her Memoir, the Resistance, and More
Hillary Clinton appeared at Book Expo on Thursday evening to promote her memoir forthcoming with Simon & Schuster in September, and the surprise reveal was that she was interviewed by author Cheryl Strayed. (The audience of booksellers and others oohed when S&S cep Carolyn Reidy introduced her.) The book is an “emotional catharsis” structured around inspirational quotes that have helped Clinton through particularly difficult times. After a headline-making appearance at the Recode conference in California the day before in which Clinton criticized the Democratic National Committee, the tone of the Book Expo interview was mostly light and inspirational. Strayed and Clinton joked about […]
Booksellers and Politics at the Book Expo Author Breakfast
Book Expo’s opening Adult Book and Author breakfast was well-attended as usual, with Stephen and Owen King, co-authors of Sleeping Beauties (Scribner, 9/26), kicking things off. Also presenting new titles were moderator Whitney Cummings, Claire Messud, Scott Kelly, Pete Souza, and Jesmyn Ward. The importance of booksellers was at the forefront of many of the speeches. Astronaut Scott Kelly, who broke records by spending a whole year in space, spoke about discovering Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff in a book store as a college freshman. Jesmyn Ward likewise celebrated booksellers, highlighting the independent book stores at the center of her […]
Book Expo 17: Small Is the New Flat?
As you know, Book Expo convenes in New York City again next week after a quiet show in Chicago last year that appears to have set the stage for a quieter, smaller, simpler, and shorter Book Expo going forward. For the first time since an experiment in 2010, the show floor will be open for two full days only, Thursday, June 1 and Friday, June 2. Which is probably quite adequate now that the exhibitor floor space is also much reduced. Last year’s show in Chicago, occupying 98,000 square feet, was more than 20 percent smaller than the last show […]