Who Is BEA? Part 2

This is part 2 in a 3 part series of posts on the value of BEA to publishers and its evolving identity......You can read Part 1 here.

I offer a few broad themes that BEA needs to continue to evolve to, embrace and execute:

1 Touch the books and meet the authors
2 All the shows a stage
3 Think outside the light box
4 Create new media buzz (but where?)
5 Influence the influencers

Touch the Books, Meet The Author – Several years ago, we began to create additional venues and opportunities for authors to step into the "limelight" at BEA and become more of a focal point. This will only continue as we move forward in larger and new forms. Authors and books are two of the prime differentiators of BEA from other global book fairs. For example, if you attend the London Book Fair, an amazing rights fair, you will see nary an author and absolutely no galleys of any kind. That fair is about the business of rights, pure and simple. BEA could not be further from that model. BEA is about buzz, marketing and advertising and making a splash. It is where authors can be met, books can be read and books are launched. For BEA to thrive, we have too embrace the idea that this is one of the few places in the world that so many authors gather and are so accessible to all of the players in our industry and the media.

All the shows a stage – The most visible platforms to garner attention, buzz and publicity at BEA are the author breakfasts and lunches. These events offer a sum total of 12 spots and it seemed that, in a way, we were asking publishers to enter a lottery and hope for this publicity. For BEA to be an effective and meaningful platform for publishers to launch books, we need a more democratic, this plentiful stable of opportunities for authors to promote themselves and interact with attendees. Step one in that process was the creation of stages on the show floor to serve as additional platforms (literally!) for authors to interact with booksellers, librarians and the like. Picture two authors, on the Uptown or Downtown stage (as we’ve named them) with a member of the media or a booksellers in between them facilitating a discussion about there latest works. This allows publishers to put their author in front of attendees and the media in a meaningful and impactfull way that no sales catalog can accomplish.

Think Outside The Light Box - Stages built by BEA to highlight authors is more a stop along the way than a final destination towards a more engaging and media friendly event. Ultimately, the big booths themselves need to be questioned and reexamined. BEA is working with a few key exhibitors to fundamentally alter the way they approach exhibiting at BEA. I give the example of the Marvel booth at New York Comic Con or San Diego Comic-Con. The booth is a wide open space surrounded by large hanging banners (for promotion and a clear delineation of where the “booth” is), signing stations along the edge for creators to interact with fans, a PA system, some flat screens running promos and the days schedule and a stage where interviews and creator talks take place. The booth is jammed. Always. Marvel understands that they, their sales catalog or the staffers are not what people are there to see. They are there to meet the writers, the artists and to see what is new and hot – how better to do that in real life instead of in a flyer or a catalog. They put there most important assets forward – the creators and there products. We need to work with BEA exhibitors to think out side the light box (the author book jacket blown up and put inside a lighted box hanging from the booth) and put the authors up front whenever relevant.

Part 3 will be posted on Wednesday.

-Lance