This Is It – What’s happening at BEA and What not to Miss

As my earlier post indicated, I arrived at the Javits Center this afternoon to start setting up for the really big show (you have to say that with an Ed Sullivan accent) and I won’t return back to Borwalk until BEA 2007 is in the books. I read somewhere that excitement is merely the beginning of fear and I gotta tell you I’m pretty damn excited! While at the show I plan to blog as often as time will allow me to and I’ll be roving around with a portable digital recorder to create a Director's Pod Cast, so if you see me, flag me down to have a brief chat – we can do it on the record or off!

I want to remind you of a few events at BEA that I’m excited about and I hope you’ll be able to join me at:

Borders CEO George Jones is interviewed by John Mutter of Shelf Awareness on Thursday at 4:30 in room 1E11.

MySpace for Authors and Publishers: Everything You Need to Know to Make it Payoff
Friday at 10:00AM in room: 1E03. Check out the mySpace BEA page!

BEA Shelfari Lit Insiders Panel on Saturday, 3:30 in room 1E03. We'll be announcing the authors that will appear on the panel tomorrow afternoon on the Shelfari Lit Insider group page.

Out of the Book: A Short Film about Ian McEwan, Saturday at 4:00PM in room 1E11. Don't miss this first ever screening of the new film project launched by Powell's!

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Library: The Unshelved Guys
What possessed Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum to write a comic strip about a library? And how do they keep tens of thousand of librarians around the globe laughing every day? Visit http://www.blogger.com/www.unshelved.com to find out what everyone's talking about, and then come to the banquet to hear Bill and Gene discuss what makes libraries so darned funny. Saturday, 11:00AM in room: 1E11

And those are just a few. Make sure and check the BEA website for the most up to date events because we create d a lot of new programming since our event program was printed.

See you soon!

- L

Heavy Man!

I spent this late afternoon at the Javits Center checking up on the set up of BEA. I must tell you that after planning this show for 12 months it is absolutely amazing to walk in and see the vision taking shape in front of my eyes. Yes, I know, I'm a nerd.

My stat of the day: Our contractor plans to ship in 600,000 pounds of freight tomorrow alone. And just imagine, that perfect book that you didn't even know you wanted is buried somewhere in there!

See you Thursday,

-L

Party with BEA – You’re Invited!

There are two BEA parties tomorrow night that I hope you’ll be able to join me at. I’ve listed them below so take a look, pack your tux and come to Brooklyn! Ok, no tux is required, but if you are feeling fancy, who am I to stop you? I hope to see you tomorrow night….

The ABA & BEA Welcome to Brooklyn reception at Borough Hall, Wednesday night from 5-7pm. Please come and join us for Juniors Cheesecake Brooklyn Beer, a plethora of Brooklyn based authors and remarks from Borough President Marty Markowitz. This is open to any and all BEA participants so I hope we can have a beer together in Brooklyn!

The BEA Emerging Leaders Party, Wednesday evening at Floyd NY in Brooklyn from 7-9pm. If you are a bookseller under 40 please join me in Brooklyn. We’ve got authors, drinks and great networking with our fellow booksellers.


- L

Ben Karlin to Round Out Sunday Breakfast

Occasionally I get to throw popular opinion to the wind and put my personal stamp on BookExpo America. To some degree that’s what happened after Paulo Coelho decided not to tour in the United States this year in canceled his appearance at BEA thus opening a slot on the Sunday Author Breakfast. With about a week until the show we needed to select an author and quickly. We flirted with a big name who has a surprise book coming out on the fall list, but alas the author was unavailable. We considered a big name politico, but felt that it was not the right mix for the breakfast. So being a Midwestern boy that grew up reading copies of The Onion that friends mailed to me from Madison, WI (pre dating The Internet or the national distribution of the satirical Wisconsin born newspaper) I kept coming back to Ben Karlin. So I’m happy to announce that Karlin will round out our Sunday Breakfast with Rosie O’Donnell, Alice Sebold and Ian McEwan.

