BookExpo America Draws Librarians to L.A.

Francine Fialkoff -- Library Journal, 6/3/2008 10:52:00 AM

• Attendance down in Los Angeles
• Content is king
• Authors and celebs aplenty on hand

The West Coast location of BookExpo America May 29-June 1 meant fewer attendees overall this year (28,494), but that didn’t dim the enthusiasm of the estimated 1800 or so librarians (down from last year’s whopping 3,832 librarians) who thronged the Los Angeles Convention Center. With the American Library Association conference scheduled for neighboring Anaheim barely four weeks later, and the high cost of travel, many East Coast and Midwest librarians stayed away. Nevertheless, there was a strong California and West Coast contingent. Those who came found themselves courted by publishers at a more subdued affair than that held in publishing central in New York in 2007.

There was plenty of news even as the show opened, though much of it had to do with formats other than print books. On the heels of the demise of Microsoft’s digitization initiative, Ingram Digital announced last Wednesday that it would work with publishers to transition their Live Search Book files from Microsoft to the Ingram Search and Discover platform. On Thursday, Simon & Schuster stated that it would add 5000 titles to its Amazon Kindle offerings, and Wiley reported that it was partnering with LibreDigital to deliver content (including customized college textbooks) across all formats including online and downloadable, whatever the device. OverDrive and LibreDigital also agreed to partner on expanded distribution to libraries and retailers on digital rights management (DRM)-protected ebooks and downloadable audio. eMusic “welcomed” Simon & Schuster, Tantor, BBC Audiobooks, Listen and Live, and other audio publishers to those already testing its nascent DRM-free downloadable audios, at the same time that CEO David Pakman declared DRM dead in a program at BEA.

Print rules
Despite all the talk of the Kindle (Amazon’s Jeff Bezos was a featured speaker), ebooks, and downloadable audio, physical books dominated the Convention Center’s two cavernous halls, where librarians were treated to a huge number of advance reading copies and audiobook CDs and met with publishers and authors. Milly Lugo, Santa Ana PL, CA, made “vital connections with suppliers and distributors” for Spanish-language books. Susan Robertson, Evanston PL, IL, stated a common refrain: “This is the place for collection development. I always come for the [LJ] Day of Dialog and the librarians’ programs.” Nevertheless, she’s focusing also on improving the library’s web site, “so a lot of BEA has been me soaking up the new technologies.” Phoenix PL’s Kathleen Sullivan, who came looking for books on raw food and Native Americans, discovered both at Book Publishing Company, a Tennessee house with a Native Voices imprint that also delivered up “a book on raw food—and a DVD too.” Gretchen Mitchell, Jacksonville PL, FL, scouted authors for the library’s Much Ado About the Book. “We want to know who we can get for what we can offer,” said Mitchell. “It helps if the author has a soft spot for libraries.”

Many collection managers got up close and personal with authors, editors, and library publicists at librarian-centered events like LJ’s Day of Dialog, the Association of American Publishers dinner, the Librarian Book Buzz, and the Random House/LJ breakfast. Janelle Brown, whose first novel, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, which pubbed officially today, told collection development librarians there that this was her first time speaking as a published novelist. The savvy Brown, who once worked at the Menlo Park Library, CA, admitted she not only checked her Amazon sales stats but the number of holds at Los Angeles PL.

Book buzz and celebs
Among the books with buzz (many librarians got a preview of these at Day of Dialog) were Dennis Lehane’s The Given Day (Morrow, September), a saga set after World War I, Michelle Moran’s The Heretic Queen (Crown, September), the follow-up to her debut, Nefertiti, and Brunonia Barry’s The Lace Reader (Morrow, August), an originally self-published title set in contemporary Salem whose rights sold to over 20 countries. Other hot titles included Booker winner Anne Enright’s Yesterday’s Weather (September) and Jim Harrison’s The English Major (October), both from Grove. Publisher Morgan Entrekin reported that he’d just sold the French rights for the latter for $750,000, a coup in a market that’s buying fewer U.S. titles. For more on book buzz, check out hot picks and historical fiction titles from Day of Dialog.

