Everyone loves a hero -- especially pilot Sully

A crowd of nearly 300 people crammed into the Uptown Author’s Stage on Saturday at BEA to hear Capt. Chesler “Sully” Sullenberger III, the US Airways pilot who glided a disabled passenger jet to a safe splashdown landing in the middle of the Hudson River on Jan. 15. In a lovely bit of location synergy, the Jacobs K. Javits Convention Center, where Book Expo America is being held this weekend, is just a few blocks from where the world watched potential disaster change into a remarkable moment of survival of 155 people.

Sullenberger took the podium a few minutes after 3 p.m., thanked the crowd, and talked a bit about his book-in-progress, "Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters" with co-author Jeffrey Zaslow. “This has been a year of many firsts for me – I didn’t expect to be an author,” Sullenberger joked.

He said the book would recap the landing of the plane and “the way I’ve been able to reflect upon my life and ... the way I’ve chosen to live and to think and to view the world that turned out, in retrospect, to be a preparation not only for the events of Jan. 15, but for its inevitable aftermath. And I think it’s a universal story that’s not just my story or your story but it’s our story. It’s a human story.” A few moments later he was done – less than three minutes in all, then he sat at a table to sign bound sample chapters.

Some in the audience were annoyed by the short presentation. Jeannie Moretto, a librarian from Bradley Beach, N.J., got there early with friend Grace Vetrano to make sure they got seats. "We moved a lot because people kept cutting in front of us," Moretto said as she waited in line to get an autograph. "By the time we got settled, it was over."

Alicja Feitzinger of Dix Hills, N.Y., said she was happy to wait in a long line to get an autograph, even though she was none too happy with the short talk. "I don’t like to fly," she said, "so I’m going to hang on to that signature every time I fly."

So, do you think the book will sell? There aren’t many sure things in publishing these days, but “Highest Duty” looks to be one of them.

-- Scott Martelle

Photo: Brendan McDermid / Reuters

At BEA: The critics and the crowds

About 150 perhaps overly optimistic people -- heavy on book reviewers -- piled into a basement meeting room this morning to hear a panel of five discuss “Book Reviews 2010: What Will They Look Like?” sponsored by the National Book Critics Circle. The short answer: No one really knows.

The panelists were Otis Chandler, founder of Goodreads.com; Peter Krause, formerly of Muze and now one of the leaders at Tactic Co.; Bethanne Patrick, freelance critic and former Book Maven blogger for Publishers Weekly; blogger Ben Greenman of the New Yorker; and David Nudo, who has been involved with media old (the New York Times) and new (Shelfari).

The panel, moderated by John Reed, books editor of the Brooklyn Rail, sought to get a sense of what the media move to the Internet might mean for reviewing -- and which reviewers and reviewing platforms will retain authority. Tellingly, newspapers weren’t mentioned until near the end as the panelists debated the varying merits of the continuing evolution.

Chandler pushed the theme that most people don’t rely on reviews to decide what books to read, but on the recommendations of friends, which has fueled Goodreads’ success. But if those with authority now can “figure out and stay with the new methods of distribution they can absolutely retain their authority,” he said.

The conversation evolved into more of an analysis of the lay of the reviewing land, which was a recitation of the obvious. More and more bloggers are weighing in on books while mainstream media are laying off writers and cutting back on space. What they were describing, though they didn’t say it in so many words, is that book reviewing is at its Big Bang moment. The explosion has happened (we’ll skip the obvious “Million Little Pieces” joke) and now from the dust new systems are forming -- but no one can say for sure what the new universe will look like.

But it looks like two dominant systems will probably evolve from this mess. The informal reviews on sites like Goodreads and Amazon.com will continue and become something like the vox populi, amplifying the success of mass culture phenomena (“The Da Vinci Code,” “Harry Potter”). And there will still be the serious attempts by professional reviewers to assess literature as art, some from established outlets and others from the still-gelling litblog world. How anyone will make a living at that is still the great unknown question.

