BookExpo America 2009: At LJ's Day of Dialog, Publishers and Librarians See Opportunity in Crisis


Panels address a time of transition—and an acknowledgment of tradition

Francine Fialkoff -- Library Journal, 05/29/2009

• Moving online
• Library use in tough times
• Hot Picks
• Monster lit


Echoing Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's chief of staff, several panelists at Library Journal’s annual Day of Dialog at BEA agreed "Never waste a crisis.” Oxford University 
Press reference publisher Casper Grathwohl bluntly stated yesterday, “nothing gets your creative juices going more than the threat of extinction.” Grathwohl was referring to the massive changes in publishing, including declining print sales juxtaposed with ebook sales that, while growing rapidly, still only comprise a small percent of the business.

The daylong program had a bit of a richochet quality, from the challenges publishers and libraries currently face to the books still being published (if not marketed and distributed) in the traditional way, whatever the format.

Moving online
Grathwohl, who moderated a panel on the new publishing landscape at the Day of Dialog, held at the McGraw-Hill building in New York, has led the transition of reference
 from print to online.
 
Publishers like Harper Studio’s Debbie Stier, Crown’s Philip Patrick, and BBC Audiobooks' Michele Cobb emphasized the potential in the digital world.

“We have all these tools to access the reader directly…an amazing opportunity to communicate,” said Stier, who is also director of digital marketing for HarperCollins. “That’s hugely powerful.”

The panel also discussed DRM (digital rights management), which Stier said startup Harper Studio doesn’t use on its titles. “We use books to upsell,” she said, noting that if you buy a print book, you get the ebook free. Ebrary’s Chris Warnock called DRM “a necessary evil at the beginning, but as markets mature, DRM should level out.”

As for  the survival of publishers as content creators, Warnock queried, "what do we value, accurate info or a friend's manifestos? We value a little of both."
 

Library use in tough times
At a panel on coping with increased library use and fewer dollars, librarians also focused on the opportunity in crisis. Moderator Duncan Smith, NoveList creator, and others noted that librarians can transform these new users into lifelong readers and supporters by being responsive to their distress in these economic hard times.

Among the strategies Tracy Strobel and Madeline Brookshire (both Cuyahoga County Public Library, OH), Ike Pulver (Saratoga Public Library, NY), and Chris Platt (NYPL) proposed: float collections, get books processed and out the door in two to three days, lease popular titles rather than buy them, and transform reference librarians—and everyone in the library—into readers' advisors.

(Brookshire is in front, with Strobel at left behind her and Smith at right. Photos by Irving Cumberbatch.)

Pulver suggested "Loosen up restrictions." 

Smith reminded the 250 or so attendees, mostly librarians, that "every day we are making a difference in people's lives.”

(In photo at right, Platt is at left, Pulver at right.)

Hot Picks

On the Hot Picks panel, moderated by LJ Book Review editor Barbara Hoffert, editors touted their top fall titles. (Check next week's BookSmack!—sign up for the e-newsletter if you don't already get it—for all the titles.)



Spiegel & Grau's Julie Grau touted several books where "the message is timeless, the issue doesn't go away," including James Levine's debut novel, The Blue Notebook, about a caged prostitute in Mumbai and Somaly Mam's The Road of Lost Innocence, about a woman who has rescued 5000 women from brothels.

McGraw-Hill's Judith McCarthy presented titles that deal with the new economic reality, including Wolfgang Munchau's The Meltdown Years and Brad and Debra Schepp’s How To Find a Job on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Other Social Networks.



Dutton's Stephen Morrow tapped into future trends in information, technology, and science thinking, mentioning Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell's Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything, Sean Carroll's From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time, Albert-Laszlo Barabasi's Bursts: The Hidden Pattern Behind Everything We Do (April 2010), and Tyler Cowen's Create Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World.

Monster lit
The final program of the day, moderated by LJ fiction editor Wilda Williams, tracked the phenomenal success of a new genre, monster lit or urban fantasy, with authors Cassandra Clare (City of Bones), Anton Strout (Dead to Me), and Jordan Summers (Red), along with publisher Jason Rekulak (Quirk Books), and librarian Jeanne Bogino, New Lebanon Library, NY.

Rekulak has the distinction of publishing the successful Pride & Prejudice & Zombies.

(Summers is at left in photo, with Bogino and Rekulak.)

All of these authors noted the genre-crossing occuring with these titles, which are being marketed as much to romance readers as to fantasy and horror fans. Bogino pointed out that these books, like Stephenie Meyer's, integrate the unreal—or undead—into everday life, which is why they appeal to teenagers.

(For additional coverage of BookExpo America 2009, visit the BookExpo America 2009 page of our sister publication, Publishers Weekly)