Karlin’s book, a collection of essays entitled Things I’ve Learned from Women Who’ve
Dumped Me, is due out this winter and includes contributions from an impressive list of comedic and creative minds, including Stephen Colbert, Andy Richter, Bob Odenkirk, Dan Savage (Savage Love), and Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne). If you are not familiar with Karlin himself, you certainly are with his work: He’s is the former executive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, co-creator and former executive producer of The Colbert Report, the former editor of The Onion, a satirical newspaper and Web site and he co-authored America with Jon Stewart.

Join me Sunday morning as I think we’ll have a lot of fun - you can still buy tickets!

- L

Booksellers Go Underground and Ego

My friend Kristen Gilligan at the America Booksellers Association has put together an amazing visual guide to help booksellers navigate the New York subway system between the Hotel ABA in Brooklyn and BEA next week. You really must check this out: From Brooklyn to Javits a Pictorial Tour.

What’s even funnier about this, is Len Vlahos of the ABA and I had grand plans for a film of how to use the subway to get from Hotel ABA to BEA. This was going to be bigger than Titanic, bigger than Shrek 6, the only problem? It never got made. Len and I meet and discussed multiple cameras, boom mics how many key grips we’ll need, the Kraft services demands, cameo appearances and more. I think ultimately we decided the word was not ready for our art. Kudos to Kristen and the ABA for creating this!

File this under pure ego: Our friends at Combined Book Exhibit (who help publishers exhibit around the world and work with BEA closely on a number of projects) did a nice interview with me for the monthly CBE newsletter. Take a look: Interview with Lance Fensterman. Brother and sister Jon Malinowski and Janet Fritsch own the company and are two of my favorite people (I've rolled down the rainy streets of Burlington with Jon and Seth in a powder blue Mercury Marquis - if that's not friendship, what is?), while Seth Dellon writes the Comblogged company blog, the CBE newsletter and is a avid Chuck Klosterman fan just like yours truly. All in all a great group of people (Peter I won’t mention though!)

-L

Starting Rumors and Be My Friend!

Whew! We have got some great options for the BEA Sunday morning breakfast slot vacated by Paulo Coehlo. One is a late add to the fall list of a publisher and no one, not event the company’s own sales force knows the book is coming. Hmmmmm who could it be? We’ve been burning up the phone lines to create an even better breakfast event and from the looks of things you won’t be disappointed……

Check out the mySpace Books page, it’s cool for a number of reasons, but not the least of which are the big ole BEA logo and the guest blogger and author, Josh Kilmer-Purcell. We’ve been working with mySpace on a few projects, not the least of them a panel they’ll be presenting at BEA on Friday (details are at the bottom of this post) and we’ve been helping line up some guest bloggers for them.

So what are the lessons here?

1) Look for a cool author announcement from BEA very soon.
2) Visit the BEA mySpace page, I NEED FRIENDS
4) Visit the BEA mySpace Writers Conference page.
3) Check out Josh Kilmer-Purcell’s blog on mySpace Books
4) Come to the mySpace panel on Friday at BEA.

Thanks for listening………

MySpace for Authors and Publishers: Everything You Need to Know to Make it Payoff
Friday, June 1 10:00 – 11:00 AM Room: 1E03

-L

Where Have All The Authors Gone?

Shelf Awareness reported today that Paulo Coehlo has canceled his entire author tour for this summer – including his appearance at BEA. Yes, I hate to say it but it’s true. I learned of this yesterday morning but we hoped to save an announcement until we found a suitable replacement on the Sunday morning author breakfast at BEA. This brings the total number of authors missing from BEA to 3 this year a number that matches the TOTAL number of authors to cancel in the last 5 or 6 YEARS! Each author has had a distinct and unique reason for canceling but it’s starting to feel like we are a little bit cursed in this area!

Stay tuned, I am certain we will have an amazing author for the Sunday breakfast slot that Coehlo has had to vacate for pressing family needs. Or maybe I’ll just learn to juggle (I mean for entertainment not authors the way I have been the last couple of months)……

-L

I Spy, No Nobel……

Former CIA spy Valerie Plame Wilson has just been added to the BEA Saturday Author Lunch – cool! The bad news? Plame Wilson will step into the void left by Muhammad Yunus who, regretfully, will not be able to attend BEA in person this year due to his ongoing work in Bangladesh. We were concerned that Yunus may not be available to attend BEA but could not confirm anything with Public Affairs until recently. While sad to see Yunus cancel, I must say its quite amazing to have a former CIA spy added to the lunch event. We hope to have a video greeting from Yunus to relay his well wishes in lieu of being able to attend in person.