-- Scott Martelle

From hashtag to reality: the BEA tweetup

The hashtag has taken hold. Book Expo America's first tweetup -- unofficial, put together by a few hyperenthusiastic publishing industry twitter-folk -- was a genuine success.

Crowds packed into the Green House in Greenwich Village, filling the room within 30 minutes of the party's start. They had all heard about the tweetup -- a real-world meeting of Twitter friends -- through the assiduous efforts of @russmarshalek, @katmeyer and others. They organized, got sponsors who covered a Kindle giveaway and the vodka for the "michiko kakutinis" and, most importantly, tweeted about the #beatweetup in the weeks leading up to the conference.

As might be expected, the crowd skewed younger than the average BEA party. Interestingly, they came from across the conference's various cultures: Booksellers, staff of publishing houses big and small, journalists, publicists, authors and bloggers were all in attendance. Attendance may be down at BEA, but there are still thousands here, and they often segment by specialty.

So what was it that united the crowd at the Green House? Perhaps the hope that #beatweetup would introduce them to those they'd been engaging with online about books and more, in 140-character-or-less spurts.

There were just two obstacles. First, the music: While it was a great selection, it was really loud. It was hard to have a conversation that didn't involve shouting into the ear of the person next to you, which meant connecting happened slowly -- and in tiny increments.

And then there's the other problem: Although one industrious planner had printed badges with Twitter handles, it seems every one of us, myself included, is a bit fatter than our Twitter pictures would have you believe.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Carolyn Kellogg

BEA: Where have all the galleys gone?

The clearest measurement yet of a lighter and tighter Book Expo: A dearth of advance copies of upcoming releases, which was the hallmark of previous conventions.

BEA organizers said at the outset that they intended to make this a leaner operation, both in response to economic conditions and the desire by publishers to, in essence, weed out the riff-raff. Past BEA’s were infamous for people with little affiliation with publishing to buy day passes and stack dozens of galleys into pull carts for months of free reading. BEA responded by rejecting about 1,500 credential applications.

And publishers have cut back on their offerings, as well. HarperCollins, for example, brought in about 25 authors, about half of what they usually do, said Seale Ballenger, vice president and publicity director. That has meant a reduction in the breadth of galley titles, and some are available only as cards with codes that people can use to download a galley. “Not only is it a cost situation, but we’re trying to get more targeted,” Ballenger said a few feet away from where author Neil Gaiman was signing copies of "The Graveyard Book."

The cutbacks haven’t gone unnoticed.

“In years past you could barely get through the aisles” because of the stacks of galleys, Judy Lamb, a buyer for Bo Peep Books in Golden, Colo., said as she loaded books into a box in the shipping area. “Typically I would have four or five boxes. I’ve got half a box.” The loss, she said, is that sense of serendipitous exposure: “It’s always great to stumble onto books you didn’t know about and authors you didn’t know about.”

-- Scott Martelle

Photo: A sadly empty BEA 2009 book bag. Credit: Carolyn Kellogg

Tina Brown's bigwig publishing panel

Tina Brown may be one of the most glamorous women in publishing, but that’s probably not the only reason the CEO Round Table Panel was packed late Thursday afternoon, before the conference had even officially begun. The book world wants answers.

During the discussion with Brian Murray of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide, Carolyn Reidy of Simon & Schuster, John Sargent of Macmillan, and David Steinberger of Perseus Books Group, the talk was of the straight-up, Chicken Little, “The sky is falling” variety.

“Magazine articles are the new books,” Tina Brown said, referring to the public’s shrinking appetite for long-form publishing and looking like Lady Di in her chic bob and magenta power suit.

When she asked the executives about Amazon’s big push for e-books and Kindle, their response was muted. “The danger is of having a monopoly,” Steinberger said. He doesn’t expect anything about e-book pricing (set by Amazon at about 10 bucks) or e-readers to remain the same over the next few years. Brian Murray reminded the group that sales of e-books make up just 2% of HarperCollins’ revenue, so they're not a huge priority. When e-book sales revenue hits 20%, he promised to be more interested.

