BEA Wind Down: A marathon lined with tote bags

If days one and two of Book Expo America were a blur of information-packed sessions, days three and four were a whirlwind of appointments, chance meetings and tote-bag lugging.

Friday we met up with Jamie Israel of SPi Global, then hustled over to the Spain pavilion to meet with Edie Reinhardt and Marcelino Elosua of Lid Publishing, who have some fascinating new initiatives in the pipeline (and should have some news to announce in the fall).

We then popped in on the BEA Session "Libraries + Tumblr = Connecting Readers + Writers" where a panel of librarians discussed ways they're using Tumblr to engage with readers, especially younger readers, as well as the press, with fun, interactive content. "Tumblr users spend as much time (or more) on Tumblr as they would on Facebook," said one panelist whose name I couldn't see from the back of the very packed room.

We met up with Lissa Warren of Da Capo Press who spoke about their upcoming title The Mayor of MacDougall Street, a memoir by Dave Van Ronk that they're marketing in conjunction with the Coen Brothers Cannes favorite Inside Llewyn Davis (which was inspired by Van Ronk's life).

We cruised by the booth of our Philly pals Quirk and got the lowdown on their forthcoming titles. We're particularly excited about The Resurrectionist (think Frankenstein meets Gray's Anatomy) and William Shakespeare's Star Wars.

We also stopped by the booth of fellow Philly area friends Townsend Press, run by Paul Langan (a La Salle classmate of mine) and dedicated to producing titles that help teachers teach students, particularly urban middle schoolers, to improve their reading. Check out their impressive Bluford series.

And we ended the day with a good long chat with Bibliolabs founder Mitchell Davis about removing friction from ebook lending, what it's like to be in a meeting with Jeff Bezos (Davis is an Amazon vet) and The Charleston Conference.