Simon and Schuster and Plame have been mum about her forthcoming memoir, Fair Game due out in October. In fact earlier this spring at least one Plame event was canceled to keep the embargoed book's story under wraps until closer to its drop date. Having her at BEA to discuss her life as a CIA spy and her upcoming book for one of the first times publicly is quite an inside scoop. Unfortunately it looks like Scooter Libbey can’t make the lunch……

Here’s the official publicity info on Fair Game,

“A memoir detailing the experiences of the former CIA covert operations officer who in 2003 found herself at the heart of a political firestorm when senior White House and State Department officials revealed her secret status to several national journalists--including a syndicated conservative newspaper columnist who published her name.”

Order your Saturday Author Lunch tickets here.

-L

Saturday BEA Breakfast Sold Out!!! Or Is It?

For the first time in BEA history our Saturday breakfast (this year featuring Stephen Colbert, Ken Burns, Lisa See and Khaled Hosseini) is totally sold out. This is particularly noteworthy as we added additional seating thanks to a new tiered pricing system (you can choose between breakfast at a table or simply a seat with no food).

However as of this morning we are adding at least 100 additional ticket thanks to balcony seating at the special events hall. The tickets are sure to go fast so use the link below to buy your Saturday morning BEA breakfast tickets!

Purchase BEA Breakfast Tickets

-L

9 Days Until BEA – Cliffs Notes Galore!

I have 32 friends on Shelfari! I think that’s more than I have in real life. And in the BEA Lit Insiders Group there are 332 members all suggesting books and authors to include in our Shelfari Lit Insiders Panel on Saturday, 3:30 at BEA. We’ll be narrowing the field to just a few authors this week so visit the BEA Lit Insiders Group today on Shelfari and help build the first ever blog based BEA event!

The long awaited Ian McEwan short film from Out of the Book, a Powell’s Books venture that will be premiered at BEA has a trailer soon to be released. They also now have a web site up and running, Out of the Book, and Dave Weich of Powell’s (who word has it is shopping for a 22,000 square foot home somewhere in the canyons overlooking L.A. now that he’s added “Film producer” to his resume) had this to say, “It is 2007. An American bookseller and filmmaker spend the day with McEwan in London. By film's end, a press kerfuffle has been averted, Kafka has come up in conversation twice, and the natural balance of England's beaches has been restored.” We will be streaming and vid casting the trailer at BookExpo Cast ASAP so look for it there.

From my friend and fellow Emerging Leaders party planner, Jessica Stockton of The Written Nerd, a great tip on navigating NYC (in case you didn’t catch the great travel tips that Shelf Awareness ahs been providing from Frommers for the past few weeks):

One a tip for out-of-towners coming to BEA: I've recently discovered www.hopstop.com, a website which has subway and bus directions for major metro areas. If you click on the New York button, then put in your start and end address (make sure you've selected the correct borough), it will give you the quickest subway to take to get to your destination, with a map of how to walk to the station. And you can tweak it to include buses, more or fewer transfers, etc. It's a great way to figure out how to get to the Javitz Center, Hotel ABA, or any of those publisher parties in unfamiliar neighborhoods.

Lastly, Mrs. BEA started a new job and has been commuting from Borwalk to the Bronx for the past week via lovely I95. She mentioned that she was behind a guy that was falling asleep at the wheel the other day. What’s truly disturbing? That she wasn’t appalled that he was falling asleep but that he was doing it in the fast lane, “Move to the right lane if you wanna nap!”

Sound advice.

-L

Honoring Indies and Partying Like A Bookseller

Fitting that today I finally get around to blogging about a few small things BEA has done to honor independent publishers and the news breaks that Soft Skull Press has been sold. The blogosphere is a funny place in that I have blogged, Shelfaried (yes I made the word up) and emailed with Richard Nash of Soft Skull repeatedly but have never met him and yet I feel like I know him. Maybe I’ll get a MySpace page going and we can communicate there too! I trust this means only good things for him as when I first caught wind of this move a few weeks back all news seemed positive. Richard, get on the ham radio and let me know how things are going.

