BEA: Wrap-up (already)...

You're probably tired of reading about it. And although I'm far from being tired of writing about it, this is my last 2007 BEA-related post--my BEA wrap-up.

My observations: Publishers were showing plenty of novels for young readers and I felt like many of the YA novel covers were hard to distinguish from adult titles. Still plenty of chick lit for teen girls, and still a lot of fantasy, adventure and pirate stuff. I also noticed quite a few heavily illustrated mid-grade novels, some almost novel/graphic novel hybrids, with cartoon panels, drawings, letters or other illustrative elements sprinkled throughout. And there weren't lots of picture books being pushed (I only brought home two).

Biggest BEA regret: Not using my ticket to see the Stephen Colbert author breakfast. (I wish those things weren't so darn early) and not getting a blad (a "pre-book" offering just a snippet and showing the Book Layout And Design) signed by Stephen Colbert. The best I could do was a cardboard cutout.


Dennis my Aussie bus driver: As my final BEA photo, I offer Dennis. He was the driver on the my last shuttle bus from Javitz to my hotel. And he told bus jokes (with an accent): "

So a lady holding a baby gets on a bus. The bus driver takes one look at them and exclaims, "Wow, that's one ugly baby!" Shocked, the lady walks to the back of the bus and takes a seat, visibly upset.

"What's wrong?" asked the man in the seat next to her.

"Why, that bus driver just insulted me!," she said. "I can't believe how awful he was."

"Well you should give him a piece of your mind--tell him you'll report him. He can't get away with that! Go on up and talk to him--I'll hold your monkey."

People Who Have Been in the New York Times and Also in My Kitchen...

My Husband had been keeping this list for a while, and I'm excited to add two more people to it-- Writer's Digest Books own Lauren Mosko (who is one mighty fine BEA roommate), and Perigee editor Meg Leder. During our conference, they, along with several agents, were interviewed for a piece about pitching manuscripts. Lauren gave a wonderful session on perfecting your pitch right before writers were let loose into rooms full of agents and editors for our exciting pitch slam. Here's the link.

BEA: Serendipity, Part 3...

So I’m walking through the food court in Javitz with my noodle bowl (by far the best vegetarian option), and I come upon my friends Meg and Donya having lunch with a few publishing types; they invite me to pull up a chair. (Meg and Donya are former editors with Writer’s Digest Books who both relocated to Brooklyn. Meg is an editor with Penguin imprint Perigee; Donya edits business books for McGraw-Hill. They also took pitches during out conference pitch slam and they once served as my bridesmaids.)

Then a friend of Meg’s friend (who she used to work with and now is her next door neighbor) joined us. And guess what—he’s an illustrator who does picture books, among other things. And he happened to have his latest on his hand. And he told me he’s never been on a blog. So here is Gideon Kendall’s blog debut. Visit his website and check out his work. He can conjure some mighty fine dinosaurs.

The moral to all these serendipity stories: publishing is a small, inter-connected world. You never know who you’ll meet where and how. Get yourself out to events and be friendly. (I hope lots of you will be at the SCBWI conference in LA in August!)

BEA: Serendipity Part 2...

I was excited when I found out Rose Kent was signing at BEA. Rose is featured in the upcoming 2008 CWIM’s First Books piece for her debut, Kimchi & Calamari. It’s always exciting to get to meet authors I’ve interviewed in person. BEA was Rose’s very first book signing. (Her publisher started her out big!) Here’s Rose at the signing table.

Before I met Rose, I was standing there waiting for the autograph line to open and struck up a conversation with the person behind me. Her name seemed familiar, so I ask her what she’d written. “I’m Jeannine Garsee,” she said. “I wrote Before, After and Somebody in Between. You critiqued my manuscript at a conference. My book is coming out soon from Bloomsbury.” How exiting is that! (Note: I am not in any way taking credit for Jeannine’s upcoming publication. It’s just very cool to hear she had success. And with a great publisher like Bloomsbury, no less!)

Jeannine and Rose are both members of the Class of 2k7, and had never met in person. Read more about the Class of 2k7 in the 2008 CWIM. (Notice how I’m working in all these teasers!)

BEA: Senedipity, Part 1...

So I’m in the autograph line for David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, singing their latest collaboration Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List. And guess who’s in right in front of me? Megan McCafferty (of Sloppy Firsts fame). Megan wrote an piece for the 2007 CWIM on the rules of writing YA, but I had never met her in person. We got a chance to chat as we stood in line and she told me she’d recommended CWIM on a number of occasions. So everyone should read her books! (One recommendation deserves another.) Here’s a photo of Megan with Rachel and David.

(Rachel was featured in CWIM’s First Books years ago when her debut novel Gingerbread was coming out. She remembered that the writer opened the piece about her by quoting Anias Nin. That would be former CWIM assistant editor Candi. I knew without checking.)

