post BEA crash landing

I didn't fall out of my chair at the bar this year, and the wait staff didn't hustle us out the door as they have in years past, and best of all it wasn't raining when we all need to flag cabs to get home, so all in all, the post BEA drinks date with La Slitherina, Death Kitten and The Wombat was quite the revel.

Which is why there is no blog post today.

I'm busy locating my senses. I may have left them with my shoes.  I'm calling in the experts for help.

BEA for aspiring writers

I'm an aspiring novelist and an assistant editor for a travel book company. I'm going to BEA for the first time this year and I'm a little overwhelmed by the schedule. Do you have any recommendations of the best ways to spend my first BEA, given that I am trying to get published/get an agent within the next few years (knock on wood)? 

Yes. Don't go.

Unless your job for the travel book company requires you to attend, you're better off not going. If your job
does require you to attend, focus on what you need to do for your job. At your first BEA that will be more than enough to keep you busy.

BEA is NOT a place for writers to meet agents or try to get info on getting published.  Yes, I'll be there. So will everyone from my office. I'm not there to meet you. I'm there to see what publishers are doing. I'm there to meet with my co-agents from far flung lands.  I'm there to get a sense of the sea changes in the industry.  


The people who staff the booths of the publishers are most often NOT the editors who acquire manuscripts either. They're the sales people, the marketing folks, the publicity team.  They're there to talk to book buyers from bookstores, librarians, wholesalers and overseas publishers.  


Every single person working a booth at BEA has a horror story of some deluded author trying to press a manuscript on them, or asking who to send the manuscript to. Don't be that author, please.


And just in case you're absolutely sure you're the exception to this rule, here's a little known fact that should seal the deal: often times the people in the booth wear the wrong name on their badge because they share badges.  You think you're talking to a marketing person, it's really an intern brought in to help pack up boxes or hand out ARCs.


I know many authors who've gone to BEA and the most common response has been "I had no idea there were this many books." In other words, it's a daunting place to be particularly when you don't have an agent, let alone a book deal.


You want to go to WRITER'S CONFERENCES, not trade shows.  Go where agents ARE actively looking to talk to you.

BEA moment #3

It was a real pleasure to see Dan Krokos signing his new middle grade book THE PLANET THIEVES!



 

And even more to see there was one helluva line!

BEA moment #2

As I was resizing the photo of Veronica's new book for posting on the blog I noticed what the man in the lower left corner is holding: BLOWBACK by Valerie Plame.

The editor for BLOWBACK had just sent me an ARC a couple days before BEA began and I'd been seriously bummed out that I couldn't start reading instantly.  I guess I'm not the only one eager to read it!

BEA moment

I must tell you I shrieked when I saw this banner for Allegient. And you can bet what I shrieked was

DAUNTLESS!!!!!!!!!

BEA smatterings

Olivia!!

BEA smatterings

Our foreign rights team was in action at BEA.  It was very cool to hear what other countries are interested in reading, and what they are NOT interested in at all!

BEA Book Buzz Panel

Whoever scheduled the Book Buzz panel for 4:15pm on Monday has my thanks! After a so-so day in the trenches of the education panels it was GREAT to hear editors talk about books they love and books they hope we will love. It was a great reminder that we were all there cause we were passionate about the same thing: great books.

And the place was PACKED. If there'd been chandeliers we'd have been hanging from them. I arrived at 3pm to secure prime seats. I had to fend off trespassers, interlopers and other brigands till the FPLM contingent arrived. Fortunately Brooks and Becky understand "come now!" means don't dawdle when they see it on a text message from me.

Here are the books that were buzzed:

BRAIN ON FIRE by Susannah Cahalan.
Editor: Millicent Bennett, FreePress.
Pub date 11/13/12

This is a memoir by a woman who was stricken with a disease that no one could diagnose or find. On paper she was 100% normal.  In person she was hallucinating, violent, paranoid and heading for death.

"It reads like a thriller," we were told and I believe it.  Turns out the author had a rare autoimmune disease. When she was diagnosed, she was the 217th person to have it.

More than the story of one person though, this is "an exploration of the science behind the disease," a disease that may be what people in the Middle Ages who were thought to be possessed by demons actually had.

And the last sentence left the audience gasping: the author may have contracted this disease when someone sneezed on her in the subway.

The reason there's no picture of this book above: it's at home. I started reading it last night and yes, it's amazing. 



THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY by Rachel Joyce.
Editor: Kendra Harpster, Random House.
Pub date: 7/24/12

"A love story in reverse" got my attention. And that it reminded me of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, a book I loved wholeheartedly.


A MILLION HEAVENS by John Brandon.
Editor: Eli Horowitz, McSweeneys.
Pub date: 7/10/12

"Events effortlessly tumble forward" has to be one of the greatest descriptions of how a plot moves I've ever heard.  The editor describes this as a mashup of Denis Johnson and Elmore Leonard.  For that alone I've got to read it.



IN THE SHADOW OF THE BANYON by Vaddey Ratner.
Editor: Trish Todd, Simon and Schuster.
Pub date: 8/7/12

When asked why she had written a novel, not a memoir, the author, who was 5 when the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, and 11 when she arrived in the United States as a refugee, said she "wanted to memorialize the people she knew and loved with a work of art."

This is a book about "the power of words to transcend loss."

It was all I could do not to leap out of my seat, race to the stacks of books, seize this and start reading at once.  In fact, I did do all those things, waiting only until  the close of the presentations.

And I started reading this last night too. (Sleep is for later!)  I have a feeling you'll be hearing about me on the topic of this book again.

THE PEOPLE OF FOREVER ARE NOT AFRAID by Shani Boianjiu.
Editor: Alexis Washam, Hogarth.
Pub date: 9/11/12

"The Things They Carried" meets "Mean Girls." Hard to top that comparison isn't it! This is the story, a braided story, of three girls who are conscripted into the Israeli Defense Force and how their lives will never be the same.  A "fusion of pop culture and the military." The girls are cleaning their weapons and talking about Lady Gaga.  Having trysts in the shed that's used to store extra ammunition.

Alexander Chee said this is "written in bullets, teargas and love." (Since I'm a devoted fan of Alexander Chee this got my attention!)

PANORAMA CITY by Antoine Wilson.
Editor: Lauren Wein, HMH.
Pub date: 9/25/12.

This novel "puts you back in touch with your childhood self without condescending to your adult self."

I wasn't quick enough to grab a copy of this, and I ducked out early to get the other books so I missed most of what Lauren said, sadly. Next year I'm cloning myself so I can be two places at the same time!



I left the Buzz Panel with a restored sense of enthusiasm and energy.  It was the highlight of the day!

BEA Day 1

 

Good morning Publishing!

The Javits Center is a full tilt wreck this year. Honest to god I hope the Reed Exhibitions got a discount for this.  The extension of the 7 train line has torn up the street in front of the place, and the refurbishing going on inside means a hard hat wouldn't be out of place.

Dear old Javits.  I remember the year they couldn’t get the air conditioning on, and the year they couldn't get it off.  Now this. There's only one consistent problem: the line at Starbucks is so long you could conduct a three round auction in the time it takes to get a latte.

The actual registration process is so smooth however you wish Reed ran every hotel in the country.  I think it took 45 seconds to get my two badges. And that's cause I dropped one. I waited in line for abut three minutes.  Of course, the trick is to come early.

The first panel was about GoodReads.  I don't know much about GoodReads so I figured I'd stop in and learn a few things.

The presenter was Patrick Brown, Community Manager and Author Program Manager.  Here are some of the things he told us:

GoodReads has 9 million users; it's the world's largest site for book reviews and recommendations. (when asked in the Q&A who he saw as GR's competition: Facebook and Amazon)

GoodReads' mission is discovery: help people find books they love. That's a mission I can certainly get behind.

Best way to build presence on GoodReads is early in the life of the book. This gets the book into the algorithm GoodReads uses to put books front and center. Need HUNDREDS of review to make it to this algorithm.

Half of active GoodReads users cross post to FaceBook

GoodReads reviews are syndicated to Google, Powells, USA Today, and places like the LA Public Library

Erica Barmash, publicist at Harper, talked about her experience using a wide swath of advertising and networking sites for promoting the paperback edition of BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP:

GoodReads had a higher percentage of clickthroughs per impression. Some sites had more impressions, some had more clicks, but click/impression ratio was highest on GoodReads Other sites: FB, EW, People.

GoodReads can also tell you what the clickers do next: add the book/reviewed the book/rated the book, which other sites can not.

Thus GoodReads can measure (somewhat at least) the efficiency of the ad.

Erica was convinced GoodReads gave her the best value for her investment dollar.

AUTHOR PROGRAM on GoodReads

Average giveaway gets 850 entries. A lot of people who enter giveaways list the book as To Be Read.

