We’re back from Book Expo where we met a bunch of amazing collection development librarians. We gave out hundreds of our brand-new flyers and generally talked up Early Word. So, if you’re new to Early Word, welcome and please take the time to check out what Early Word has to offer:

Links to download publisher catalogs — browse the fall catalogs to see what you missed at the show. You can download directly, from the links on the right, or go to a single list.

Publisher Contacts — links to publisher services created for librarians and to library marketing staff

Bestseller List — Highlighted on the right, links to current national and speciality lists

Consumer Reviews — find links to the latest reviews in one convenient place

Movies to Books — upcoming and current movies with tie-in title information

At BEA, I moderated two panels on libraries:

How Libraries Buy

What Librarians Wish Publishers Knew

The audience for each was standing room only, with a good mix of publishers, librarians, authors and vendors.

I’ll be posting more information on BEA later, but for now, I’d just like to mention a few observations:

1. Lincoln will be BIG this fall; the 200th anniversary of his birth is next year. It seemed every booth featured a new Lincoln title (no books on Lincoln’s dog, however).
2. The new Dennis Lehane, The Given Day (Sept, Morrow) is a departure for him into historical fiction. The publisher is promoting it heavily, to convince his fans to follow him into a new genre and to pick up new readers.
3. The first novel everyone was talking about? The Lace Reader (July 29, Morrow) by Brunonia Barry
   
4. My personal pick of the Fall? Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World (Sept. 24, Grand Central) by librarian (Spencer, Iowa) Vicky Myron. After so many dog books, it’s time for felines to get attention. The book’s completely charming and puts both cats and libraries in a good light.

It’s a challenge at every conference — finding something decent to eat near the host city’s convention center. That’s why I love the Rough Guide list of favorites near the LA Convention Center published in today’s Shelf Awareness. You can, of course, eat in the Convention Center, but as the article so aptly puts it,

at a certain point that semi-fresh Cinnamon Chip Scone is going to look less like a viable lunch option and more like an impromptu boomerang to knock out that annoying suit who just walked off with your triple-grande soy latte.

And, while you’re thinking about BEA, take a look at the site; many new listings have been added. I hate to encourage you to take time away from the show floor for programs (that’s so ALA), but a few of the non-librarian-track offerings caught my eye (check LJ’s listing for “librarian-friendly” programming):

What Americas Latino Voices are ReadingAnd Why
2:30PM - 3:15PM (Friday, May 30, 2008)
Panelists are not named, but the BEA listing says they will include “educators, booksellers, librarians and community organizers.”

Childrens Books for Latino Voices of the Future
3:15PM - 4:15PM (Friday, May 30, 2008)
BEA’s description — “Hear from Oscar Hijuelos, author of Dark Dude (Simon & Schuster), Monica Brown, author of Pele, King of Soccer, (Rayo/HarperCollins) and Cheech Marin, author of Captain Cheech, who will share with booksellers and librarians the inspiration for reaching out to booklovers of all ages with their upcoming children’s/YA Titles of interest to younger Latino audiences.”

Sunday, June 1, 2008, 12:00PM – 2:00PM

Meet The Bestsellers! Get Signed Copies of Their Books and Enjoy a Free Lunch (Room 403AB)
This program features Dean Koontz and Michael Connelly, but I’ll be going to hear the moderator, USA Today reviewer, Carol Memmott. BEA says seating is limited, so first come, first served.

Library Journal’s preview of BookExpo America is now available. It’s a great guide to events that will appeal specifically to librarians. I’d like to give a special pitch to one of the programs;

3–5:30 p.m.
BEA’s Librarian Book Buzz/Meet the Publisher Rep Reception 2008 (Rm. 402A)
Library marketing reps Talia Ross, Macmillan; Jen Childs, Random House; Virginia Stanley, HarperCollins; Heather Scott, Hachette Book Group USA; and Michael Rockliff, Workman, reveal what they think will be the season’s hottest books for libraries. (A Meet the Publisher Rep Reception follows this program.)

The reception afterward is a great opportunity to meet the publisher reps who serve the library market.

Be aware that there are other events LJ does not list, like the Book & Author Breakfasts and Lunches and a performance by Lewis Black (his book, Me of Little Faith, will be pubbed by Riverhead, June 3rd) on Saturday night. You can sign up for these events as part of the registration process.

BEA has designated the Kyoto Grand as the “Librarians Hotel”:

Convenient and great hotel at a reasonable rate, just for Librarians! Enjoy special librarian receptions, network and meet librarians form other systems around the country, and enjoy special librarian-only events.

Kyoto Grand Hotel
120 S Los Angeles St
Los Angeles, CA

The AAP will be offering “grab and go” breakfast at the Kyoto Grand on Saturday, with publishers and authors featured. There will also be a hospitality desk, with giveaways.

