ROBERT KIYOSAKI BOOTH 744
NEW FOR SPRING 2016
MORE IMPORTANT THAN MONEY
Despite uncertainty about
how big a draw an afternoon opening would be, a
line had already formed
more than an hour before
the 1 p.m. opening of the
BEA show floor. Many in
line had attended blogger
programming earlier in
the day. A few authors,
including a children’s
writer from New Zealand,
were there to scope out an
industry in flux. “The business has changed so much
I just wanted to reacquaint
myself,” said Neal Ochs-ner, who took a multiyear
writing hiatus after publishing with Zebra and
Houghton Mifflin.
Bookseller excitement
was high, even though
many were unaware of
this year’s late start and
had planned to come to
the Javits much earlier in
the day. Pam Cady, man-
ager of the general book
department at University
Book Store in Seattle,
said, “I’m super excited
this year. After Winter
Institute, which was great,
I wanted another fix.” Still,
she found the afternoon
opening “weird.”
“Personally I would
have preferred a full day
today and a half-day Fri-
day,” noted Karen Mizzi,
who runs the Movieplace,
an online book business,
from her home in Ami-
tyville, N. Y. “I’m geared
up more when it’s a full
day. Book Expo is like a
marathon.”
The booths closest to the
doorways were packed
when the doors first
opened. But as the day
progressed the entire
show floor filled. Chroni-
cle Books was one of the
publishers that saw “a
huge amount of traffic”
Starr. The press gave out a
number of totes and ARCs
within the first half hour,
and was pleased to report
it had its first book stolen
almost immediately.
For Penguin Random
House, this marked the
first time that the two
companies had a combined booth. In the past
few years Random House
has taken a smaller space
geared to autographings.
PRH’s director of retail
marketing, Patty Berg,
called this year’s large
booth with four auto-
graphing tables and lots of
ARC giveaways “a throw-
back” to the past. Given
the crowd drawn to the
booth, it seemed to be
working.
Some publishers, like
Johnny Byrd of Cinco Pun-
tos Press, were less con-
cerned about the late start
than who will be left on
Friday afternoon. Others,
like one publisher who
asked to remain anony-
mous, said, “[BookCon] is
the tail wagging the dog. If
I had my druthers, I’d only
be here for BookCon.”
Given the mixed senti-
ment, perhaps literary
agent Wendy Strothman of
Strothman Agency
summed up the mood of
the show best as “cau-
tiously optimistic.” She
noted, “No shoes have
dropped yet.”
—Judith Rosen, with
reporting by Claire Kirch
Subscription e-book services have been a buzzwor-thy topic in recent years,
but are they a good deal for
authors and publishers?
That was the topic of a
standing-room-only panel,
moderated by Smashwords
founder Mark Coker, who
noted the promise of sub-
scription models as well as
the “legitimate challenges”
they face. Specifically, what
he called the “Goldilocks
principle”: ensuring that
readers are getting enough
value to continue subscrib-
ing; publishers are making
enough money to justify
their involvement; and, of
course, the subscription
service itself is financially
viable.
The panelists represented the diversity of new
services now emerging:
Justo Hidalgo, from 24Sym-
bols, which offers a Span-ish-language service in
Europe; Noelle Millholt,
CEO of Speakaboos, a children’s service largely used
by schools and educators;
and Andrew Weinstein, v-p
of content acquisition for
Scribd, one of the most
talked-about players in the
field, with three of the Big
Five publishers participating, offering readers more
than a million e-book titles
for $8.99 a month.
All of the panelists
reported strong growth in
their services, and offered
some interesting numbers.
Weinstein reported that
Scribd users access a number of titles, but average
less than two qualified
reads per month, for which
A Promising, ‘Weird’ Start
Attendees massed outside the show floor ahead of its opening yesterday
afternoon.
KEEP CALM AND READ ON
(DON’T FRET, THE SEQUEL IS COMING.)
AT BOOTH #2918
Get your KEEP CALM AND READ ON limited edition broadside!*
THU, MAY 28 9: 30 AM • FRI, MAY 29 10: 30 AM
*Quantities limited; while supplies last.
Sequel to
DANGEROUS CREATURES
Sequel to
THE YOUNG WORLD
Sequel to
THE DIVINERS
MAY JUL AUG
continued on p. 6
©STEVEK
AGAN
.C O
M
DAY
2
ALL THE BUZZ ON BOOKEXPO AMERICA
Publishers Weekly’s Show Daily is produced each day during the 2015 BookExpo in New York.
The Show Daily press office is in room 4A1. PW’s booth is 1852.
E-Books Subscription: Sustainable?