Giveaways (in Q&A revealed that only physical books are eligible now, GoodReads not set up for ebook giveaways) are good for building number  of reviews (see above for purpose/advantage of reviews.)

BookClubs on GoodReads

There are 20,000 book clubs on GR.

Unlike general GoodReads, bookclubs are moderated.

Authors can join groups as readers, lay the groundwork for their own book being discussed.

I left feeling like I'd learned a lot.  Some of my clients have had brutal experiences over at GoodReads, so I'm interested in figuring out how to have that NOT happen, and also how to reach a nice chunk of those nine million people!

The next panel I attended was TWEET THIS NOT THAT

I'm not going to complain that the presenter didn't have the correct adapter for her laptop cause really, that could happen to anyone. 

I am going to complain that it was clear no one had given a single thought to how slides work in a large room.  This is NOT rocket science.  This is Presentations 101.

Slides should be visible and readable to the folks in the back of the room.  Not only were they not, I couldn't see them, and I was about half way to the front. And just to make sure it wasn't me, I asked the woman next to me if she could see them, and no, she  couldn't.

And the presenter, when tasked with the fact her  slides could not be read did NOT do the one thing that was easiest: read them aloud. No, she said she'd post them on her slide show account later.  Well, fuck that. Later I'll be someplace else and later I've forgotten where she posted it and later to all this anyway.

And then, she reviews the basics of twitter.  I'm about ready to blow my stack at the BEA education panel organizers. Could someone over there please get it through their thick heads that we know what Twitter is! We know what hashtags are! What we want is to hear about the stuff we don't know about--what works, what's effective, and most important what ISN'T.

So after three "case studies" that weren't--they were basically screenshots of twitter accounts, and some facts about Twitter advertising (the least affordable thing on Twitter and the least likely things authors are going to use) she STOPPED. And asked for Questions!

The audience was as perplexed as I was. Questions about what? There wasn't anything of substance here.  We couldn't see the slides, she'd given us no insights or strategy.

I can't remember at what point the presenter referred to GoodReads as a small social networking site about books, but that was what did me in.  GoodReads isn't a lot of things,  but one thing it IS is big. Unless you think nine million people is small, in which case I remind you that's the number of people who live in NYC. 

I left.

The twitter panel last year at BEA was a disaster. I couldn't believe it could get worse. This was worse.  And it didn't have to be. I'm not sure if the presenter isn't used to giving talks like this, or if she hadn't practiced, or hadn't done any research on what people want to know, but it was a #panelFail on all three accounts.

It was really disappointing cause I'm always on the hunt for companies that know how to do this stuff, and can help authors. This company probably can do that; what they can't do is teach it.

I collected my minion and headed for the bar.

I've got about an hour before I need to go stake out seats for the Buzz panel at 4pm.  That panel fills up FAST and I've learned the hard way to get there early and defend my seat with hostile vibrations.

(more on the buzz panel, which was wonderful, later)

This is a typical BEA education day: a good panel, and a panel that could have been good. Unfortunately the organizers have no way to know if a presenter is good or prepared. All they see are the topic titles.  If there's a way to fix this, I sure hope they figure it out.  I'm really tired of learning stuff the hard way. I'd really like to benefit from what some other people have learned about social media.

BEA 2011 Day Four or How a Map and A Sawbuck Saved Me From a Life of Crime

Book Expo America draws all sorts of people to its shores.  One of the things I most enjoy is swimming around the non-book exhibits.  Yes, it's true, I love the gadget displays of store furniture; stationery; calendars; and maps.  And this year, I about fell over myself with joy upon discovering the Moleskine exhibit.

If you have not discovered the pleasure of Moleskine, stop reading this blog post right now and go here.

I've pawed through the Moleskin offerings for years, just cause I love the feel of them. I've never been able to bring myself to spend the money on a notebook though.  (I buy my notepads from Staples for a buck a piece...and that's after three years of trying every different notepad on the market!)

This year at BEA though, my sharkly eye was instantly drawn to something new in the Moleskin offerings: briefcases and messenger bags.  I have a lovely bag I bought a couple years ago, but it weighs a ton even empty.  I've been on the hunt for something more lightweight.

And here it was.  I picked it up. I stroked it.  An eagle eyed booth attendant was on me instantly with a glint in her eye that meant "put down the bag; back away from the display."

I enthused.
I extolled.

I drooled.
I fawned.

And I think I might have offered to steal it.