BEA: What If There Really Was Author Speed Dating...

So I was going through my BookExpo pix and thinking about Children's Author Speed Dating. And I decided to expand it to the whole show. Which author would win my reader's heart based on our quick meetings? I've narrowed is down to three:

Scott Westerfeld: Ahhh, Scott Westerfeld...your books take my breath away. Face-paced, filled with adventure, and definitely excitement-making. So unpredictable. Such strong characters. Plus you were nice and posed for a photo despite your super long autograph line.

Markus Zusak: Ahhh, Markus Zusak. I haven't read your books yet, but you've won two Printz Honors. You seem super nice and you have an accent. Mmmm. I can't wait to rip open those pages and see what all the fuss is about. Plus you were nice and posed for a photo despite your super long autograph line.

Frank Portman: Ahhh, Frank Portman. You've got the whole rock star thing going. And, dude, your writing is so intelligent and funny. You were an "It" author guy in Entertainment Weekly--you got an A and a full page. Plus you were nice and posed for a photo with your super editor Krista Marino (who has an article on writing for boys in the upcoming 2008 CWIM).

It's too hard to choose. It's author Big Love. I want you all. But Markus, you're the only one who gave me a whole book. Scott--it was only a chapter; Frank--a postcard. What's a girl to do? It's The Book Thief, new in paper, now on the top of my stack. (Look for Scott Westerfeld’s next book in his Uglies series, Extras, in October. Frank Portman's second novel Andromeda Klein is due out in January 08.)

BEA: Saturday...

Today was a great day at BEA--probably my favorite day ever at a BEA. I have lots of photos to share. However, I checked out of my hotel today and I'm staying with a friend in Manhattan tonight. Most of my stuff is still at the hotel in a co-worker's room, and among that stuff is my cord for uploading photos. I'll be busy on Monday and Tuesday getting them all up so you can share my bookalicious fun. (Tomorrow I won't have Internet access.)

In the meantime, here are some highlights of my day:

• Children's Author Speed Dating: So cool. There were 8 or 10 attendees at each of 21 tables along with an author and someone from his or her publisher. The author had three minutes to tell us about an upcoming book. Then DING...they moved to the next table. Among the authors and illustrators I talked to were Frank Portman, Jack Gantos, Christopher Myers and Peter McCarty. I can't seem to remember any of the female authors, but I assure you there were a bunch--it wasn't really speed dating. I'll tell you more when I have my notebook (which is at the hotel I hope).
• Autographing and autograph line serendipity: I got some wonderful books signed by some wonderful authors in the autographing area. I also ran into some wonderful authors in the autograph lines. I'll tell you more in an upcoming BEA Autographing Photo Essay.
• Successful book shipping: This year it only took about 40 minutes to get my box of books packed, processed and paid for in the show shipping area. That's an improvement of 5 hours and 20 minutes or so from my last BEA at Javitz. Hint: ship your books on Saturday and not Sunday. Sunday is a nightmare. I sent back 22 pounds of books today. That's 11 pounds on each shoulder for a good hunk of the day. I actually have bruises from two days of lugging books around. But, alas, I am always willing to suffer for good (free) literature. (There are a few more books in my suitcase, and since I'm going to the show tomorrow, I'm sure I won't be able to resist picking up a small stack for my carry-on bag.)

Okay, now I'm off to bed to rest up for the last day of BEA. I land in the Nati at 1o p.m. tomorrow. I'll let you know what book I pick out to read on the plane!

BEA: Glimpses of the Show Floor--A Photo Essay...

BEA: A Few Random People I've Spotted Walking Around...

• Dian Curtis Regan, Ginger Knowlton of Curtis Brown and KL Going hanging out together
• Jon Scieszka
• Frank Portman
• Melanie Cecka of Bloomsbury
• Rosemary Wells
• Harold Underdown
• David Gale of S&S
• Five dudes dressed like Borat

• The Statue of Liberty having lunch

BEA Children's Book & Author Breakfast...

I got up dreadfully early again this morning to get to the 8 a.m. children's author breakfast (and I use the term "breakfast" loosely. It was orange juice and a mini bagel. For $35. Librarians kept sitting down at my table asking if we were getting eggs or something. Afterwards I went to the food court) featuring Mo Willems, Jacqueline Wilson, Daniel Pinkwater, and hosted by the delightfully funny Libba Bray. (Libba did several minutes of mime during her opening and still managed to engage the audience.)

I've heard Mo speak several times before, and he's always wonderfully witty. He included his lessons on how to draw the Pigeon. Here's mine:




Jacqueline Wilson is the Children's Laureate for the UK. She's offering a session tomorrow arguing for a US Children's Laureate. I loved hearing that she feels we're in a golden age of children's literature and that she talks to at conferences, libraries and, Parliament (!) about the importance of children's books.

