Celebrity Encounters at BEA

I mentioned that reviews are critical for library sales of most hardcover nonfiction. In fact, the only "library nonfiction bestsellers" in our panel presentation were titles by celebrity authors.

Celebrity authors are probably the safest bet a publisher can make for blockbuster sales all around. It's sometimes an expensive gamble, since celebrity authors can command high advances, but it's a common one.

This year, I wondered if I would encounter anyone famous at BEA, as I did last year. Lisa Parker and I traveled together (pic below), and we took a lot of trains to keep our travel budget lean. We were riding back from Penn Station to Rahway and sat next to the season 13 winner of The Amazing Race. She is not an author (yet, that we know of), but who knows what next year will bring.

Then, on Saturday afternoon, I was within 15 feet of a bona fide celebrity author. I was waiting for a taxi when I thought I recognized a blonde woman behind me in the line. She looked terrific: my first thought was Carmella Soprano. Since that's a fictional character, I kept thinking. Suddenly, it clicked: Mary Jo Buttafuoco wrote a book for HCI and she signed it at BEA! I wanted to call out to her or take a picture, but I worried it would cause a scene. (Really, since I was next in line, I was just worried that someone would take my taxi if the crowd got chaotic.)

Saturday night was the most impressive: I came very close to the most successful celebrity author of all time. He and his wife decided to take in a show on the same night that I did, and their MOTORCADE blocked off the street leading back to my hotel. I tried to get a picture of President Obama, but the NYPD really cramped our style on 44th Street: keep moving, no standing, blah blah blah.

Three celeb encounters in 36 hours: a personal best.

Library Sales Panel at BEA

This year, I took part in a panel at BEA. I was accompanied by Ceneta Lee-Williams of Random House and Kuo-yu Liang of Diamond Books. Three sociable folks willing to share industry knowledge (in my case, data from Publisher Alley).

The topic was book sales in the library market. We encouraged publishers to look beyond the New York Times bestseller lists when judging the success and viability of certain genres. Some highlights:

• On average (based on units sold), 40% of trade publisher sales through B&T are shipped to library customers.
• In hardcover fiction and paperback graphic novels, B&T's autoship programs are very effective in driving sales for popular authors and series.
• Reviews are critical for most hard-cover nonfiction.
  
• Large-print titles sell impressively in the trade fiction category.
• In mass-market fiction, romance titles dominate library sales.
• New genres like African-American Fiction/Urban Life become popular in libraries before hitting retail.

Lisa Parker took this picture of me after the session. I proudly emailed it to my Mom, who said that I looked like a flight attendant checking passengers in the airport. I guess she wasn't on board with the orange jacket!

BEA 2009 ran from 5/28-5/31/09, at the Javits Center in NYC. It was a different conference because of the economy, with major publishers choosing not to exhibit or scaling down exhibit space dramatically. The new image of Baker & Taylor debuted, shown at left, and our booth was buzzing with meetings on eContent and other digital media distribution.

The launch of B&T's digital media services was timely, since the expo's hot topic was piracy. Publishers who see their content scanned an splashed on the web soon after (or before!) its release are concerned about lost revenues. In some cases (O'Reilly Media), the piracy has the effect of actually boosting sales. In others (expressed to us by AAUP), when titles are scanned and placed online, sales expectations for course adoptions are destroyed. The time for publishers to engage a digital business model is, emphatically, NOW.