Book Expo America 5/29/2009

Charlotte Bronte 1854 Photograph. I just like the photograph.

Book Expo America 5/29/2009

Today I am going to Book Expo America. I look forward to being there for a day. A lot of it will just be walking around and looking at the different exhibitors and collecting catalogs. There should be a lot of galleys to get as well as some unique things to look at that are just coming out in print. I really enjoyed it two years ago, I am hoping this year will be even better.

I got to the convention and registered. It was a positively gigantic, the Jacob Javits Center is huge. I registered and started my wandering around to the different booths. I did not go to any sessions I just checked all the exhibitors. I walked and walked for six hours. I did stop for a little bit to go to the librarians lounge where I picked up two cups of coffee and some snack mix. I also picked up the latest Library Journal and the latest Publishers Weekly. Baker and Taylor was sponsoring the librarians lounge. They sponsored it the last I was there as well. It was a nice chance to rest my feet. I did not eat at the show, I had a big breakfast before I went there.

By the end of the day, I had 35 pounds of books and catalogs which I had gotten for free. I decided not to take them on the subway and had them shipped using the shipping service which the conventions offers. I carried them home last time and it was not easy. Plus they had the usual knick knacks and freebies, a variety of fancy pens, a cup from Cambridge University Press, some earbuds from Audible-- which is an electronic audiobook producer, a brain squeeze toy, cloth carry bags, plus lots of little candies in bowls.

I was surprised that I did not see Del Rey, Baen, or most of the large science fiction publishers. There was Pyre, Tor, and Orbit. Also most of the comic book publishers did not come. I saw Fantagraphics, Marvel, NBM, Oni and a few others. There were no manga publishers. I guess most of them are going to the New York Comic Con. Still, I got a few nice samples that were not galleys that I plan to add to the collection like Scott Pilgrim Volume 1 which is a Canadian manga. Scott Pilgrim is going to be made into a movie. If you like classic high quality reprints of comic books, Hermes Press has an excellent reprint edition of Buck Rogers. http://www.hermespress.com/

There were two really interesting contemporary art books which are coming out. One is Ron English Abraham Obama which is about the different art centered around the Obama campaign. Another is Banksy's Bristol Home Sweet Home by Stephen Wright illustrated by Banksy.

I also got a few catalogs for forthcoming books including the Fall 2009 Nolo Catalog for law, and the Fall 2009 Jist Catalog for career books. I got lots of catalogs. I also started writing down a few websites once I realized it might be easier to just take down the name of the website instead of carrying a catalog home. Moon Books has a nice website for their travel books http://www.moon.com/ . Also Early Word http://www.earlyword.com/ lists many of the forthcoming book catalogs on their website.

I noticed that some of the books being sold also include a subscription to a website. The new MLA Handbook, 7th Edition includes access to a website with the full text of the book that is searchable in addition to the print book. http://www.mlahandbook.org/fragment/public_index;jsessionid=4B84C5DED670CE0648C38482B8A9A184

You also learn about different things. Netgalley was hosting bloggers at their booth. I got to meet Natasha Maw, the person behind Maw Books for a few minutes http://blog.mawbooks.com/ . I also registered for the http://www.netgalley.com/ and requested to look at a galley which I saw at the O'Reilly Media booth, The Twitter Book by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein.

Most of the material which I picked up was nonfiction books. They were not giving away as many advanced uncorrected proofs as before. Many they were only showing during the show. I think this will help Netgalley considerably. Paper is becoming more expensive.

I was surprised at the number of audiobook people at the show. They comprised many more booths than the last time I was there. Overdrive had a very big display announcing their ability to sell books for the Iphone. Overdrive seems to be the partner of choice for public libraries.

If you want to see some of the titles which I saw you can to the New Title Show Case which is a website which will show many of the titles being exhibited at Book Expo. Many of these titles are in the exhibitors booths. http://newtitleshowcase.com/

I went to the African American Pavilion, the Graphic Novels Pavilion, wandered through the childrens book area and even went to look at some of the meeting rooms. Rodale was not showing on the floor, they had put aside a meeting room for business, also Saint Martins, Tor Books, and a few other publishers were in separate meeting rooms, not on the main floor. It looked like some of the publishers were there strictly for rights, signing authors, and other business. There was a very large area set aside for Arabic publishers this year.

As I was wandering, I recognized a few people from Brooklyn Public Library and other places. I also recognized some of the dealers in the comics section. Maybe I will see them again when I go to the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival on June 6, 2009 in Manhattan, New York. http://www.moccany.org/