Well, that brought out the head honcho who briskly frog marched kindly escorted me to the other end of the exhibit and brought out a clever map showing where Moleskine products can be purchased in NYC.

I snatched the map from her hand so fast she got a paper cut.

I might have hollered "thank you!" but it was over my shoulder at full speed gallop.

Yes, I flagged a cab and waved a twenty at the driver. "Hurry!" I screamed, "the store closes in five minutes."

Say what you will about NYC cabbies, they know how to leapfrog over double-parked cars, and carom around belching buses, and dawdling pedestrians.

My cabbie deposited me in a shower of flame and crack of the sound barrier in 93 seconds flat.  I threw him the twenty and another ten for the fare.  At last glimpse he was in conversation with New York's Finest, a conversation I did not pause to join.

I leaped into the store, spent several moments oohing and ahhing over all the choices, then grabbed the messenger bag.  I think it might weigh ten ounces total. It's sleek, like a seal. It was all I could do not to eat it.

So I bought it.

An added bonus was the gorgeous bag enclosing my new gorgeous bag:

I hope the Moleskin exhibitors at BEA read this. I'd hate to have them think I wasn't serious when I said if I couldn't buy it soon I'd have to steal it. 


Saved from a life of crime!

BEA 2011 Day Three

The big news today is that Barry Eisler isn't self publishing his next John Rain book.

Barry Eisler announced today during his presentation at Publishers Launch Conference, an event held alongside BEA, that he has signed "within the hour" a deal with Thomas and Mercer, the new crime imprint at Amazon.

In response to the moderator's question, Eisler also revealed he was receiving an advance "comparable to the one offered by Minotaur" which is widely rumored to be near $500,000.

Eisler said the print royalties were commensurate with what he'd have received in his contract at Minotaur and the ebook royalty rates were much higher, near 70% (a percentage of what exactly was not specified.)

I'm sure there will be more complete reports in trades tonight.  Keep an eye out for scheduled pub date: one thing Eisler was dissatisfied with was how long it took "traditional publishers" to publish a book.

I'm keeping a very close eye on a couple things: the reaction from Minotaur; the reaction from Dan Conaway; and what term Eisler will now use to describe Amazon since "legacy publisher" appears to describe everyone else.

BEA 2011 Day Two

It was a very busy day.
Very good. Very productive. VERY full of words.

My word hoard is bare.

More later.

BEA 2011 Day One

Book Expo is the annual trade show where booksellers meet publishers to hear about what's coming in the next season.  Like every great clash of opposing forces, the hangers-on outnumber the direct combatants and provide most of the low comedy.  I am one of the hangers-on.  As a literary agent, I'm useless to booksellers, and publishers alike.  Doesn't matter. I'm badged, and ready for fun.

And BEA is fun.  It's fun because this is the one time of year when I know that I'll learn stuff I didn't know I needed to know. I'll connect with old friends, dodge new enemies, and if I'm lucky, find some great stuff to read.  (This is the point when my faithful readers can point to yesterday's blog about the BIO conference and how many books I dragged home and look askance at the idea I need ANY new books for two more years.)

But I digress.

I'd intended to swim over to the Javits Center bright and early but was delayed because a client needed to come over to the office and sign his new contract.  Oh yes, I have my priorities in order. Contract FIRST. Then BEA.

I arrived to find the registration lines ...absent!  If you're ever attending BEA, the first day is the best day to pick up badges. Tomorrow the lines will be out the door and down 11th Avenue but today, no one.  And yet, there were a lot of people there.

The first lucky collision was with an old friend Susannah Greenberg.  It was great to catch up with her and hear about some of the interesting things she's doing with Google ads.  (Susannah is a terrific publicist just fyi.)

A quick glance at the list of panels turned up "Making Non-Fiction Sexy" and there was no chance I could resist that!  Off I swam to the panel.

It became clear from the start that the panel was intended for booksellers.  I'd stumbled into new and foreign territory, but the people didn't throw stones, so I huddled inconspicuously and took notes.

The panel moderator was Oren Teicher, head of the ABA.  He mentioned that most bookstores sell 1/3 fiction, and 2/3 non-fiction. Nods from the audience confirmed this statement.

It took me a couple minutes to realize that statistic undercut the premise of the panel.  Making something "sexy" is jargon for increasing how attractive it is for buyers.  It's clear from those sales stats that non-fiction is quite sexy enough, thank you.

And yet, if you ask anyone about hot books, or the what's being buzzed at BEA (as in the Editors Book Buzz to follow) they all talk about fiction. 