So it's an appropriate time to mention that on Friday afternoon at BEA (in the Galleria which is all the way at the top of the building) the Center for Independent Publishing (formerly the Small Press Center) will be staging some great programs centered on independent publishing. I’ve enjoyed getting to know Karin Taylor at the Center for Independent Publishing while working together on a few (last minute!) ideas on how BEA can better server independent publishers. Check out the program they’ve put together:

Independent Publishing 2007 at the Galleria Friday, June 1st Celebrating the Spirit of Independent Publishing

12:00pm A Conversation with Walter Mosley, interviewer Nora Rawlinson

2:00pm The Future of Indie Publishing: Moderated by Sara Nelson, Editor-in-Chief of Publishers Weekly, with Johnny Temple of Akashic Books, Jennifer Joseph of Manic D Press, Valerie Merians of Melville House and Richard Nash of Soft Skull Press.

Members of the young and the restless Emerging Leaders group (Independent booksellers under 40) are invited to a party in Brooklyn on Wednesday night (May 30th before BEA) hosted by BEA and the Emerging Leaders Council. As a former Emerging Leader myself this is been great fun to organize and I’ve enjoyed working with Jessica Stockton (of The Written Nerd infamy) to pull the party together. 7-9 at Floyd New York, but you MUST be an Emerging Leader or don’t bother taking the A train out to Brooklyn. This shindig is for booksellers under 40 only. Yes, I know that has an air of exclusivity to it, but remember a lot of these booksellers don’t get invited to the “big” parties and they deserve a party of there own! Email me if you want more details.

Oh, and speakign of MySpace, BEA now has it's own page! We are also working with MySpace on a cool panel at BEA, but that'll wait for another night.

Exhausted. Tired. Sleep deprived and exactly 14 days to go…..

-L

A Remembrance of David Halberstam from His Editor, BEA Goes To Lunch and “Agitating for Book Importance”

A few weeks back we were set to interview Hyperion Editor-in-Chief Will Schwalbe about his new book and just days prior Will’s good friend David Halberstam was killed in a automobile accident as I’m sure you well know. Halberstam was even slated to appear at BEA, as he had several times before, in just a few weeks. We obviously rescheduled the conversation and when it did take place it became an impromptu tribute to Halberstam from his good friend and editor of his last four books, Will Schwalbe. Please give the Schwalbe podcast a listen, I’m certain you’ll be happy you did: A Tribute to David Halberstam.

In other news BEA is launching a micro site on Publishers Marketplace. Thanks to Michael Cader and his “mysterious web designer” who got this site up and running faster than a bookseller grabs a Sedaris galley at BEA (lame analogy I know). Really, this is a first for us, and a second for Publishers Marketplace as they launched this idea just last week with Little Brown. Take a gander: BookExpo America at Publishers Marketplace. We plan to keep the site available and open to the public but I do recommend taking in all that Publishers Marketplace has to offer with a economical paid subscription (and like Daily Candy, this blog is not pay to play this plug was unsolicited). I do know that for a few cookies, Michael will let you in on a few of the projects he has under way, and while I'm sworn to secrecy, they are most exciting for our community.

Are you sick of podcast plugs yet? Sorry but I think we have helped to create some really compelling content already with lots more on the way. The partial title of this blog post is a quote from John Freeman, President of the National Book Critics Circle when I interviewed him last week in Manhattan. You can listen to the chat in it’s entirety at BookExpo Cast or this handy link: Lance Fensterman interviews NBCC’s John Freeman. We’ve got a great line up of book review related panels at BEA that John has had a strong hand in helping to create:

Friday, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Ethics in Book Reviewing: The More Things Change…?
Moderator: Carlin Romano, books columnist and critic, Philadelphia Inquirer
Panelists: John Leonard, critic, New York Review of Books, New York magazine and Harper’s. Francine Prose, author and critic. David Ulin, Book Editor, Los Angeles Times. Sam Tanenhaus, editor-in-chief, NYTBR. Christopher Hitchens, author and critic.

