From Brooklyn to the Javits Center: ABA at BEA in Photos

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From the American Booksellers Association's "Welcome to Brooklyn" events on Wednesday, May 30, through the close of the trade show floor on Sunday, June 3, BookExpo America 2007 featured extensive educational programming, myriad networking opportunities, and, of course, books and authors galore.

More than 300 ABA member booksellers heard a welcoming, humorous, and insightful presentation about Brooklyn by historian David McCullough on Wednesday at Hotel ABA, the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn. McCullough is the author of The Great Bridge and 1776 (both S&S), among other titles.
Intrepid independent booksellers then set out on seven literary walking tours through some of Brooklyn's most storied neighborhoods. Sherill Tippins (center), author of February House (Houghton), led the Walking Literary Brooklyn Heights tour to the scenic Brooklyn waterfront.
The Literary Brooklyn Walking Tour, led by Peter Charles Melman, author of Landsman (Counterpoint Press), kept booksellers entertained and engaged while traveling through Brooklyn's "Fruit District," which includes Cranberry, Orange, and Pineapple streets, to the shadows of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Booksellers tipped their caps to Brooklyn at an important stop on the Famous Brooklyn Food tour: Junior's Restaurant.
At the conclusion of their cardio-literary workouts, booksellers were welcomed to Brooklyn's Historic Borough Hall by Borough President Marty Markowitz, who told booksellers that "no city has more character -- or characters -- than Brooklyn."

At Borough Hall, booksellers and authors enjoyed beer courtesy of Brooklyn Brewery and mammoth slices of cheesecake courtesy of Junior's Restaurant.

For the Wednesday evening reception at Hotel ABA celebrating the publication of Welcome to Camden Falls, the first title in Ann M. Martin's Main Street series, Scholastic recreated Camden Falls' Main Street.

On Thursday, ABA's Day of Education at Hotel ABA began with the "What Are You Reading?" Breakfast, where booksellers and editors discussed current reading selections and forthcoming titles.
Hearst Magazines President Cathie Black discussed the challenges of adapting to change, as well as her new book, Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life) (Crown Business, October), at the ABA Plenary Session.
More than 600 booksellers then fanned out across the Brooklyn Marriott's many ballrooms for a day filled with 17 ABA education sessions. Topics at the Day of Education, which was sponsored by Baker & Taylor, ranged from developing and implementing public relations plans, to what to do when competition comes to town, to expanding the bookstore.
At the brand-new session "Expanding Your Bookstore: Why, When, and How," presented by ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz, the key words were "plan" and "measure."
Another session debuting at the Day of Education was "What to Do When the Competition Comes to Town: A Case Study," presented by Sarah Pishko of Prince Books in Norfolk, Virginia, and ABA COO Oren Teicher. The session was the first in a planned series of seminars following the strategies that Prince Books is adopting in response to two large chain bookstores that are slated to open nearby.
A panel for children's booksellers, sponsored by ABA and the Association of Booksellers for Children, featured (from left): Kristen McLean, ABC executive director; Erin Taylor of Wonderland Books and Toys in Rockford, Illinois (this year's Pannell winner in the children's bookstore category); Emily D'Amour of Books & Books in Miami and Coral Gables, Florida (Pannell winner in the general bookstore category); Elizabeth Bluemle, author and owner of The Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vermont; and Carol Chittenden of BookStream, Inc. and Eight Cousins children's bookstore in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
The Book Clubs panel discussion attracted more than 100 booksellers interested in learning more about -- and sharing their experiences as hosts of -- book clubs, both in-store and off-site. Barbara Mead, owner of Reading Group Choices, introduced panelists Roz Parr, director of marketing, Vintage and Anchor Books; Mark LaFramboise, buyer at Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C.; Amy Baker, associate director of marketing, Harper Perennial and Ecco; and Jennifer Laughran, buyer at Books Inc. in San Francisco.

ABA's Celebration of Bookselling, sponsored by Ingram Book Group/Ingram Publisher Services, featured the presentation of the 2007 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards. Book Sense Book of the Year fiction winner Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants (Algonquin), with incoming ABA Board member Tom Campbell of The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, North Carolina.

ABA Board member Cathy Langer of Denver's Tattered Cover (left) and Nora Ephron, nonfiction winner for I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman (Knopf).

Accepting PW's Bookseller of the Year Award at the Celebration were, from left, Cindy Dach, Gayle Shanks, Bob Sommer, and Brandon Stout of Tempe, Arizona's Changing Hands Bookstore.
At Thursday's Presidential Memorabilia Exhibit and Reception, sponsored by Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, more than 80 objects from the private collections of historians Barry Landau (The President's Table: 200 Years of Dining and Diplomacy, on sale November 2007) and Jordan Wright (Campaigning for President, on sale January 2008) were on display.


On Friday, the trade show floor opened at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, and so too did ABA's Book Sense Lounge, where booksellers checked e-mail at the Booklog Internet Cafe and watched demos of the completely redesigned ABA trade website, BookWeb.org.

Robert Sabuda (Winter in White) and Jenny Han (Shug, both S&S Children's) (left) and Timothy Egan (The Worst Hard Time, Houghton Mifflin) (right) were among the authors who participated in this year's extended author autographing schedule in the ABA Book Sense Lounge.

ABA President Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana, and Vice President Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands led ABA's Town Hall meeting, an informal gathering designed to allow booksellers to ask questions and share views on any industry-related topic.

Following the Town Hall, ABA President Lawrence opened the association's Annual Meeting with fellow Board members, who were joined by new Board members Steve Bercu of BookPeople in Austin, Texas, and Tom Campbell of The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, North Carolina.
BEA Saturday morning breakfast emcee Stephen Colbert, author of I Am America (and So Can You!) (Grand Central Publishing) and panelist Ken Burns, author (with Geoffrey C. Ward) of The War: An Intimate History, 1941 - 1945 (Alfred A. Knopf), posed for BTW's camera.
ABA COO Oren Teicher, Bill McKibben, the author of Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future (Times Books/Henry Holt), and ABA President Russ Lawrence listened to comments from the audience at Saturday's ABA information session "Localism ... Is the tipping point at hand?"

Audience members at the PublicAffairs 10th anniversary celebration -- a special panel discussion, "Social Entrepreneurs: Changing the World," co-sponsored by ABA -- included vice president-at-large and former executive editor of the Washington Post Ben Bradlee and PublicAffairs' Lindsay Jones.

The BookSense.com/American Heritage Dictionary "Define-a-Thon" drew a crowd of booksellers eager to test their vocabulary skills in the quick-paced competition, which was held in the Book Sense Lounge on Saturday afternoon.
The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression's Silent Auction and a display of banned books were featured in the Javits Center's Crystal Palace.


BEA estimates that the trade show floor drew more than 30,000 industry professionals to the Javits Center, including 9,000 book buyers.

--Photos by Patti Neske and Rosemary Hawkins

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