This morning’s biggest Big Idea presentation came from consultant and publishing theorist Mike Shatzkin, who expanded his previously-presented master thesis that general trade publishing will fade and “the future means ‘vertical’ and ‘community'” to look more broadly at what publishing will look like in 20 years. Perhaps the biggest extrapolation was this: “Something we don’t pay enough attention to is that anybody with a web site is a publisher. Not all publishers are content creators, but they need content. That is the big unfolding opportunity for publishing and the people in it over the net 20 or 30 years.” Put […]
Book Fairs
The Ties that Bind: ABA Opening Keynote Session
It took quite a while for the ABA’s opening keynote to get past the preambles and underway. Roughly a half hour into the allotted time, R.J. Julia owner Roxanne Coady explained that the panel’s purpose was “to talk a little bit about the partnership between authors and booksellers – formerly the bedrock of our literary landscape” at a time of “extraordinary disintermediation.” There’s an assumption about independents, she explained, of a “Mom and Pop/Apple Pie theory – that we have to exist”–but she suggested it’s more a matter of the “cute pet theory – we want them around, just not […]
The Case for a Smaller BEA
BEA show director Lance Fensterman expands in a blog post on the projected statistics for the upcoming convention that we wrote about earlier. Exhibition square footage is running 20 to 25% smaller than the last show in LA. In attendance, ABA registrations are “almost flat (100 or so down)”; librarians are down “about 25%, which is disappointing”. Miscellaneous industry professionals who did not fit into new, more target categories have been slimmed by about 1,350, which was intentional, to eliminate “attendees that our exhibiting customers told us were not of high value to them.” Overall registered attendees are down by […]
Book Fairs: Musicians for BEA, No More CBE
Thursday night’s opening events at this year’s BEA will include a session at the end of the day in the Special Events hall featuring Chuck Klosterman interviewing musicians-turned-authors Steven Tyler and Clarence Clemmons. Separately, the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association board decided that they will not hold another Christian Book Expo after an underwhelming inaugural show this year in Dallas. And members are being asked to make voluntary contributions to help fill a $250,000 shortfall left from the March event.Christian Retailing
Exhibitors and Attendees Fall at BEA, As Publishers and Organizers Try New Things
Yes it’s the London Book Fair that just ended, not Book Expo America,but the story for the upcoming American show is already taking clearshape, and we’d like to get past what won’t happen realistically and onto what can happen. Going by current tracking, show organizers say to expect roughly 20percent fewer exhibitors (around 1,500 to 1,600, rather than the typical1,900 to 2000); and about 15 percent fewer attendees than the 2007 NY show but 20 percent more than last year in LA, with a steeperdrop of more like thirty percent among attending exhibitors. There are likely to be fewer ABA […]
Pub Date, 4 O'Clock: Perseus to Make a Book and Publish Live from the BEA Floor
This year at BEA, in addition to presenting forthcoming books thetraditional way, Perseus Books Group will give over a prime slice oftheir booth to an ambitious project that makes transparent the entireprocess of creating and publishing book–and aspires to make it allhappen in less than two days. The book is called BOOK: The Sequel, and on an hour-by-hour schedulestill being finalized, they intend to edit, design, produce, sell,publicize/promote and publish live before fairgoers’ eyes (and with theirparticipation)–one at a time via an Espresso Book Machine they expectto have in their booth but also in all major formats and platforms(audio; digital […]