Saturday, 3:00 – 4:00 PM
The Future of Book Culture
Moderator: Sara Nelson, Editor-in-Chief, Publishers Weekly
Panelists: David Ulin, Book Editor, Los Angeles Times. Michael Cader, founder, Publishers Marketplace/Publishers Lunch. Morgan Entrekin, Publisher, Grove Atlantic. Mitchell Kaplan, owner, Books & Books.

Sunday, 10:00 – 11:00 AM
The Crisis in American Book Pages
Moderator: John Freeman, President National Book Critics Circle
Panelists: Oscar Villalon, Book Editor, San Francisco Chronicle. Arthur Salm, San Diego Union Tribune. Stacy Lewis, City Lights Books. Maud Newton, editor, writer & blogger. Heidi Julavits, The Believer. Bob Mong, The Dallas Morning News. Melissa Turner, The Atlanta Journal Constitution.

-L

A Cacophony of Cliffs Notes – 16 Days To Go!

Lots and lots going on right now so try and keep up with my random array of Cliff’s Notes!

We’ve posted some really cool new podcasts at BookExpo Cast with the latest three aimed at Librarians. Rock star librarian Nancy Pearl offers up great tips for librarians at BEA, Talia Ross, Holtzbrinck’s librarian maven does her part to bring pubs and librarians one step closer and lastly a general pod cast with tips and tricks for all attendees. Click each link for the individual cast or visit BookExpo Cast. Lastly, there is a pod cast from your’s truly on how BEA is using emerging technologies this year, give it a listen as it would do a lot to help my fragile ego: BEA 2007 - Lance Fensterman Discusses New Technologies

BEA has officially set a record for librarians in attendance this year. With 3 weeks to go we already have more librarians registered to attend that ever before. Check out the BEA Librarian Friendly page for great conference programming and events that will make librarians even smarter than they already are.

I’m about a week behind in pointing this out, but there is a new Book Industry Character on BEA.com. Queen of the Shelf (Awareness) Jenn Risko. Who's Book Industry Character photo looks as if it came out of Andy Warhol’s factory. Too cool…..

The BEA Story Project is live and ready to capture your BEA adventure. Check it out and type or record you own story. Think of it as a DIY Studs Terkel book, it’s a lot of fun. You’ll also be able to record your BEA story at the BEA Story Project Booth on site at BEA (located in the Crystal Palace near the new BEA New Title Bookstore).

BEA and the ABA will be throwing a welcome to Brooklyn party on Wednesday May 30th from 5-7 at Brooklyn Borough Hall. Borough Hall is right across the street from Hotel ABA and a great historic setting for a party. Brooklyn authors, Brooklyn Beer, Juniors Cheesecake and Borough President Marty Markowitz will all be on hand. It’s open to everyone so put it your calendar and I’ll provide more details soon.

Visit the Lit Insiders Group at Shelfari as discussion is heating up about which authors to feature on our blog crafted author event at BEA (Saturday at 3:30). Check it out: BEA Lit Insiders.

Whew! It’s going to be a busy week for Mr. BEA. Stay tuned for more announcements and news. And in the mean time, say a quiet prayer for my sanity……

-L

Colbert Working for the NBCC?

Sat down with John Freeman, president of the National Book Critics Circle yesterday for a nice chat. I used a fancy new digital recorder so I'll be able to pod cast our conversation on the decline in print coverage for books and a few other meandering topics we touched on . Look for that early next week, but in the mean time check out this clip from the Colbert Report about how, "We are winning the war against the literazi's" as the decline in print coverage of books illustrates - it's damn funny.

Also, don;t wait to get your tickets for the Saturday morning breakfast at BEA featuring Colbert, Ken Burns, , Lisa See and Khaled Hosseini. Tickets are almost sold out and this is shaping up to be the biggest attended author event in BEA history!

Through The Looking Glass - Minnesota Style

I wrote this post about a bookstore in Minnesota several months ago but never posted it. After reading a story in PW Daily today about Harry Potter it reminded me how cool Colette Morgan and Wild Rumpus bookstore are. First the PW Daily article from today and then my lost post......

