Enough ink has been spilled and will be spilled here and elsewhere about the big stories of BEA – the decreased attendance, the absence of certain major publishers on the show floor, the call for new ventures, all things e-book. But if there’s one big takeaway from this year’s convention, it’s that, at least to my mind, it was all about contradictory forces. Yesterday was the last Sunday of BEA, and yet most everyone I spoke with found it to be the most relaxing and enjoyable day of the show – probably because there were no expectations, smaller crowds and […]
BEA: The Sequel
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 […]
Secret Publishers Cabal on GBS Settlement in Javits Basement (Not)
On Friday, at the invitation of the AAP and Google I moderated a panel discussion with John Sargent from Macmillan and Richard Sarnoff from Bertelsmann that had the modest and focused goal of illuminating for publishers some of the basics of the proposed settlement of the Google Book Search lawsuits. The session was strictly limited to publishers only, which was apparently just the stimulus to make a number of people (mostly press) want to attend, only to get turned away at the door. Sargent’s opening statement addressed head-on the question of what will happen if the settlement is not approved […]
Crushed But Not Fermented: Online Web Guru Shares Tips for Booksellers
After hearing the big build-up for WineLibrary TV founder Gary Vaynerchuk I have to admit I found his Saturday BEA panel underwhelming–more beaujolais nouveau than aged vintage wine if you will. Vaynerchuk may be the first Web 2.0 motivational speaker, and as he let us know repeatedly, his simple but enthusiastic message is apparently in demand from a variety of companies. (I’ve never heard the expression “have the chops” repeated so many times.) And at least some booksellers in the audience at his BEA panel certainly seemed to be nodding along with his advice. Tailored as an independent wine dealer […]
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 […]
Don't Let That Fool You, It Really Is BEA
Apologies in advance for the slightly self-serving nature of this Day Two Dispatch from BEA. It did come to a close for me, after all, with the end of the joint interview I conducted with James Ellroy and Colin Harrison at the Uptown Stage. If you want to know how it went, better ask somebody else – live interviews put me in a fugue state that I can’t shake off completely for a few hours after it’s over. But I can say the mental gymnastics of the role of interviewer turned around what was something of a frustrating day, this […]