BEA Show Notes, Day 2, Lynn's take

Oh, my feet, my poor, poor feet… (Extra points to anyone who knows that’s a lyric from the 1956 musical “The Most Happy Fella”!). Which is to say, another busy day travelling around the gigantic Javits Center!

One of the highlights on Thursday was the Fourth Annual BookExpo American Librarians Lunch. A room packed with, I’d estimate, about 400 to 500 people was treated to the appearance of five authors with forthcoming books, some known names, some debut authors. Lee Smith, Koethi Zan, Jayne Anne Phillips, Bill Bryson and Louise Penny spoke about what inspired their new works, did short readings, and took questions from the passionate (mostly female) community of librarians.

I spoke with Susan Bolotin, Editor-in-Chief and Acting Publisher at Workman about carrying on a legacy following the death of leader and founder Peter Workman. See more on that in our next issue of Book Business. Caleb Mason of innovative ebook publisher Publerati joined me on a few rounds on the Expo Floor (thanks for carrying my bag, Caleb!), where we chatted with Jonathan Lethem, whose new novel Dissident Gardens comes out in September. I also spoke with Elisha Cooper and was glad to see him with a new book. His out-of-print work A Year in New York is a treasure of an illustrated take on the city.

Brenda Knight of Cleis Press, recently promoted to Publisher, had interesting things to say about how and why she developed their imprint Viva Editions five years ago to put forth authors who are missionaries, “on a mission to offer tools to help people live better lives,” be it saving money, better parenting, helping boys learn to study and succeed, and more.

At Firebrand Technologies, Joshua Tallent is cooking up new ways and ideas to share his ebook-generating skills and Susan Ruszala of NetGalley is moving forward with her plan to digitize the world of galleys (so Caleb won’t have to carry my bag in the future!). Now back to the floor…