After the Non-fiction seminar, I dashed across the hall to make sure I got a good seat for the Editors Buzz at 4:30. I know from long experience that the room fills up quickly.  My strategy is to attend the panel meeting in the same room and right before the buzz panel thus securing a seat. Second row left side, voila!

In this case,the panel before the Buzz Panel was the opening plenary speech by Margaret Atwood.  I've met Margaret Atwood, I've read Margaret Atwood. I've been lectured and reprimanded by Margaret Atwood.  I planned to listen, but I was there just to hold the chair.

Boy was I surprised.  Margaret Atwood is hilarious. Really REALLY hilarious, and smart funny too.  I was shocked to my shoes.  Then I was so immersed in what she was saying I forgot to take notes.  She told us about the three speeches she started to prepare for this event, and in telling us about why she wanted to talk about the topic, and why she couldn't complete the topic, conveyed more to us than if she'd simply told us her main point. In other words she told us a story, and in doing so let us draw our own conclusions about what she meant.  And no surprise: she's brilliant.

Utterly and completely brilliant.

It's amazing what you find at BEA when you're not looking.

When I tell you  her new book is about science fiction, and she told us she loved SF: science fiction, fantasy, sword and sorcery, slipstream fiction, you won't be be surprised at all.  Such clever and complex minds need more than earthly dimensions!

And when I heard her say "I'm the only person you know who's read all the Conan the Conqueror books" only to have three people in the audience say "hey, me too!" I knew I was at BEA 2011!

And when her closing comments were about the provenance of metallic brassieres, I knew it was going to be a GREAT show.

What made BEA more fun than ever

Meredith Barnes, the Cannot Live Without Godsend, embraced the swag hunt with fervor. Truth be told, Agent Extraordinaire Suzie Townsend taught her everything she knows about swag, not I.

And yes, her shoulders were sore the next day, but it didn't stop her from coming back and finding even more wonderful books.









The tote bags are part of the office decor now. It's amazing the uses we find for them. Even the Herpet-American asssssistant is interested.





Got anything good to read in your office?
Oh yea! We do!

Sean Ferrell has fans--here's proof

Sean Ferrell signed copies of his debut novel NUMB at BEA. There were people in line for it! And not just people we knew!

BEA 2010 in 1038 words

Bill Cameron's amazing third book DAY ONE (after Lost Dog and Chasing Smoke) comes out from Tyrus Books on June 1. Tyrus' editor Alison Janssen and publisher Ben Leroy look almost as happy about this as we do!

BEA -Why Small Publishing Will Save the World

There's an artistic revolution coming.

A whole new form of something -what we're now calling an enhanced ebook -is on the horizon.

I have no idea what it will look like. It will be more than a book because it will be more than text. It will be more than a movie because it will be more than pictures and text.

It will be more than a compilation of things that presently exist. It will be something entirely new.

It will be interactive. It will be visual. It will be electronic. It won't be tactile. Other than that, I have no idea what it will be.

But it's coming.

And I guarantee you the place we'll see it first will be small presses: self publishers, small publishers, entrepreneurs.

Here's the main reason: there's no R&D Division at any publisher I know. Not even the small ones. Publishers depend on someone to bring them content. They can add value (and do!) They can re-purpose and repackage (and they do.) What they can't do is invent.

And this form needs to be invented. And when it is, it's going to fail. A lot. And by fail, I mean not sell. Certainly not sell in any kind of volume that would earn out or turn a profit if the publisher runs a P&L.

So, even if they see this New Thing, they'll say no. And if by some miracle they say yes, they'll start saying No as soon as the first quarter numbers come in and the stock prices drop.


For editors and staff at a large publisher, the consequences for a failure, and repeated failure are pretty big. Lower profits, getting fired. When you answer to the balance sheet and stockholders, it's hard to say "this is cool, but we need a couple years to make it work." Particularly if it's something no one has ever seen before. And no one seems to want. Or need.

And if you point out that software companies did exactly this, let me point out in return that most of those companies were brand new, the stockholders worked there, and the money came from venture capitalists. None of those describe publishing. We're one of the world's OLDEST industries, not the newest.

But here's what I think is going to happen.

Some guy in his basement or attic, or tree house lair is going to come up with Whatever This New Thing is Going to Be. And he's going to publish it himself. For free. To whoever will read/use/ogle it. Then someone else will see it and say, this is very cool, and do it too.

This is where the software revolution will be the metaphor: kids writing code in their basements that turned into Myspace; FaceBook; whatever.

