Book Expo 2013: How's the Publishing Industry Faring Since?

Well now that almost two months have passed since BEA, Penguin Random House has officially merged, there've been layoffs at academic publishers such as Wiley and Pearson, and who knows what more may come especially with the DoJ agreement keeping Amazon from owning a good portion of the industry in terms of rights. But, as always around Book Expo of America (BEA) time the outlook for the publishing industry and state of books is optimistic and favorable. But you wonder is this because of the BEA crowd being booksellers, librarians, bloggers, publishing professionals, authors, agents, and the like or because now that there's a day for Super Readers as well extends to people who just have a love for books?

This year BEA was very giving. And while there were rumors of some houses having significantly smaller booths than last year I didn't see much that was different from the past two years before at Jacob Javits Center. Random House had a good sized booth away from the cluster of the big six which helped them move and start lines in the autographing area. And many signings had huge turnouts and waits, particularly those for Rainbow Rowell's latest, Fangirl. The acclaim for Eleanor & Park (St. Martin's Griffin) sent fans standing in line for up to an hour just to get a chance to take a picture of the author whose lovely smile and comical and searing prose was worth the wait.

Rick Yancy's The 5th Wave (Penguin Teen) and Sarah Maas' latest in the Thrown of Glass series (Bloomsbury YA) drew huge crowds and waits before hand as well. And that's just a bit of proof of how much young adult titles continue to grow favor and lines at Book Expo with YA authors being a good portion of those doing signings.

Scholastic Editorial Director and author David Levithan signed two of his new/upcoming titles, one of which is the gorgeously elegiac Two Boys Kissing (Knopf for Young Readers). Veronica Roth signed posters for Allegiant (Book 3 in the Divergent trilogy, Katherine Tegen Books). Marie Lu signed samplers for Champion, the last book in the Legend series and she'll be gearing up for her new series with Penguin due out fall 2014.

Algonquin had a YA takeover at their booth one of the days of BEA in celebration of their new Young Readers imprint that will have debuts this fall. Two of their titles were on the YA Buzz Panel. Hitting the 30 year anniversary it seemed apt that a new imprint could bring a new face to Algonquin. And one of the big draws and titles talked about on the Buzz Panel were If You Could Be Mine about two girls in a relationship in Lebanon and the MG book The Time Fetch. And even Tuttle Publishing which is known for it's books bringing Asian education and flair to the marketplace has YA books they were promoting alongside many of their popular cookbooks. And with Paleo becoming a bigger contingent in the cookbook scene Tuttle Publishing has that covered.

There was also the literary contingent with Andre Dubus III signing a new book out with Norton. Elizabeth Gilbert signing her new fiction title with Penguin. Giveaways for National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward's latest, a memoir entitled Men We Reaped about the men she's lost in her life and her life in the South. Colum McCann signed hard copies of his first book since he won the National Book Award in 2009, Transatlantic. Add in the talkative Adriana Trigiani and Jason Mott whose debut The Returned from Harlequin imprint Mira has been getting raves and there's a well-rounded amount of authors for a diverse audience. There was the hype for Burial Rites a debut from Hannah Kent and Wally Lamb's latest along with Son by Phillip Meyer. And Neil Gaiman didn't just have a children's book he was promoting and signing he also had an adult one (The Ocean at the End of the Lane) and drew a HUGE crowd on Saturday morning for his talk on writing and the business along with a signing afterwards.

Amy Tan was there to speak of her new book due out in November. Jim Carrey had a fast-moving line curling around Perseus's distribution booths for signing of posters for his first picture book for kids and Chelsea Handler was there for photo ops. Julianne Moore had another children's book she was promoting and Giada De Laurentiis signed her first children's book as well called Recipes for Adventure with an imprint at Penguin. But the biggest star seemed to be Grumpy Cat who had about a 45 minute wait for a picture beside him. But you could not touch the cat. At all.

So that's the fun stuff, but what about the business of publishing? How is that going? Ebook sales are rising but still do not make up a huge portion of the market. They take up 15-20% of sales in trade and many independent presses and small university presses are trying to find a piece of that pie. Making the Digital Zone and coinciding conference IDPF huge draws for industry professionals to get to know what's available on the digital side and how they can reap the benefits for low costs.

Even with sales not taking a huge piece of the pie like expected ebooks are and will continue to be very important to the market. Kobo, one of the lesser known e-readers may soon be striking a deal with the American Booksellers Association (ABA) to distribute their ebooks exclusively with independent stores helping both parties in one swoop. One of the detriments of the indie store has been competing in the digital market and a contract with Kobo can improve that. I mean look at this New Yorker cover (below). Doesn't that say enough about the state of the indies? Especially indies in big cities like NYC where ones pop up but need a steady base of customers to continue to go to. And in places like Queens and the Bronx we do not have many if any.

