BookExpoCast

“Authors must become brands” is now common wisdom in book publishing. But should authors be in business beyond their books?

The growing trend towards “author-preneurship” reveals a range of opportunities and skills for authors to both gain from and contribute to the business world. Authors are founding startups, producing films, running lecture agencies, consulting with Fortune 500 companies, and entirely-author led services for the industry itself. This underscores not only the desire for an author point of view in business but the benefits of authors taking an entrepreneurial approach to one’s literary career.

In this podcast episode, we explore issues related to “author-preneurship”, including time management, legal issues, working with collaborators and self-identity within and outside of your entrepreneurial endeavors.

Kevin Smokler, Chief Evangelist and Community Director of BookTour moderates this panel. Smokler is joined by Betsy Amster, President of Betsy Amster Literary Enterprises; Mark Sarvas, litblogger and author of Harry Revised; Kim Rickets, founder of Kim Rickets Book Events; and Ron Hogan, founder of Beatrice.

Publishers looking to build web communities are increasingly faced with a choice: build, or buy? To make the right decision, prospective buyers need to consider the time, resources and benefits of acquiring targeted web communities.

In this podcast episode Brian O’Leary, Founder of Magellan Media Consulting Partners, leads publishers through this process. Among other things, he teaches us:

• when it makes sense to buy, and when to build
• how to value a web business in terms of what it brings to a publisher and what the publisher brings to the web site
• current EBITDA multiples for different kinds of sites
• options to outright purchase, including strategic partnerships

Who is who, and who is doing what in the Chinese publishing market. How and where to find reliable and detailed market information – in English? What can a partnership do that a straight right sale can’t? And why do Chinese want to localize certain books?

Robert Baensch, Principal of Baensch International Group Ltd. and author of The Publishing Industry in China, leads the discussion to answer these questions. Baensch is joined by Ou Yang, Editor-in-Chief of China Publishing Today and Liu Yuan, VP at China Higher Education Press.

Book Buzz…Created by Librarians….FOR librarians!

Hosted by the AAP Trade Libraries Committee, the 2008 BEA Librarian Book Buzz brought together the industry’s top library marketing directors of the nation’s publishing houses. They were each given a chance to talk about the titles they find most inspiring for the upcoming season…and why.

This panel was moderated by Barbara Genco, Director of Collection Development at the Brooklyn Public Library. She was joined by Virginia Stanley, Director of Academic and Library Services at HarperCollins Publishers; Talia Ross, Library Marketing Manager at Holtzbrinck Publishers; Geoff Kloske, VP and Publisher at Riverhead Books; Jen Childs, Director of Library Marketing at Random House; and Michael Rockliff, Director of Library Sales and Marketing at Workman Publishing.

The electrifying national bestseller The Grapes of Wrath was burned and banned in 1939 in Kern County, California—the Joads’ newfound home. “If that book is banned today,” asked the local librarian, “what book will be banned tomorrow?”

Today, about 500 books are formally challenged each year. Why are we still so afraid of the free exchange of ideas? Does government have a legitimate interest in monitoring the flow of information or “safeguarding public morality” in the bookstore, library, or school? What have been the most innovative and successful push-backs used by booksellers and librarians in local communities when challenged?

Nicholas Goldberg, Editor, Op-Ed and Sunday Opinion for the Los Angeles Times leads this rousing session – Obscene in the Extreme: Why Books Still Get Banned.

Goldberg is joined by panelists Chris Finan, President of ABFFE (American Booksellers Foundation for Freedom of Expression) and author of From The Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America; Luis Rodriguez, author of Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A., a critically-acclaimed memoir of LA gang life that has been on the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books list; and Rick Wartzman, author of Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.

According to BISG, libraries will spend over $1.8 billion on books in 2008. Buying for a library is quite different from buying for retail. No sales reps call on librarians and they do not return books, so they have to select carefully.

In this podcast episode – How Libraries Buy: Librarians Reveal Their Methods for Collection Development – a panel of librarians discuss how they determine the needs of their communities, what sources of information they use to identify titles and how publishers can best reach them.

Moderated by EarlyWord.com founder Nora Rawlinson, this panel included Laura Lent, Collection Development Manager of the San Francisco Public Library; Gail Mueller-Schultz, Principal Librarian in Hennepin County Library’s Collection Management Services Department; and Kathleen Sullivan, Collection Development Coordinator at the Phoenix Public Library.

Next-gen readers are visually assaulted by all forms of media and for the publishing industry to keep up with this pace it requires delivering information that is all things at once: entertaining, informative, credible and visually appealing.

The panelists for this program represent publishing and educational programs that monitor the development of the newest version of literacy.

Moderator John Shableski, Sales Manager at Diamond Book Distributors, was joined by panelists Francoise Mouly, Publisher of Toon Books; Gene Yang, author of American Born Chinese; and Terry Thompson, a teacher,literacy coach, and author of Adventures in Graphica.

The 2008 BEA Editors Buzz panel was re-vamped to deliver the pre-show buzz right before the show-floor opened. This year’s event featured six top editors, each filling us in on their top book picks for this year.

This panel of distinguished editors included Richard Nash, Editorial Director at Counterpoint; Megan Lynch, Senior Editor at Riverhead Books; John Glusman, Executive Editor at Harmony Books; Sarah Knight, Editor at Henry Holt and Co.; Reagan Arthur, Executive Editor at Little, Brown and Co.; and Laurie Chittenden, Executive Editor at William Morrow.

BEA Editors Buzz was moderated by Sara Nelson, Editor-in-Chief of Publishers Weekly.