BEA had its share of celebs, too. Where else can you turn a corner and see Salman Rushdie, Dennis Lehane, Neil Gaiman, Nikki Giovanni, or Ray Bradbury, as well as film/TV icons like William Shatner? (For author sightings and more, check out In the Bookroom blog posts starting May 31, as well as photos and upcoming interviews on the LJ homepage.

Audio was strong at BEA as well, with the annual Audio Publishers Association Conference, the Audie awards, and the Audiobook & Author Tea. Downloadable audio, MP3s, and digital rights management (DRM) pervaded discussions, though HarperMedia’s Ana Maria Allessi, predicted that “Smart phones, a delivery system that’s expected to rise up, blessedly takes away the whole question of [DRM].” APA’s Get Caught Listening campaign, a counterpart to Get Caught Reading, kicks off this month, to promote both the pleasures of audiobooks and its benefits to education and literacy.

Hot Picks from Day of Dialog

Claire Wachtel, HarperCollins

• Dennis Lehane, The Given Day (Morrow) (F)
• Anne ROIPHE, Epilogue (HarperCollins) (NF)
• Frances Peebles, The Seamstress (Harper: HarperCollins) (F)
• Jennifer Haigh, The Condition, Harper: Collins

Morgan Entrekin, Grove/Atlantic

• Mo Hayder, Ritual
• Kathleen Burk, Old World, New World
• Caroline Chute, The School On Heart's Content Road
• Lloyd Clark, Crossing The Rhine
• Anne Enright, Yesterday's Weather
• Jim Harrison The English Major
• Nancy Huston, Fault Lines

David Ebershoff, Random House

• Curtis Sittenfeld American Wife (Random)
• Billy Collins, Ballistics And Other Poems (Random)
• by Brenda Wineapple, White Heat: The Friendship Of Emily Dickinson And Thomas Wentworth Higginson (Knopf)
• Ronald C. White, A. Lincoln: A Biography (Random)

Philip Turner, Union Square Press

• David Pietruzs,a 1960—LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon: The Epic Campaign that Forged Three Presidencies
• Charles Lachman, The Last Lincolns: The Rise and Fall of a Great American Family
• Stephen Wallace, Reality Gap—Alcohol, Drugs, and Sex: What Parents Don't Know and Teens Aren't Telling
• Marc Gerstein with Michael Ellsberg, Foreword & Afterword by Daniel Ellsberg. Flirting With Disaster: Why Accidents are Rarely Accidental
• Yuan-tsung Chen, Return To The Middle Kingdom: One Family, Three Revolutionaries, and the Birth of Modern China
• Dr. Paul Epstein, Associate Director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, and Dan Ferber, Changing Planet, Changing Health: How Climate Change Threatens Public Health and What We Must Do About It

Sarah Knight, Holt

• Kira Salak (also featured on the BEA Buzz Panel), The White Mary
• Paul Tremblay, The Little Sleep
• Brent Ghelfi, Volk’s Shadow

2008 Summer & Fall Historical Fiction
Bayard, Louis. The Black Tower. Morrow. Aug. 2008. ISBN 978-0-06-117350-9. $24.95.
Where is Marie Antoinette’s son if he did not die in the Black Tower as history tells us? Trust Vidocq to find out; real-life founder of the Sûreté in early 1800s France, he's considered the first modern detective (Prepub Alert LJ 5/15/08)

Campbell, Broos. Peter Wicked: A Matty Graves Novel. McBooks. Sept. 2008. ISBN 978-1-59013-152-7. $23.95.
In his third swashbuckling adventure, Navy Lieutenant Matty Graves is still recovering from his ordeal during the slave rebellion in the French colony of Saint-Dómingue when he is ordered to Washington to answer questions about the death of his former captain.

Capella, Anthony. The Various Flavors of Coffee. Bantam. Sept. 2008. 352p. ISBN 978-0-553-80732-5. $22.
He's definitely broke, so 1890s London poet Robert Wallis accepts a commission from an off-kilter coffee merchant to categorize the various tastes of coffee. Capella's The Food of Love and The Wedding Officer are being made into films.