"I may order from Amazon.com," said Colette Morgan, buyer at Minneapolis's Wild Rumpus. "They're giving a better discount than I'm getting from Scholastic." According to Morgan, Wild Rumpus is selling Deathly Hallows at full price, and that while her store is holding a Potter event on July 21—an early breakfast—it's a party celebrating Beatrix Potter, rather than one for the final Harry Potter release. "We march to a different drummer," she explained.


"If anyone wants to pick up any special orders of any other books, they can—during our Victorian breakfast for Beatrix Potter," Morgan said. "We tell people that they can get Harry Potter at their gas station, at their beauty parlor. But if they buy it here, they're paying full price, and we'll try to live up to their show of support," Morgan said.

An unpublished blog I wrote from this winter:

My boss was asking me how many bookstores I've visited since taking over BEA and I guessed about 40. However none compares (and no offense intended) to Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis - a store I haven't actually been to in a few years. I saw Collette Morgan, the store owner while in Portland last week and I was reminded how totally cool and utterly indescribable her store is - but I'll try.

Its a kids bookstore, but in all of us is a kid and Wild Rumpus brings it out, trust me (OK, the kid in me is pretty close to the surface, but really, this place would even make Gore Vidal giddy).

Its like Alice's Wonderland, or Charlie's Chocolate factory or, wait, its beyond explanation. For starters they have a store chicken. They also have a pet rat who lives in a cage under the floor that you view through a Plexiglas portal. The events Collette creates are completely amazing: They Might Be Giants played there, they had a marching band stomp down the street in front of the store and of course vet day when the vet comes to visit all the store animals (and one year brought a horse to work on too).

It is exactly what an independent bookstore should be: a community gathering place that is open, exciting, engaging, creative, welcoming, fun, educational, whimsical and oh yeah, has an absolutely amazing selection of books.

And part of the myth? Its nearly impossible to find. Hidden on the roads around Lake of the Isles that twist and turn in every direction in South Minneapolis.
Check them out, maybe you'll get to meet the chicken.........

-L

The Genius of Algonquin

The publisher Algonquin Books has brought us many magical titles over the years, but it's true gift to the wide world of books? Director of Marketing (and BEA Book Industry Character) Craig Popelars. Sure he's a good book guy and yeah he's a fine marketer, but his newsletter (Algonquin Annotations) is hands down the funniest in the biz. From the most recent installment:

13 BEA Hazards to Avoid

1. The guy in this picture. Don't worry, you'll see him by the end of the weekend. I promise. [picture omitted]
2. Any bookseller carrying more than five tote bags and sweating profusely. At some point they will implode.
3. BEA sanctioned wrestling match between Dr. Ruth and Helen Thomas.
4. Book Sense Mime Reading Room.
5. The Porta Johns in the Random House booth.
6. Anyone walking around with a unpublished manuscript.
7. The Jagermeister smoothies in the food court.
8. Asbestos in the Algonquin booth.
9. That publisher promoting the book about pets in heaven, and the author who communicates with them.
10. Looking down at someone's name tag when they come up and greet you like a long lost friend.
11. Quicksand in the Dianetics booth.
12. Deep fried Snickers bars, turkey legs, and funnel cakes in the HarperCollins booth.
13. Knife fight between Harcourt Crips and Houghton Bloods.

It's as if Letterman inverted his top 10 (or 13) list and grew up in North Carolina instead of Indiana.....

Speaking of Letterman, Wilco is playing Letterman next Tuesday night the same day there new album comes out.....

-L

A Few Minutes of Silence and The BEA Story Project is Born

Sorry for the lack of posts, but with 21 days to go before BEA things are getting chaotic for me. The phone has not rung for a few minutes and my email can wait for a bit so here is a quick post to make an announcement on another new BEA feature.

First I want to point something totally mad; starting today the BEA team will spend three days working with exhibitors to select space for the 2008 show in L.A. (note to any exhibitors reading, don’t miss your space selection time!) so by the end of the week a big part of the 2008 show floor will be set. Isn’t that crazy? That’s like buying Christmas presents for the following year before you’ve even open the ones for this year.