The current Publishers Weekly (4/28) has their BEA preview, including booksellers’ picks of the galleys that publishers will be giving away:

Galleys to Grab

I can’t help but add my own pick to the list:

Hyperion — Booths: 1946. 1955.
Sweetsmoke by David Fuller

A Civil War novel, told through the eyes of a slave.

Check it out in Hyperion’s Fall catalog

Kid’s Galleys to Grab

PW also has an alpha list of all exhibitors, with information on what they will be featuring. It’s a good idea to spend time with it in advance — the show floor can be overwhelming. Among othere things, it’s a good place to identify smaller niche publishers who specialize in hard-to-find subject areas:

BEA Exhibitors, A to F

BEA Exhibitors, G to O

BEA Exhibitors, P to Z

A few librarian events on the LJ list are ticketed, with limited seating, so you may want to consider them now, before they are sold out:

THURSDAY, MAY 29
9 a.m.–5 p.m.
A Day of Dialog for Publishers, Vendors, and Librarians (Los Angeles Public Library, Central Library); registration required
Join LJ at the Los Angeles Public Library for the annual Day of Dialog, a free, daylong program where librarians, publishers, authors, and vendors meet. Find out what the hot books and trends are for fall from editors at major publishing houses, including David Ebershoff (Random House), Morgan Entrekin (Grove/Atlantic), Sara Knight (Holt), Phil Turner (Sterling), and Claire Wachtel (HarperCollins). Pose a readers’ advisory challenge to developers of RA tools, among them NoveList’s Duncan Smith (EBSCO), Fiction Connection and Non-Fiction Connection’s Melissa Kuzma (Bowker), Books & Authors’ Marc J. Cormier (Gale Cengage), and Reader’s Advisor Online’s Laura Calderone (Libraries Unlimited). Get up to speed on digital audio formats and downloadable audio, with HarperMedia publisher Ana Maria Allessi, Random House Audio publisher Madeline McIntosh, OverDrive CEO Steve Potash, and Playaway cofounder Blake Squires. And hear about the comeback of historical fiction from Michelle Moran, author of Nefertiti and the forthcoming The Heretic Queen (Crown, Sept.), and others. Be our guests for coffee and croissants, lunch, and a wrap-up cocktail party. The perfect way to start your stay at BookExpo America.
Owing to space limitations, we will only accept registration from librarians, publishers, and vendors, in that order. Sign up today

6:30–8 p.m.
Association of American Publishers (AAP)
Dine with authors Kathleen Kent, John Scalzi, Kate Jacobs, and others, courtesy of publishers, AAP, and LJ, at the second annual librarians dinner. Seating is limited; contact tjordan@publishers.org.

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FRIDAY, MAY 30
7:30–9 a.m.
Random House/LJ Author Breakfast for Collection Development Librarians
What’s better than breakfast while listening to great writers speak? This year’s authors at the annual feast are Sarah Addison Allen (The Sugar Queen, Bantam), Janelle Brown (All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, Spiegel & Grau), Ethan Canin (America, America, Random), Debra Ginsberg (The Grift, Shaye Areheart: Harmony), and David Guterson (The Other, Knopf). Advance reservations are necessary; go here to sign up.

A special day of programming for librarians, plus a Graphic Novel Day will be featured at the upcoming BEA. That’s the good news. The bad news is both run on the same day, Saturday. So, there will be some hard choices — the Graphic Novel Author Breakfast with Art Spiegleman or a panel on “How Libraries Buy”? “What Retailers and Librarians Should Know about Video Games and Gamers,” or “What Librarians Wish Publishers Knew”?

Again this year, the AAP Trade Libraries committee (made up of the library marketers from the major publishers) will host a Book Buzz session, with library reps presenting the highlights of their lists, followed by a “Meet the Publisher Reps Reception.”

There will also be a special librarian hotel (the Kyoto Grand Hotel) and an AAP Author dinner for librarians.

Details will be up on the BEA site soon (we’ll let you know when that happens). Meanwhile, Lance Fensterman, who runs BEA has a preview of the Graphic Novel Day on his blog and here’s a list of the programs in the librarian track:

New Technologies and New Literacies for Teens

How Libraries Buy: Librarians Reveal Their Methods for Collection Development

Bridging the Gap Between Publishers and Libraries: Standards to Help Manage Licenses and Use

Obscene in the Extreme: Why Books Still Get Banned

Book Trip 08 — how Jack O’Connell’s new book, the The Resurrectionist (Algonquin, April) came into being, from finding the right publisher through the editing process and marketing.

What Librarians Wish Publishers Knew: What Makes Them Tick, What Ticks Them Off

Get Graphic @ Your library

BEA’s Librarian Book Buzz/Meet the Publisher Rep Reception 2008