And big corporate publishers won't be able to come in and "buy up rights" because who knows what rights they're buying? And how on earth will it be sold? All of general trade publishing right now is based on the model of licensing rights and paying licensors on a royalty basis.

This new art form isn't going to work that way, and corporate publishing simply won't be able to figure out how to deal with it very quickly (they will though, just not quickly)

The first guys who are going to make this new art form available other than one to one will be the guys like Ben Leroy at Tyrus Books and Johnny Temple at Akashic Books. Guys who can move quickly cause they own the company. They're nimble. And they can be creative about how to pay people (I don't mean this as code for NOT paying.)


I have no idea what I'm talking about here. No one else does either. It's like a black hole in space. No one can see it, but you can tell it's there cause of how objects around it shift and change.

I can feel shifting in the universe here; change is coming.

In a year, maybe two, I'll read this post and laugh at how much I didn't know. But I'm really really excited to see what's coming.

And I'm really glad there are places like Tyrus Books and Akashic Books to give me great hope that brilliant creativity will flourish.

And that's another reason I love BEA: it's a chance to see the guys running these small presses and talk with them about what they're doing; what they're excited about. Even guys who are going to save the world need to chat about books once in a while!

BEA Day 2- the rest of the day

Wednesday was the first day the trade show floor opened. I know there were people lined up at 9am to be first through the door, and first on the floor to dive into the fray; I was not one of them. I have gone through Swagopause thank you very much. The godsends of course were in the thick of it (and have the sore shoulders now to prove it.)

Once again I was astonished by "no books at BEA." In years past, right up till 2009 in fact, most publishers had stacks and stacks of books in their booths. They pressed them into your hands. On Sunday afternoon, traditionally the last day of the show, they'd beg you to take them rather than haul them home.

I never thought I'd be one of those people who moaned about the good old days of publishing, but damn I do miss the books.

I miss the books because I actually love books. The touch, the feel, the look, the smell. I don't revere them as sacred objects but I love them. And sheets of cardboard with code to access an ebook galley isn't a book. Electronic screens showing book covers are not books. They aren't tactile.

I pray print doesn't die because the death of print books is the death of reading as a tactile experience. And if print does die, I hope it's after I'm dead, cause frankly there are a couple books I want in the sharcophagus in case the line to discuss things with St. Peter is going slowly.


Speaking of death, if a meteor had hit the north end of the Javits Center at 3:30pm a significant portion of the membership of AAR would be looking for book proposals on how to survive a meteor. The panel on Enhanced E-books drew a sea of agents, all of us interested in what enhanced e-books are.

Much like the panel on apps the day before, I started out knowing nothing. I know what an ebook is; I own more than a few. What's an "enhanced ebook?" And how is it different than an app?

The answer is no one else really knows either. Publishers selling into the academic and library market have been publishing books that have more than text components for years, but they are usually encyclopedias or reference works. And libraries buy a subscription to the work, not the actual work itself.

This panel raised more questions than it answered, but it got us asking questions and gave us all a sense there's a lot more to be said on the subject. It was terrifically interesting and thanks to Jeff Kleinman for a great job as moderator. (Remember Jeff Kleinman?)

At the close of the day, I swam over to a favorite bar on Ninth Avenue with a bevy of other sharks, and drank enough Mai Tais to make me float home. Mai Tais 10; Shark 0.

I may love my job---at this point I can't remember what it is. Or who I am. Or how to read.

BEA Day 2-the moments you live for

Today was the BEA day we'd all been looking forward to. When I say "we" I mean everyone at FinePrint, and everyone at Nancy Coffey Literary, and everyone in the Joanna Stampfel-Volpe fan club.

Today was the YA Editors Buzz panel and we'd known for some time that the very smart editors over at Little,Brown had chosen Kody Keplinger's debut novel The DUFF as the book they wanted to buzz.

Remember Kody Keplinger?


As is our strategy for panels we expect to be SRO we went early and staked out seats. Kick Ass and Take Names Agent Suzie Townsend, I'd Be Lost Without Her godsend Meredith, our new intern Zach and I were in the sixth row. Lurking behind us were (the Ever Slithery) Barbara Poelle and Holly Root accompanied by Sophie Littlefield. The row ahead of us had very very VIP personages. In other words, we were fan club not to be denied.

The panel proceeded apace. Many fine books were mentioned. Suzie and Meredith made periodic dashes to the back of the room to secure galleys.

