BEA Show Notes: Notes From the Floor ...

Goodreads Community Manager Patrick Brown calls the site “the largest in the world for readers and book recommenders,” soon to hit nine million members. He says discovery is their most important role, and reviews are the cornerstone of how the site supports discovery. According to Brown, Goodreads' reviews spread beyond the site and they are the number one driver of book reviews to Facebook.

Author Jennifer Weiner also extolled the benefits and pleasures of online communities where readers, writers and reviewers can interact. A longtime blogger, she has recently discovered she was “born for Twitter.” At the BEA Bloggers Conference, Weiner shared a rollicking tale of her coming of age as an Internet-savvy author who makes new friends, supports up-and-coming writers, and even takes on the critics online.

Also at the BEA Education Program on Monday: Lynn Sher, broadcaster and author of the new book "Swim: Why We Love the Water," interviewed novelist Richard Russo about “Why Indies Matter” … Dan Cullen of the ABA lead a panel discussion how how to “put the 'sell' in bookseller” and build an in-store sales process that works… At the Publishers Launch convention, Phil Ollila of Ingram shared statistics on merchandise mix at bookstores and shared thoughts on how to “ensure that real bookstores remain a part of the landscape, even as e-book sales grow.” According to Ollila’s data, the more heavily a store relies on fiction in its mix, (68% fiction in a typical store), the less sales growth there will be.

At the ever-popular Editor’s Buzz panels, new picks for this year were announced:

ADULT EDITOR BUZZ

• The People Of Forever Are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu (Crown Publishing)
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (Random House Publishing)
• In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner (Simon & Schuster)
• Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan (Free Press)
• Panorama City by Antoine Wilson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• A Million Heavens (McSweeney’s Publishing)

YOUNG ADULT BUZZ