Yesterday marked the last time Book Expo expects to convene on a Sunday and by the sparse activity in the aisles (aside from packing up) very few will miss the third day when the show moves to weekdays next year and only two days of exhibition. With a big decline in paid exhibitor space and expectations of smaller crowds, show management appears to have set the expectations bar low enough that many attendees and companies ended up pleasantly surprised by the activity. The AP calls its “a low-budget, low-celebrity convention, with fewer parties and fewer advanced copies of books than […]
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Four Veterans, Two New Ventures
In a voyage abundant in metaphors (and blessed with sunshine) publishing veterans John Oakes and Colin Robinson literally launched their new venture OR Books on a old fireboat from a pier eight blocks south of the Javits center on Sunday afternoon. The boat chugged leisurely around the south end of Manhattan, past the Statue of Liberty and right past the giant Queen Mary 2 in Red Hook. From a megaphone on the top deck they hailed their “politically progressive and culturally adventurous” content paired with a “revolutionary approach to business.” In other words, they aim to sell non-returnable only and […]
It Looks Like BEA
If you didn’t know that it was supposed to be a smaller show, with fewer attendees and fewer giveaways I think you wouldn’t notice any difference (except for the size of what’s left of the Random House booth). It’s always hard to know when to push out the e-mail during the show. The following stories simply appear according to the order in which they were posted. As promised, we’ll have more at PublishersMarketplace during the day and over the weekend, though we may or may not mail again until Monday (true to our motto). Despite some unexpected technical trouble, we […]
Conroy Cancels BEA Appearances
The biggest surprise in the lead-up to Book Expo America was news yesterday that author Pat Conroy had to cancel his two planned appearances at the show. Via his agent Marly Rusoff, Conroy communicates that he is recovering from surgery, and “otherwise he would be at BEA, which he has always loved attending. He especially regrets being unable to sign with his daughter, Melissa Conroy, who has her first book out, in which he is a character.” (Her picture book POPPY’S PANTS publishes in September.) Doubleday will still have copies SOUTH OF BROAD, his first novel in 14 years, at […]
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 […]
Geringer Allies with Egmont USA
Children’s publishing start-up Egmont USA has “formed an alliance” with Laura Geringer Books. Geringer ran her imprint for 17 years at Harper Children’s until leaving the company last August. At the time, Susan Katz said in the memo announcing Geringer’s departure that she “looks forward to having more time to pursue her career as a writer, to devote her energies to the development of a new business with the capability of delivering story content on multiple platforms, and to channel more time into First Book.” Geringer will edit “a select group of titles” for Egmont starting with the fall 20l0 […]