Then, the moment arrived. Cindy Eagan, Editorial Director of Little, Brown's Poppy imprint rose to talk about The Duff.

She gave an eloquent and enticing presentation.

At the close of her talk she said "When JD Salinger died, I, like many of you I'm sure, re-read The Catcher in the Rye. I was struck again by how that wry, angry voice seemed to be that of an entire generation.

"When I read The Duff, I had that same reaction: an angry yet so funny voice that seems to speak for an entire generation."

Dear Reader, I wept.

For Kody, yes. To have your debut novel compared to Catcher in the Rye is beyond words.

But honestly, my tears were for Joanna Stampfel Volpe, Kody's amazing and talented agent.

Joanna used to be my intern, and I remember her early days well. She was funny, and smart, and I knew instantly she was someone I wanted to work with.

She demonstrated a keen eye for good books (Gary Corby has her to thank for fishing him out of the queries) immediately.

Soon she was a valued member of our FinePrint team. When she moved up and on to be an agent in her own right at Nancy Coffey Literary, we teased her about abandoning us (although she remained here in Suite 500) but we cheered her advancing career.

She was soon signing clients and making deals. Auctions. Big ass deals. And all the while, her delightful charm never wavered. Not through the tough moments and keen disappointments that are the woof and warp of daily literary life, particularly in a year when it seemed publishing was going to the dogs.

Joanna enlivens our suite in a way that is irreplaceable.

So, when Cindy Eagan said what she did about Kody's book, I wept. My heart was bursting with joy, and pride, and delight.

I can count on one fin the number of times I've wept at BEA: one.



These are the moments you live for. The moments when you realize that a book can arrive in the slush ; be spotted by a talented agent; bought by a prescient editor; supported by an enthusiastic and eloquent publisher; and then be in the hands of readers who may very well find The Duff is a book that changed their lives.

This is the best job in the world.
I'm surrounded by colleagues of extraordinary talent and grace.

Today I remembered why I love my job.

First day at BEA 2010

BEA is both a revival meeting and trade show for the publishing industry. We come from all corners of the country, the globe really, and talk to each other about the terrible dire straits publishing is in, how it was so much better way back when, and how we really can't see ourselves doing anything else. Honest, it's kinda fun in a Eeyore kind of way.

Today was the first real day even though the actual show doesn't open till tomorrow. Today was the chance for seminars and panels, the chance to remember where the Javits Center is and that water costs $3.00 a bottle so bring some from the corner bodega tomorrow.

The first presentation I attended was "Bringing Your Authors to the Social Media Party...and Getting Them to Stay." Frankly I'm not sure if the presenters didn't know what the title was or didn't have a clue how to actually do what the title said. It was worse than useless as a panel because it made social media sound corporate, difficult and not much fun. None of those are true.

It was all I could do not to leap up, grab the mic and say "ok, who here understands that Twitter is simply about making friends?" and then talk about how to make friends. Because honestly that really IS what Twitter is about. The reason that's important: marketing studies tell us (and have for YEARS) that word of mouth is the most effective form of book publicity.

Let me say that again: Word of mouth is the most effective form of book publicity.

How do you get people to talk about your book?
You meet them and befriend them.

How do you do that?
Twitter.
Facebook.
(And a myriad of other ways.)

It's not rocket science. And it's fun.

I think what annoyed me most about the panel is that it was clear they weren't even familiar with what authors in trade publishing need to do, or the barriers they face. The panelists described themselves as publishers, but their company is a software company, and what they publish looked and sounded like books for established customers.

This is apples and oranges with trade publishing.

Unfortunately I was trapped on the inside row, and it was too early in the morning to levitate out of my seat and leapfrog over the assembled multitude, so I just suffered. As did most of the people around me when the session (finally!) ended and we rolled our eyes at each other.

I was mollified by the arrival of the Amazing Suzie Townsend and the Essential to My Survival Meredith Barnes accompanied by the Greatly Missed Godsend Jujubeantea, and having them whisk me off to coffee and (lots of) complaining.

I decided to risk another panel, and chose "I'll Never Pay Over $9.99 For E-Books!" and Similar Lies" presented by Michael Norris of SIMBA. The contrast with the earlier session was marked. For starters, he was knowledgeable about general trade publishing. And he was funny. And he had clear, well planned out slides with interesting information. Much of what he said was info I already had, but I defiantly felt like it helped to hear it again, and it gave me some interesting things to think about in terms of information I'd really like to have.