As for Daniel Pinkwater, was it just me or did he sorta forget to write a speech? We got a little of the funny in the beginning, then a cute-ish story about a little girl fan of his. Despite that, it was still cool to be in the same room as Daniel Pinkwater.

The Pitch Slam...

Our conference yesterday was really fabulous. We had more than 500 attendees, writers of all sorts. And our program got great reviews from both the conference goers and the agents who took pitches. There were 60 of them. One told me that the caliber of pitches she heard were the best she's gotten at a conference in the past 3 years.)

I manned the pitch room for children's and YA agents Michelle Andelman from Andrea Brown Literary, Jennie Dunham of Dunham Literary, Jessica Regel and Jennifer Weltz from Jean V. Naggar Literary and Tuna Wexler from International Creative Management. They were troopers, most taking pitches for two full hours. It was wonderful to observe an agent's face light up when she was excited by a pitch and talk to the writers whose three-minutes went well. Most of the writers were able to pitch to several or all of the agents.

Ode to the Union Guys...
My first job before our conference yesterday was to greet people as they entered the Javitz Center and direct them to the conference location. (Take the stairs to your left down to the escalator on your right and you'll find the check-in table. No, I'm sorry, there's no coffee. No, Starbucks is not open today...) What's cool about being in Javitz before BEA kicks off is that you get to see the show floor being set up. It's pretty amazing that they take this giant empty space and in three days turn it into gorgeous shiny carpeted booths full of books. The Freeman dudes work hard moving giant crates (hence the Watch for Forklifts sign in my I'm-way-too-tired-to-type photo essay from yesterday), assemble walls, run electricity, hang banners and the like. And no one even turned on the air conditioning for them.

Here's a cool photo of the inside of Javitz featuring the book TV bus and the very orange ladder that the head Freeman stood on for the morning meeting of union guys. (I eavesdropped.)And here are a few big crates waiting to be moved. This is the entrance to the show floor.

BEA Conference: K.L. Going...

One of my favorite conference session yesterday featured author K.L. Going discussing writing for the YA audience. She offered an interesting glimpse into the history of YA and how to define this often muddy category of books for young readers, and she delved into plotting and characterization.

It was great to spend some time with this author whose work I so admire. And extra exciting exciting for me because K.L. is doing a book with us on writing and publishing the YA novel which is due out this fall. You'll be hearing more about it in this space as the pub date draws closer. It's so good.

BEA Day 1: A Photo Essay ...

In NYC...

After racing to the airport, a non-eventful flight, and a really long line for a taxi, I and my co-workers safely made it the New York, and checked out the scene at the Javitz Center. The rooms are set up for our conference tomorrow, the F+W Publications booth is ready to go (we've got a really cool big red sign suspended from the ceiling--pictures later--so it will be easy for directionally challenged me to locate my HQ), and we have to be back to prepare for registration in less than 12 hours.

I'm hitting the hotel restaurant and going to bed early. Tomorrow will be a long day. I'll tell you all about it as the day progresses (so long as I the convention center wi-fi is cool.)

Excited About BEA...Can't Sleep...

It's quarter to 5 in the morning and I've been staring at the ceiling for about an hour, my brain all a twitter thinking about my trip to New York. Did I pack too much? Did I not pack enough? Am I forgetting anything? What should I read on the plane? Which day am I meeting which person at which booth? Will my shoes be comfortable? Where's my cell phone charger? What does one wear to children's author speed dating?

So I though I'd do something a little more productive and remind you all to visit my blog a bunch over the next week or so for my perspective on the BookExpo. Now I'm going to try to squeeze in 3 more hours of sleep. Wish me luck.

Important BEA Prep: Footwear...

I leave for New York for the BookExpo America on Tuesday. I've got my materials together, contacted people about meeting up, figured out my schedule, and geared up for the conference. I've even planned all my outfits. Except the shoes. I've admitted before in this space that I have a shoe problem. I've got many many shoes. Many many. Some are wearing to work shoes. Some are going out to dinner shoes. Some are going to the park or grocery store shoes. None, however, are walking around BEA/walking around New York shoes.

I ran to the mall at lunchtime and purchased potential New York shoes #5 and #6. I've taken two pairs back, decided one pair is strictly park/grocery store, and one is TBD (unworn, receipt in box--comfy, but I'm not sure if they're cute). I just cannot spend six days wearing cruel shoes. No matter how many free books I get, it's not nearly as fun if my dogs are barking. How do New Yorkers (and my friend Suzanne with her adorable high heel wardrobe) do it? I recently read an interview with Sarah Jessica Parker (who, by the way, is from the Nati), and she said she often runs into fans around New York and they always check out her shoes and are disappointed to find she's in flip flops instead of 4-inch Jimmy Choo stilettos.

Once I solve my shoe dilemma, I'll be ready to go. Don't forget to visit my blog for updates on BEA including lots of pictures.