The BEA Story Project

The BEA Story Project is up and running! The goal of The project is simple: To archive the multitude of stories that have sprung from 10 years of BookExpo America and over 100 years of ABA Convention gatherings. From the humorous to the romantic to the unbelievable everyone has a story to tell and we are in the business of telling stories. The BEA Story Project offers an opportunity to preserve your BEA story through the written word or the spoken word. A selection of those stories will be highlighted through a weekly pod cast release. Consider the BEA Story Project an evolving and living oral and written history of the second largest gathering of book professionals in the world over the ages.

Use the new BEA Story Project web site to share both text and audio stories of your own BEA experiences from the embarrassing to harrowing. There is a posting board and an 1800 number you can call to leave your story (which will be transferred automatically to an mp3 file and posted online). At B EA don’t miss the BEA Story Project booth located in the Crystal Palace at the Javits Center where you can record your BEA story.

We'll categorize all the stories for everyone to peruse and podcast a story a week to our podcast audience at BookExpocast.com. Perhaps I'm overstating the resonance BEA has with attendees, but I don't think so. Going back 100 years when it was the ABA convention this show has been the singular gathering for the publishing community in America and now the world. The stories that happen here are part of the fabric of our community and are worth holding on to. We are in the business of telling stories after all.

Best of all? It’s totally anonymous!

Check out the BEA Story Project.

Saturday Mornng Cliffs Notes

A few Cliffs Notes items before I get out and enjoy a lovely Saturday in Borwalk (Sunday will be spent at BEA HQ - you see how I sacrifice for you? Kidding)

On Friday BEA’s parent company Reed Elsevier announced its sale of Harcourt Assessment and Harcourt International to Pearson for $950m. The CEO said that it is a refocusing to concentrate on it’s, “Science and Medical, Legal and Risk, and Business Publishing and Exhibition businesses”. Whew, I’m safe for now!

Check out this cool icon and link to the exclusive comic the boys from Unshelved made for BEA. What I admire about Bill Barnes from Unshelved (besides his quick wit and handsome looks) is his mix of creativity and great business sense (and that’s not just idle flattery - but then handsome looks line was). If you haven’t read the comic yet, check it by using this handy link! Also, I can’t figure out in Blogger how to and a url link to the images so sorry, you'll have to use the text link (rendering Bill's stroke of genius pretty, but not very functional!), sorry!

Shelf Awareness continues to run great tips from Frommers on how BEA attendees can navigate New York City. I’ll link to the most recent set of tips, but Check out back issues from Wednesday and Thursday too. They never asked me for any tips on getting around Manhattan, but I think John and Jen know I’m a Midwestern rube at heart and not a savvy New Jersian.

On the subject of directions Soft Skull’s Richard Nash sent me some of his own insider tips on getting around the city:

As a guy who takes the AirTrain from JFK to downtown Brooklyn about 12 times a year, it’s not too bad. So long as it’s between the hours of 7am and midnight, when the A train is running express, it should be about 55-75 minutes from terminal to the Brooklyn Marriott.

For added value, Richard also gives you, dear reader, something to do once you arrive: Brooklyn’s indie presses will have a big party in DUMBO, an eight-minute walk from the hotel...on Friday night.

And finally I’ll leave you with headline from a publication that has not cut back its book coverage one iota: The Onion.

This American Life Completes Documentation Of Liberal, Upper-Middle-Class Existence

The article is great.

Enjoy the weekend,

L

Book Critics at BEA, Lil’ Ole Me and The Quills

I’ve been working with John Freeman at the National Book Critics Circle to create some dialogue at BEA around the current state of book coverage in print media. As an editorial digression I think the blog vs. print battle the PW and David Ulin of the L.A. Times will head a panel on what is going right in the book culture as we sometimes get overwhelmed with the negative (Saturday from 4-5).

I’ll keep you posted as these panels and others develop and on a few surprises we’ve been working on for the show.

Connie Sayre and Lorraine Shanley of Market Partners International know everyone in this business - and that's not hyperbole, they know everyone. When I see them, I'll sometimes make up a name just to try and stump them, but it never works. Lorraine was kind enough to do a talk with me for their publication, Publishing Trends, you can click here to check it out: BEA Does Social Networking. If you read it, you really owe Connie and Lorraine a subscription and if you don’t sign up, they'll find you, remember they know everyone!

