BookExpoCast

Margaret Atwood is the Booker Prize-winning author of The Blind Asassin and The Year of the Flood. She is the author of more than forty books — novels, short stories, poetry, literary criticism, social history, and books for children. Atwood’s work is acclaimed internationally and has been published around the world.

At BookExpo America 2011, Atwood capped ABA’s Day of Education with her closing plenary speech.

Watch this BEA video podcast for hot trends in Italy, where a great deal of fiction is in translation, and the majority is in English. Hear about Italian author success stories in the US and the new faces of Italian literature coming across the pond.

This session featured Michael Reynolds, Europa Editions; Maria Leonardi, nottetempo; Paolo Zaninoni, Rizzoli; and Chad Post, University of Rochester, Three Percent.

A panoramic overview of publishing in Italy and today’s challenges, including the impact of new technologies.

In this podcast episode Copyright Clearance Center’s Skott Klebe reviews the characteristics of market disruption, and discusses how they apply in the changing world of eBook publishing, with special attention to the author-direct publishing model currently gaining attention on the Kindle and Nook.

Barry Eisler, who has published his thrillers for nearly a decade with two of the biggest houses in town, just turned down half-a-million dollars for a 2-book deal to self-publish. In a 1-on-1 conversation with Mike Shatzkin, Eisler explains the financial logic behind his decision and answers a series of other questions.

Is he giving up print or doing it another way? What’s his plan for selling translation rights? Without a publisher, how will he let his fans know about his new books when they arrive? And, most important, does he see himself as an outlier or as the avant garde of what will be a trend of established authors walking away from big advances in favor of doing it on their own?

Traditional book marketing routinely falls on deaf ears. As readers become increasingly jaded to conventional book promotion, publishers and authors are devising stunts to get the attention for their books in an increasingly crowded marketplace. This panel looks at some of the best and most unusual examples from around the world and talks about what worked, what didn’t, and why.

This event was moderated by Ed Nawotka, Editor-in-Chief, Publishing Perspectives.

The ranks of book producers, also known as packagers or developers, have always been filled with veterans of publishing houses. Today, as publishing is evolving in the digital age, book producing is also evolving.

This panel explores the exciting ways in which book producing provides people with a wide array of interests and expertise to carry on independently. Topics include a range of business models for book producers today; editorial development and authorship; the changing role of publishers; the expanding population of distribution partners and avenues; e-books, apps and entertainment; and the interplay between print and digital platforms.

This event was moderated by Susan Knopf, President, Scout Books & Media Inc. Knopf was joined by Mel Parker, President, Mel Parker Books; Lena Tabori, Publisher, Welcome Books; and Sara Shandler, VP & Editorial Director of Books, Alloy Entertainment.

Since setting out in 2004 to bring the world’s literary treasures online, the Google Books team has indexed more than 2 million books from publisher partners around the world. With Google Books, millions of users search through trillions of words in milliseconds to find just the book they were looking for and the retailers that sell it. What started out with one makeshift scanner and a dream has become a large-scale operation that delivers a free promotional tool for more than 35,000 publishers around the world. Listen in to find out what’s next for the Google Books Partner Program, Google Books search and Google eBooks.

James Crawford, director, engineering, Google Books, presented this session.

Nearly six months since launch, hundreds of thousands of Google eBooks are being merchandised through the Google eBookstore, the Android Market and on the websites of more than 200 partner bookstores across the U.S. More than two million Google eBooks are available for free driving trial and excitement for digital reading in the cloud. But on what devices are people reading? What genres are most popular? Which cities have the most avid e-reading populations? Listen to this podcast episode and find out all this and more.

Scott Dougall, director, product management, Google Books, presented this session.

Ranging from Scandanavian noir and vampires, to paranormal science fiction and tea party-versus Obama-party political discourse, hear from a panel of librarians who will tell you what books you’ll love, based on what you already like!

Hosted by Wilda Williams of Library Journal, the esteemed panel of librarians include: Stephanie Chase, Head of Programming and Outreach for the Central Library of the Multnomah County Library; Kaite M. Stover, Readers’ Services Manager for Kansas City Public Library; Lesa Holstine, Velma Teague Branch Library Manager; Shayera Tangri, branch manager at the Porter Ranch Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library system; and Robin Beerbower, on the staff at Salem Public Library (Oregon) for 37 years.

Social media platforms are quickly becoming the defining architecture of many businesses and industries, including the book industry. Which is why publishers, retailers, librarians and everyone in between should possess a fundamental understanding of these community building tools, especially the frequently overlooked and misunderstood location-based and niche platforms.

What do you know about Foursquare? Gowalla? Instagram? Scvngr? Tagwhat? This session, led by Kelly Leonard, was edifying for both neophytes and experts.

Michael Norris presents new findings from Simba Information’s renowned Trade E-Book Publishing2011 report to explore the complicated relationship between physical bookstores and digital products that long predates Google eBooks.

With unbiased, completely independent analysis of the e-book market and the modern consumer, this research will undo common misunderstandings and answer critical questions: What role is Google eBooks going to play in the life of independent bookstores? What can be learned from the earlier blunders of chain bookstores and e-reader manufacturers? And finally: Does the future of books depend on getting this odd couple relationship right?

ARROW (Accessible Registries of Rights Information and Orphan Works) is a system – developed by a European consortium coordinated by AIE – to help libraries with the identification of rights status and rights holders in digital library programs. The system is based on a pro-active search of rights holders for works eligible for inclusion in any digitization program, and indirectly is a tool for the identification of orphan works, in circumstances in which other relevant information may not be available.

Listen in as speakers Piero Attanasio, AIE, mEDRA, and Michael Healy, The Book Rights Registry, discuss the Arrow approach and compare the US experience in the same field. This discussion was moderated by Chris Kenneally, Copyright Clearance Center and BeyondTheBook.com.

As traditional media outlets for authors and books shrink, social media and Facebook, in particular, is providing bold new promotional opportunities.

In this podcast episode author and former publishing executive Cindy Ratzlaff shares case studies, tools, applications and cross platform strategies for turning a Facebook fan page into a buzz generating, sales driving, marketing tool for authors and publishers. She shares details of which apps facilitate live author chat broadcasts right from Facebook, gives examples on best practices for book sales directly from Facebook, shares approved third party applications for creating launch week contests, and gives tips to help authors and publishers create their own free videos to post to their Facebook Wall. She explains the Facebook EdgeRank system and why it’s essential to use media rich content throughout the campaign, as well as offers detailed strategies for ideal posting times to garner the highest fan interactions.