BEA

We spent most of Friday and Saturday (June 1-2) wandering the aisles at Book Expo America. BEA was held at the Javits Center and featured over 1500 exhibits on two floors. Yep, two kids in a candy store.

The exhibits, signings, seminars, and presentations were way too much to begin to absorb in a meaningful way, but we knew that. Amazon and Google had enormous presences, consistent with the changing face of publishing.  If you haven’t read about Richard Charkin’s great Google computer heist on the BEA floor, you might enjoy reading about at Charkin Blog. The act itself, the posting on the blog, and the comments offer an overview of changing times. “You better start swimming, or you’ll sink like a stone,” a very great man once said.

The book signings were fun with lots of big names. Our highlight was meeting the very gracious Ian McEwan (Chesil Beach); and we also snagged books and autographs from Lynn Johnston (charming), Frank Deford (distracted), Digger Phelps (great eye contact), and Scott Ritter (passionate and angry about the Iraq dustup, but who isn’t?).

PMA also had a large presence as usual with lots of exhibtors and traffic on their aisle.