From the agent perspective, especially if you follow the Twitter-verse and look at new books coming out in the Young Adult realm certain trends are slowing and others are surging. Amy Tintera's Reboot and T. Mike Martin's The End Games both play off of zombies, which may be the new "thing." Dystopian is losing ground but there are still new ones coming out like Joelle Charbonneau's The Testing series from HMH Kids. And aliens are making a comeback! (See the popularity of The 5th Wave and also Malinda Lo's sequel to Adaptation.) Maggie Stiefvater's latest in the Raven Cycle series was a huge item up-for-grabs and traipses along a new line of fantasy and mystery and the hunt for a mystical king. Whereas contemporary YA is gaining ground and will always have relevance (note what I said about Rainbow Rowell's line).

Mysteries and their big name authors like James Patterson and Preston & Child had ARCs flying off the floor. And with the Readers Day on Saturday people went buck wild about the freebies.

More MG is being sought by publishers and agents. More specific stories and non-recycling of themes we've seen/heard/read before. It's becoming harder to become unique if in certain instances trends are the thing but good writing is good writing and books is what excites everyone about BEA in the first place.

So what is the outlook on the publishing industry? Well, it has ebbs and flows as any business does. Super Readers on Saturday proved to be big fans and also those in education seeking out titles to give to students and promote reading. Books will always be a necessity whether for entertainment, inspiration, or education. And BEA tends to remind those of us in the industry how much people enjoy it and how important it is. Yes, people get very grabby hands at BEA and there is shuffling of bodies and pushing of arms and taking of items clearly marked for sale but in the grand scheme of things it's about books and book lovers and uniting them for a celebration of the industry not just an analysis of it.

Time will tell what the (immediate) future holds for publishing. A lot of predictions made don't come to fruition. A lot of sites in beta may or may not be the next huge thing. And many books predicted to be hits may flounder and those that barely got any publicity may surge due to word of mouth from various people in the community. There's no true tell-tale sign except that publishing needs to be malleable and change with the times while consistently seeking to produce great content and find the audience for it.

For next year and the year after BEA will still be held in New York City at Jacob Javits before going off to Chicago for a year or maybe more. It's been really nice having BEA in my hometown/backyard for the past three years straight and I'll continue to enjoy it no matter the locale.

Book Expo 2012: Lots to Celebrate (and Learn)

Last week the largest book convention for those of us in the book industry reared it's head again in midtown Manhattan. Book Expo of America (BEA) was held in conjunction with the newly purchased BEA (formerly Book) Blogger Convention, IDPF, and Blog & New Media Expo. And New York City will be the home of BEA up until 2015, which makes me particularly happy as it's been housed at Javits steadily since 2008 after it used to rotate locations between Los Angeles and Chicago. This year BEA focused on different ways of thinking. Publishers connecting with consumers directly and cutting out the middle man. Sessions have steadily been geared towards how to utilize social media to its highest potential and how to make books (particularly young adult and middle grade titles) that much more exciting and interactive for the end user.

Many articles in the media have touted Amazon as an enemy for publishers with low-cost products and small returns. Becoming the Walmart of the book world Amazon has it's own self-publishing imprint (CreateSpace), has launched it's own publishing sector, and is still one of the first places consumers go to purchase books at a deeply discounted rate with free shipping and many other goods available from clothes to music to appliances and various technology. And Amazon continues it's growth in the publication industry with the purchase of Avalon Books which specialized in romance and mystery titles.

In a market that is slowly on the uptick publishers are trying new ways and harder than ever to connect with consumers directly. Book Expo allows them this opportunity but many times it is press/media and booksellers that get more of the publishers attention. Book bloggers have been indelible in spreading the word about little known books becoming the next big thing. A prime example of this is The Hunger Games which is a true word-of-mouth success from book 1 to the final book Mockingjay released in 2010. As is there was a huge blow up in the media blogger realm when numerous book bloggers and other forms of press were denied press credentials months after registering for BEA. To Reed Exhibitions credit they reneged on the subsequent denials noting their mishap in cancelling registration for bloggers who had registered in January and February and not informing them until the day before Good Friday (when much Reed staff was already out of the office.) Next year I'm sure whatever stringent guidelines that make press press will be clearly outlined early on and handled much more swiftly post-registration. But this sent flurries throughout the blogosphere noting how important bloggers can be to publishers and how important they are to spreading the word about books many may not be aware of and providing a hardcore fan base for authors of various genres, particularly in the young adult (YA) market.