Sargent warned the others that piracy was another concern on the horizon. He’s seen an uptick in illegal file sharing in the college textbook market this year, both overseas and among domestic students. But they won’t be using the Kindle; college students prefer the computer, he noted.

Currently the editor in chief of the curated news website the Daily Beast, Brown asked the publishers about their viral marketing techniques. Their answers, such as they were, after the jump.

The literary version of speed dating at BEA

Well, this is certainly fast.

Perseus Books Group is in the midst of the publishing version of speed dating. As an experiment in instant-publishing, Perseus, live during BookExpo America, is putting together “Book: The Sequel,” a tongue-in-cheek project in which it solicited e-mail submissions of proposed first lines for sequels of books. Among the finalists: “Call me, Ismael,” as the opening lined from “Moby Dick’s Guide to Dating at Sea,” says Rick Joyce, Perseus’ chief marketing officer.

They spent a month collecting the submissions, and beginning at 4 p.m. Thursday culled them into 240 entries for the 144-page book. By 11:30 a.m. today they had a cover, and by 5 p.m. they hope to kick out an egalley (e-mail agustina.casal@ perseusbooks.com with “egalley Book: The Sequel” in the subject line to get a copy). The launch party for the printed version is 4 p.m. Saturday.

But the true innovation is the cross-platform approach. “Book: The Sequel” will be available in 13 different platforms, from Braille to iPods. Kindles too.

“Readers should be able to get books in whatever platform they want,” Joyce said.

To shrink the production time from weeks or months to hours requires close collaboration among all layers of the production process. “We’re learning stuff,” Joyce says. “You think about this as a puppet show, but it’s not…. We publish a lot of books and if we can do that more efficiently we can spend that time on important decisions.”

-- Scott Martelle

Steven Tyler and Clarence Clemons rock BEA

It began, as you might expect, like a rock show -- a half-hour late. Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Clarence Clemons, the saxophone-playing “Big Man” from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, were the keynote speakers on the opening night of Book Expo America, and they didn’t disappoint. Both rockers, who were interviewed by Chuck Klosterman, have memoirs coming out in the fall -- “Big Man: Real Life and Tall Tales” from Clemons and co-author Don Reo, and the perfectly titled “Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?” from Tyler.

The highlight: Clemons playing the sax solo from the classic rock anthem “Jungleland” in pieces, talking about its evolution more than 30 years ago during a 16-hour all-night session, and how each part came to be. “We really got to know each other ... after 16 hours of playing this solo every way that it was possible to take those notes and put them together,” Clemons said.

Clemons also dropped a fun historical tidbit that is in the book. Robert De Niro, who worked with Clemons in the 1977 movie “New York, New York,” stole a Springsteen mannerism for his Travis Bickle character in 1976’s “Taxi Driver” -- the finger-pointing gesture as he says, “Who, me? You talking to me?” It was the same response Springsteen used in the early concerts when the audience began chanting, “Bruce!”

Tyler is still working on his book, which he says will be more personal than the material covered in the band autobiography, “Walk this Way.” Tyler appeared with his buddy Mark Hudson and the session was less focused than the Clemons interview as Hudson seemed to keep trying to steal the limelight. A running gag developed after each interruption, when Tyler would turn back to Klosterman and say: “Anyway....”

Tyler didn’t reveal much, other than he believes he views the world differently from everyone. “When you live with your eyes open, the normal everyday thing becomes so much more,” he said, channeling his inner Dr. Phil.

-- Scott Martelle

Photo: Kevin Winter / Getty Images

A classic performance of "Jungleland":

BEA 2009: The future versus the present

If this were a competition between a vision for the future of publishing and the power of the present, the present won, no contest.

