“This has been the most
active, popular show,” said
John Murphy, newly named
v-p, publishing strategy, at
St. Martin’s. Among the
highlights, said Murphy,
were the tributes to Maya
Angelou at Thursday’s
author breakfast, which
featured Anjelica Huston,
Tavis Smiley, SMP author
Lisa Scottoline, and Neil
Patrick Harris as emcee. In
particular, hearing Huston
read Angelou’s poem “A
Brave and Startling Truth”
was, said Murphy, “extraor-
dinary.”
Seta Zink, publicity man-
ager at Perseus Books
Group, also spoke in super-
latives about traffic and
energy at BEA thus far. In
the seven years that she’s
been with the company, it’s
the “most exciting” show
she’s seen, and Perseus has
more events lined up at this
year’s show than ever
(three well-attended sign-
ings yesterday, with “long
lines that moved quickly”)
and giveaways. Perseus’s
most buzzed about book
this year is Accidental
Billionaires author Ben
Mezrich’s foray into fiction,
Seven Wonders. Film rights
to the novel have been
optioned by 20th Century
Fox.
Tracy van Straaten at
Scholastic said that more
than 200 people crowded
into their booth yesterday
morning to get a copy of
Maggie Stiefvater’s Sinner,
which is a companion book
to her bestselling Shiver
trilogy. Van Straaten said it
was exciting to see people
interested in the “wide
range” of titles on the pub-
lisher’s list.
Michael McKenzie at
HarperCollins’s Ecco
imprint said the booth was
busy with lots of traffic as
they gave away galleys of
two books acquired by
soon-to-depart editor Lee
Boudreaux (who is leaving
to run her own imprint at
Little, Brown). The first was
The Miniaturist, which
Boudreaux plugged on
Wednesday’s buzz panel.
The second novel in high
demand, another of
Boudreaux’s books, is
Lauren Oliver’s adult
debut, Rooms.
Jacques Glénat, owner of
Glénat, one of France’s big-
gest comics and manga
publishers, noted that
fewer of the publishers he
wants to meet with are
attending the show. Still, he
said, interest in their titles
from U.S. publishers is
growing.
A subtext to the show, of
course, is the showdown
between Amazon and
Hachette. At the Hachette
booth, everyone was pre-
dictably mum on the sub-
ject of the ongoing terms
dispute. Sonya Cheuse,
Grand Central’s director of
publicity, was happy,
though, to discuss some of
the house’s books that were
drawing attention. Noting
that both Jeffery Deaver
and David Baldacci were at
the show for signings and
pulling in crowds, Cheuse
said Hachette had a “really
robust list of authors here.”
Cheuse also pointed to The
Secret Wisdom of the Earth, a
debut novel by Christopher
Scotton, acquired by Deb
Futter, and special BEA edi-
tion galleys were given out.
Although the major
houses were reticent about
the public battle between
the publisher and the
online retail giant, other
attendees had a few choice
words about the situation.
The industry conflict was
very much in the open at
the ABA Celebration of
Bookselling & Author
Awards Lunch, where
James Patterson received
the Indie Champion
Award.
When Patterson was
announced for the award,
he received a standing ova-
tion for the support he has
shown independents with
his million-dollar grants. A
second ovation at the end of
his talk came for his
remarks, which opened
with, “Hi, I’m Jeff Bezos.”
He added, “All we can ask
of people is that they try to
do the right thing, the best
thing.”
But according to
Patterson, it also means
taking a stand. “There is an
evolution, revolution going
on and it affects every-
body,” he noted. “Every
publisher is feeling a great
deal of pain and stress. I’d
like the press to think
about this: publishers are
not terribly profitable.” If
publishers don’t make
money, he said, they won’t
be able to support good lit-
erature.
As Patterson sees it,
readers and the bookselling community must step
up in order to safeguard
the future of our literature.
He spoke about how this
“economic war” will affect
grocery stores, libraries,
Strong Traffic, Talk of
Amazon-Hachette
Crowded aisles and overloaded totebags were the hallmarks of a busy Day One.
Pulse-pounding
psychological
suspense,
coming
7. 29.2014.
Pick up a copy of the
summer’s hottest thriller,
and meet Mary Kubica
at the Harlequin booth,
#3038, today at 10:00 a.m.
continued on page 6
Publishers Weekly’s Show Daily is produced each day during the 2012 BookExpo in New York.
The Show Daily press office is in room 4A1. PW’s booth is #1252.
Day
2
Friday
May 30, 2014
ALL THE BUZZ ON BOOKEXPO AMERICA
©S T
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COM
By Clare Swanson