BEA Buzz Panels for both YA and Adult books were huge draws for bloggers, booksellers, and fans alike giving attendees the inside track on what publishers are noting as their big debuts for the year. This included Kat Zhang's YA paranormal book What's Left of Me from HarperTeen and Shani Bioanjiu's The People of Forever Are Not Afraid from Hogarth (a division of Crown Publishers). Bioanjiu was also a National Book Award 5 Under 35 Honoree this year. But debuts weren't the only things lauded at Book Expo of America, prize winning authors like Junot Diaz, Mark Helprin, and Tracy K. Smith were on-hand for autographing. Pulitzer Prize winner Diaz spent hours with fans lined up to read an excerpt from his new collection from Riverhead (an imprint of Penguin) This Is How You Lose Her. He even said it was great to meet readers. "I'm like thank God," he said. The realization of meeting those who enjoy your work can be refreshing. Dennis Lehane (Live By Night) from William Morrow (HarperCollins) and native New Yorker Victor LaValle (The Devil in Silver) from Penguin they were appreciative of those lined up to meet them and of the compliments received and were happy to promote new work.

Book clubs are another big score for publishers and this year a speed dating event was held on Wednesday by The Book Report Network where leaders and members of book clubs could meet with publishers and hear about upcoming titles (in hardcover & paperback) they think would fit with book clubs. In meeting Erin Morgenstern for a signing of the paperback version of The Night Circus she had said that she thinks her book is great for book clubs. Being "fun" to discuss. Her editor was also quick to note that during Erin's tour they would be happy to speak more with those interested in doing Night Circus for book club discussions. Not only was Morgenstern there promoting the paperback version of her book but so was National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward for Salvage the Bones also in paperback. My book club is fond of books in this format and it is often when reprinted in PB that publishers add book club guides to the back to promote discussion. Book clubs can generate great sales especially if they meet regularly and have a dozen or more members. Many of the members of my book club have turned to digital means and so have a friend of mine with me being one of the few still pursuing the printed text. But the printed text still has a great ways to go before being eliminated and so publishers are aching for book clubs to "adopt" their titles.

And there were numerous celebrations! The arrival of Book Expo of America also initiates NY Book Week with lots of parties going on around NYC hosted by bookstores, publishers, authors, and bloggers. But within the realm of Javits Center there many anniversaries to be celebrated from Little, Brown's 175th to The New Press' 20th to Scholastic's Clifford the Big Red Dog turning 50 to Sourcebooks celebrating the quarter century mark. Russia served as the guest of honor at Book Expo this year and had a huge section devoted to "Read Russia" where champagne in crystal flutes was on-hand to celebrate new and established authors from their homeland introducing them to an international audience. Taunton Press had signings by cookbook author (and local foodie) Abby Dodge offering great samples of her orange sesame cookies. Tuttle Publishing had daily samples of desserts from Sushi Secrets and gluten-free items. HarperCollins had beer and cupcakes, Perseus had an open bar and there were wine tastings near the ever winding Starbuck's line and check in downstairs.

Discussions on Uptown and Downtown stages ranged from the Bellwether prize where winners Heidi Durrow and Hillary Jordan sat with veteran author and Bellwether judge Barbara Kingsolver to the always advancing digital age in publishing to applications that can help sell your ebook. Scholastic was heavily promoting their new series Infinity Ring that is both a print book and available as a game, readers can choose either (or both) formats to enter the world of this new middle grade series, each book written by a different author. The author breakfast and lunches welcomed (back) Stephen Colbert, Junot Diaz, Barbara Kingsolver, Zadie Smith, Chris Colfer, Lois Lowry, Michael Chabon and John Green to name a few.

And while in years past Book Expo of America had been slim in pickings there was much available to take in and take home. BEA is an avid reader's playland and a future writer's inspiration. Meeting authors, publishers, agents, bloggers, and booksellers immersed in the same love is a great way to be reinvigorated and well informed. BEA provides a way to connect all facets of the industry to learn more about what is working, what isn't, and what the larger masses want in terms of upcoming titles and their platforms. Next year I imagine much of the conversations will be the same discussing the success of some strategies and the complications of others, but it's good to know that those within the industry seek to change the way literature is provided and taken in and that there's always a format for everyone. After all books should be celebrated and Book Expo of America is one of the biggest venues to do so.