Starting at 2:30 p.m., two visionaries shared their ideas of a new kind of publishing company, a publishing company for the future. No more gatekeeping, said Richard Nash and Dedi Felman. Instead, they see an open community of writers and readers. A fascinating set of possible practices were put together in an intriguing way by two smart industry veterans. But at 2:55 p.m., as the presentation moved toward its midway, pre-Q&A point, the room steadily began to empty out.

In the ballroom next door, starting at 3 p.m., Tina Brown hosted a panel of the heads of the major publishing houses. The heavyweights: Brian Murray, president and chief executive of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide; Carolyn Reidy, president and chief executive of Simon & Schuster Inc.; John Sargent, president and chief executive, Macmillan; and David Steinberger, president and chief executive, Perseus Books Group. The room was three times as big. And there wasn't a free seat in the house.

It is tempting at an enormous, industry-wide conference like BEA to try to read the tea leaves in the detritus of its stale meeting rooms. And if I were to give into temptation, I would say that those who picked up and left the talk about a vision for the future — to hear the powerful lament the troubles of the present — made the wrong choice.

The answers to publishing's biggest questions may not be here at all. But if they are, I wager they're more likely to be found with the risk-takers and the hopeful thinkers — at least, that's who I want to hear from.

— Carolyn Kellogg

Photo credit: Carolyn Kellogg

A 'smaller, more compact' Book Expo America

Oddly, Book Expo America is going to feel more crowded when it fires up Friday, even though attendance is expected to be off by about 14% from the last time it was held here in New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in 2007.

Lance Fensterman, a vice president at show producer Reed Exhibitions, just told early-bird reporters that when it became clear attendance was going to be lower this year because of the economic troubles battering the publishing industry, the organizers “made a concerted choice to pare it down a little more. Perhaps we’re crazy, but I don’t think so. We see BEA as needing to be a highly focused, high-level event. And that probably means a smaller, more compact event.”

So, Fensterman said, they rejected about 1,500 credential requests from “industry professionals,” which he described as the “other” category -- in essence, publishing hangers-on and people who slip in because they have a friend with a bookstore. “Our exhibitors told us this was the group that had the least amount of value to them,” he said. Fensterman has been trying to spin the decline as a distillation process for a couple of weeks now.

But the publishing houses are sending fewer people too. Exhibitor registrations, including the number of credentialed staffers, are down by as much as 15%. Fensterman said, however, that the number of attendees who are members of the American Booksellers Assn. is about even with 2007. Press and media credentials are up by about 20%. And the amount of space BEA takes up will be down 21%.

So, what does all that mean? A leaner, busier show. So get your elbows ready.

-- Scott Martelle

Book briefs: Rare books, fictional authors and a new novelist

 

The Antiquarian Booksellers Assn. in England has recovered 14 of the 71 rare books stolen from financier Sir Evelyn de Rothschild by former ABA President David Slade. In February, Slade admitted to pilfering books that he sold through an unsuspecting auction house for 232,880 British pounds.

Firearm engravings, Frank Lloyd Wright, the Kalahari Desert and the Beedle Bard are the subjects of some rare books that have recently landed at Portland's Powell's Books -- that's the store's rare books room, above. Those books are for sale, by the way, not for the taking.

One kind of book that can't be stolen is a fictional one. Those are the kind written by some of Christopher Miller's favorite fictional authors, which he lists at Conversational Reading. A "fictional author" is not an author of ficton but one in fiction, like Kilgore Trout from "Breakfast of Champions." Miller's new book, "The Cardboard Universe," features "a dismal but prolific science-fiction writer named Phoebus K. Dank." He admits Dank is "in some ways modeled on Philip K. Dick (though Dick was a better writer) and in some ways a kinder, fatter, more prolific version of myself."

The Washington Post talks to newly minted, real-life fiction writer James King, whose book, "Bill Warrington's Last Chance," has just won the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. "This is something I've always hoped for since I was a kid," the 54-year-old told the paper.

Book Expo America, the nation's largest publishing conference, begins today with a series of panels and other events in New York City. I'm there and will be filing reports, WiFi willing.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: gracewanderer via Flickr