Day of Dialog Preludes BEA

By Franince Fialkoff, Barbara Hoffert, & Rebecca Miller -- Library Journal, 7/15/2005

More than 300 librarians gathered June 2 in the McGraw-Hill auditorium in New York City for LJ's prelude to BookExpo America (BEA), the Day of Dialog. It included panels on children's publishing, collection development, adult books, and graphic novels. Clarion associate publisher Dinah Stevenson and her author, Linda Sue Park, brought to life the author/editor relationship. Who knew it could take 33 revisions to bring forth a book like My Name Is Keoko?

On other matters, there was some disagreement. A number of librarians thought the collection development panel overemphasized responding to popular taste: "We could have libraries full of a lot of junk that people are asking for, but we're trying to have things of lasting value, too," warned Cathleen Towey, Gold Coast PL, NY.

The panel was made up of Baker & Taylor's George Coe, Ingram's Larry Price, Brodart's Lauren Lee, BWI's Melendra Sanders, and librarians Angelina Benedetti, King County Library System, WA, and Mabel Anne Kincheloe, Gwinnett County Public Library, GA. They stressed the continued need to shorten the turnaround time from order to shelf, noted improvements in vendor reporting, and identified a rising dependence on vendor selection owing to staffing constraints. All the vendors are grappling with incorporating library holdings into their systems.

Editors from the big trade houses chronicled their favorite books for fall. Among the potential hits? From Doubleday: John Twelve Hawks's The Traveler, described as "The Matrix meets CSI," and David Gregory's Dinner with the Perfect Stranger (Jesus). Little, Brown's Asya Muchnick touted Julie Powell's Julie and Julia, in which the writer cooks her way through Julia Child, and Peter Guralnick's Dream Boogie, a biography of Sam Cooke. HarperCollins's Tim Duggan raved about "a small book, violent, haunting, powerful," Uzodinma Iweala's Beasts of No Nation. Penguin Press's Scott Moyers pointed out the new edition of The Elements of Style, to be illustrated by Maira Kalman, and Tony Judt's Postwar, a history of Europe since the end of World War II that has been eight years in the writing.

The panel also discussed the rise of blogs, pointing out that a powerful author/blogger, such as Chuck Palahniuk, can certainly sell books. All agreed when Duggan stated that the traditional bookstore author tour is "at risk." Riverhead's Cindy Spiegel recalled columnist Adam Langer writing that "he thinks there should be a library tour instead of bookstore tours." LJ Editor Francine Fialkoff pointed out that the Association of American Publishers, in conjunction with other groups (including LJ), is relaunching authorsatyourlibrary.org to facilitate these events.

A lively panel on graphic novels included publishers from Dark Horse, Tokyopop, Fantagraphics, and DC Comics, who discussed the creative process, the market (watch out for overproduction), and age ratings. Panelist Jeffrey Gegner, from Hennepin County Library System, MN, stressed the need to "think of these as a format, not a genre" and suggested librarians shelve graphic novels together instead of interfiling them.

Audience-member Frances Rabinowitz, from New York Public Library, noted it was difficult to get a sense of the visual aspect of a graphic novel in reviews. Gegner pointed her to publisher web sites and exhibitor booths at conferences. Dark Horse's Michael Martens suggested partnering with comic shop owners to build expertise.

Now in its eighth year, this year's day-long Day of Dialog was cosponsored by Baker & Taylor, Too Far, McGraw-Hill, Holtzbrinck, Sterling, Time Warner Book Group, and NYPL.