No mollification required after this seminar at all.

And that was a good thing because we had to haul ass down to the next panel cause we figured it would be standing room only: "Mobile Apps: A Publisher Roadmap for Creation and Use"

Indeed it was SRO by the time the panel started but we were carefully ensconced in Row 2 right in front so we could see the slides and the camera work.

I knew nothing about mobile apps. Zilch, nada, zip. Right down to answering the question "What is an app" with "I dunno."

A lot of what the panelists said went straight over my head. Some of it stuck though and it was tremendously exciting to see the kinds of amazing things that can be done with content. Thrilling in fact.

I've got a lot to learn about apps, and that's one of the things that's high on my list for this BEA. I may not know a lot by the end but I will be able to tell you what it is.

Suzie and Meredith reminded me the panel we wanted to attend next was in the same room as the App panel, but there would be an intervening panel before "ours" started.

We didn't have a clue what that next panel would be. We really didn't care; we just wanted to keep our seats.

And this is why I will always go to BEA, and I love BEA. Serendipity.

The panel was "7 X 20 X 21"

From that title, I had no clue what it was about. It wasn't on my list of "must see." I'll NEVER make that mistake again. This panel was extraordinary.

The title refers to 7 minutes, for 20 slides, with 21 seconds per slide.
Each person on the panel gave a 7x20x21 presentation.

Did I mention extraordinary?


Ryan Chapman, Online Marketing Manager at Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Ami Greko, Director of Business Development at Adaptive Blue moderated. They were amazing. And they picked amazing people:


(1) Jennifer Egan, Author of The Keep and A Visit from the Goon Squad (June 2010);

Jennifer Egan gave a riveting talk on her use of PowerPoint in her new novel. Believe it. I leaned over to Meredith and said "order that book right now!"

I've been a devoted admirer of Jennifer Egan for many years. This presentation was like watching Mikhail Baryshnikov dance. Yes, you've seen ballet, but when you see Mikhail Baryshnikov dance you know you're seeing a master of the art.

Jennifer Egan was riveting.


(2)Justin Taylor, and Eva Talmadge, co-editors of The Word Made Flesh: Literary Tattoos from Bookworms Worldwide (October 2010)

I never knew I'd be interested in a book about tattoos, but I was pulled in to the concept of this book from the very first slide. It has pictures of tattoos of words, text, authors, etc, and text about why people chose to be tattooed with these images.

At one point a slide of a man's back, covered in words, flashed on the screen. There was a collective gasp from the audience. I'd never actually heard an audience at BEA gasp like that before.

Their presentation was beautiful and riveting.

(3)Jacob Lewis, CEO of FigmentFiction.com

This website isn't live yet. When it is (July 2010), go there. It's a place for teen writers to connect with each other and with professional writers.

Jacob Lewis mentioned he'd written a letter to Philip Roth after he read Portnoy's Complaint, telling Mr. Roth how the book moved him. The letter was not answered. Years later Jacob Lewis worked at The New Yorker, and met Mr. Roth, but never mentioned the unanswered letter, although he remembered it then, as he does now.

He closed his 7x20x21 by saying FigmentFiction was a place where no letter would go unanswered.

Have I mentioned riveting, and beautiful and deeply touching?


(4)Ed Nawotka, Editor-in-Chief of PublishingPerspectives.com
Ed Nawotka is brilliant. His presentation was why he thought literature should be taught backwards, an idea both revolutionary, and basic common sense. I think he's right.

Here's the idea: instead of starting kids on reading the classics, where you have to give them the vocabulary, the history, and a lot of help understanding the text, start them reading modern novels. Novels that have language they know and use. Ideas and stories they understand. Then, show them what earlier writers influenced the writers of those books and read those books and work your way BACK into literary history. Don't read Chaucer during your first term in English, read it your last.

Instead of driving high school juniors crazy with Hamlet, let them read Larry McMurtry, or Michael Chabon, or (forgive me for blatant self promotion) Sean Ferrell or Evan Mandery.

Have I mentioned stunningly obvious, brilliant, riveting and touching?


There were others, but these are the ones that made me quiver. These are the things I'm going to be talking about with a great deal of excitement.

That and ROOM by Emma Donoghue which was buzzed by Judy Clain, Executive Editor, Little, Brown & Co. and I would have trampled people to get my mitts on but fortunately Meredith ducked out five minutes early and saved me from Really Rude Reaching and Pushing.

BEA is amazing.

I love it and hate it.

I'm really glad to be attending.