Donoghue, Emma. The Sealed Letter. Harcourt. Sept. 2008. ISBN 978-0-15-101549-8. $26.
Donoghue’s (Slammerkin) latest historical is based on a scandalous divorce case that gripped England in 1864.(Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/08)

Ebershoff, David. The 19th Wife.. Random. Aug. 2008. ISBN 978-1-4000-6397-0.  $26.

Random House editor-at- large Ebershoff combines historical fiction with a modern murder mystery in this tale of Ann Eliza Young , the final wife of Mormon church leader Brigham Young, who after her divorce from Young embarked on a crusade to ban polygamy in the United States.. (Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/08)

Erickson, Carolly. The Tsarina’s Daughter. St. Martin’s. Oct. 2008. ISBN 978-0-312-36738-1. $24.95.
Erickson (The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette) reimagines the life of Grand Duchess Tatania Romanov, the second oldest daughter of Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra.

Essex, Karen. Stealing Athena. Doubleday. June 2008. ISBN 978-0-385-51971-7. $22.95.
A tale of two women: the philosopher/courtesan who supported Pericle’s vision to build the Parthenon and the wife of Lord Elgin, who transported a part of its frieze to England (Prepub Alert LJ 2/1/08; see LJXpress review 5/27/08)

Gortner, C.W. The Last Queen. Ballentine. July 2008. ISBN 978-0-345-50184-4. $25.
Gorner makes her historical fiction debut with the story of Juana of Castile, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella and mother of Habsburg Emperor Charles V, who was the last queen of Spanish blood to inherit Spain’s throne.

Gregory, Phillipa. The Other Queen. Touchstone. Sept. 2008. ISBN 9781416549123. $25.95.
Gregory’s forthcoming historical tells the story of a bold and clever queen living in Tudor England: Mary Queen of Scots.

Kamensky, Jane & Jill Lepore. Blindspot by a Gentleman in Exile & a Lady in Disguise. Spiegel & Grau. Dec. 2008. ISBN 978-0-385-52619-7. $24.95.
Historians Kamensky (The Exchange Artist) and Lepore (New York Burning) make their historical fiction debut with this picaresque tale set in Boston on the eve of the American Revolution.

Kent, Kathleen. The Heretic’s Daughter. Little, Brown. Sept. 2008. IBN 978-0-316-02448-8.
Debut novelist Kent draws on her own family history to tell the story of Martha Carrier, one of the first women to be accused, tried, and hanged as a witch during the Salem Witch Trials.

Lehane, Dennis. The Given Day. Morrow. Oct. 2008. ISBN 978-0-668-16318-1. $27. 95.
The long-awaited eighth novel by the author of Mystic River and Gone, Baby Gone is not a contemporary mystery but a historical epic that revolves around the Boston Police Strike of 1919.

Liss, David. The Whiskey Rebels. Random. Oct. 2008. ISBN 978-1-4000-6420-5. $26.
The author of A Conspiracy of Paper turns from Georgian England to a newly independent America in this tale about the Whiskey Rebellion. (Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/08)

Moran, Michelle. The Heretic Queen. Crown. Sept. 2008. 978-0-307-38175-0. $24.95.
This sequel to Nefertiti focuses on the late queen’s niece, Nefertari, who overcomes her lowly status as the sole surviving member of a heretical dynasty to marry one of Egypt’s greatest rulers, Ramses the Great.

Pérez-Reverte, Arturo. The King’s Gold. Putnam. Aug. 2008. ISBN 978-0-399-15510-9. $24.95.
Captain Alatriste’s fourth adventure picks up in Seville, 1626, when the bold mercenary is hired for a risky job involving contraband gold and a heavily guarded Spanish galleon returning from the West Indies.

Shan Sa. Alexander and Alestria. Harper/HarperCollins. Jul. ISBN 139780061543548. $23.95.
Having written about seventh century China in Empress, Shan Sa now immerses readers in the ancient world as she imagines a dramatic love affair between Alexander the Great and Alestria, queen of the Amazons.