Lastly PW announced a revamped Quills Awards program for 2007. It seems to more closely mirror the industry feedback on what they want form a literary awards program. I wish my friends at PW best of luck with the new and improved event. I’ll be on hand when they announce the Quills nominees at BEA on Saturday morning (6/2) in front of the main hall of the Javits Center, it should be a fun way to kick off the new year and new era of The Quills.

-L

Build Your Own BEA Event!

Join me in a revolution! Shelfari is handselling online where social networking meets book lust. BEA Lit Insiders brings together blogging, social networking, and the love of good books on the main stage of BEA.

The idea is pretty simple; simply visit the Lit Insiders Group on Shelfari. Here you can place books you are excited about on a virtual shelf and start a discussion about why you think the book is exciting. From this discussion I’ll work on creating an event at BEA with the authors you recommend. Fun, right?

I became familiar with Shelfari from Len Vlahos at the ABA and talked to the CEO at a Shelf Awareness party in Seattle this winter. My goal is to call attention to authors and books that might otherwise get missed at BEA but Lit Insiders (like you who is reading this blog right now) know and love. On board? Please participate by taking a look at the group and sending the link along to friends, booksellers, publishers, bloggers or anyone who knows and loves books and would like to help craft a great event at BEA.

After BEA we’ll ask Lit Insiders to put books they saw at BEA on the Lit Insiders group shelf. Shelfari will then blast that info out to it’s many users alerting them to the books and authors that book industry insiders like you are excited about. You can become a tastemaker and all it take is a few clicks! Check it out and tell me who you want to see on a panel at BEA: BEA Lit Insiders.

-L

Gawker Covers Pen Gala and Another Email Update

My email is back! However, any emails form 1am Tuesday to 9am Tuesday are gone forever, so please resend. Also if you are not hearing back from me, I may have lost the email, better safe than sorry and resend!

Gawker had a guest poster write about the evening, and their account is a bit more catty than mine (thus probably more entertaining too!). Gawker Covers The Pen Literary Gala

Lastly, Shelf Awareness did a great article on how to navigate NYC when arriving in town for BookExpo: BEA NYC: Getting to (and from) the Airport: Count the Ways (scroll down for the story)

-L

Pen Gala, Vidal Spouts Off and Email Outages

Note: The servers at BEA HQ have been down for a second day. If you sent me an email on Monday or Tuesday I have not received it. I’ll know tomorrow if messages sent to me this week are recoverable or not. I apologize for the inconvenience and will post an update tomorrow.

Thanks to Anne Binkley and George Jones of Borders for an invite to the Pen Literary Gala on Monday night. I was fortunate enough to meet Gore Vidal (who received an award and a first edition of Democracy in America) and rub elbows with the publishing and social elite while attempting to avoid spilling dinner on my tux.

Gore Vidal’s speech was one for the ages as he waved his cane and held court for the crowd at The American Museum of Natural History. He called the current U.S. administration “leprous” and said we’d be joining our friends on the first floor (a reference the museum’s famous dinosaur) if the tide did not change. The audience spanned from Jane Friedman, Harper CEO, to Diane Von Furstenberg and a positive end result of over a million dollars raised for PEN. In receiving the Borders Literary Service Award, Vidal chided the New Yorker for running off editor Tina Brown saying the magazine was never better than under her leadership and then added after a pregnant pause “until now.” However the highlight of the evening was the story of Cuban dissident journalist Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, recipient of the Barbara Goldsmith Freedom To Write Award (in absentia as he sits in a Cuban jail). Normando was jailed along with 2 dozen other independent journalists considered “dissidents” by Castro’s government in 2003. His mother was on hand to thank PEN for supporting her son by calling attention to his imprisonment.

This post was a bit more heavy handed than I actually intended but PEN is about protecting writers around the world be them librarians in Connecticut persecuted under the Patriot Act or journalists working under oppressive regimes across the world. It would contradict the spirit of the evening to solely focus on the amazing collection of talent and personalities in the room Monday night – no matter how cool it was.

-L