the blog of author, illustrator and designer Kris Waldherr

06.01

Publishing Monday: BEA link-o-rama

As intended, I attended Book Expo America Friday. (Though it’s held throughout the weekend, I was too faint of heart and packed of schedule to venture back for another day.) Book Expo, better known in the publishing industry as BEA, is the biggest publishing convention in the United States. It’s held by the American Booksellers Association, the national trade association for independent booksellers, at the Javits Center in New York City.

Here’s my three word summary of BEA: Changes are afoot.

Another three words: Overwhelming but necessary.

I’m still processing all that I saw and learned. When I’m able, I’ll condense them all into a “state of the industry” post here, along with a detailed recap of my adventures at Javits. But in the meantime, here are some links deconstructing BEA that I found valuable:

The Future of Publishing via the Book Publicity Blog.

The New York Times on BEA and electronic publishing.

Why the publishing industry is in trouble from Publisher’s Weekly.

Another Publisher’s Weekly recap (but more positive).

Yahoo! News on BEA and the lack of Spanish translations.

One writer’s day at BEA.

And last, but certainly not least, Harper Studio’s take. (As I wrote a while back, Harper Studio is trying to revamp the traditional author-publisher publishing model.)

Anyone reading who attended, I hope you’ll take a moment to comment about your thoughts on this year’s BEA! In the meantime, I’ll be gathering my words as I rest my sore shoulders after lugging my BEA-scored book catalogs, swag, ARCs and more about the caverns of NYC. I’ll aim to post some photos too!

comments

Carlyn Beccia wrote on June 2, 2009 at 9:28 am:

Thanks for all these great articles. I couldn’t make it out to “Sunday Bloody Sunday” (yikes!) this year, but BEA is one of my favorite conferences.

Lisa Hunt wrote on June 3, 2009 at 6:12 am:

Kris:
Thank you so much for the BEA lowdown. Despite the hesitancy by some to embrace the swift changes taking place in the industry, I personally feel traditional book publishing will never completely go away, but will be one of many choices. I think the key is to not reject what can be perceived as overwhelming, but to identify the opportunities that lie ahead. Everything is still so new and transient that it is hard to predict what the longstanding format for the literary arts will be, but I do believe everything goes in cycles. What may seem obsolete today may return to vogue in the next decade. Remember the icky presep books of the 60s and 70s and the return of lavishly illustrated full color printed books of the 80s and beyond? Hopefully, the beauty of books will never lose their appeal and perhaps if kindle (or a similar technology) expands and showcases the beauty of design, art and typography as it is meant to be displayed, another wave of book collecting will sweep a new generation of enthusiasts. For myself, I think this revolution of sorts is nothing short of fascinating and worth keeping a vested interest in. And I doubt we’ll ever return to what was as a book buying public, rather I believe we’ll embrace the multi media options that are most likely here to stay for a while.

Christina Rodriguez wrote on June 5, 2009 at 10:46 am:

Wow, these are GREAT links, Kris! Thanks so much for posting them.

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Publishing Monday: BEA link-o-rama

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