BEA Bytes & Bits
Following up on a survey of readers that was a highlight of the February Winter Institute, Jack McKeown, who in the meantime has become a bookseller, presented updated information and outlined some positive trends and major opportunities for independent booksellers. For one, the survey indicated that indies can attract the many readers who prefer indies but often shop elsewhere through some discounting as well as via e-mail marketing, which can make up for concerns about stores' distance and sometimes limited selection.
Among other findings: since November, e-reader ownership among readers has risen to 6.8% from 3%, and e-reader owners are buying more books, which reflects more "mainstream" ownership of the devices, McKeown said. E-reader owners continue to buy printed books as well as e-books, suggesting, "This is not a mutually exclusive universe." And the number of readers who are "not at all likely" to buy an e-reader grew to a majority, 52.2%.
More information about the survey results next week.
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"We are always going to have print books. You can write that down, and I'll sign my name to it."--Michael Norris of Simba, speaking at the session "I'll Never Pay Over $9.99 for E-Books!" and Similar Lies.
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Chuck Robinson, co-owner of Village Books, Bellingham, Wash., is at BEA this year in part in a new capacity: author. His chronicle of the store and his life in the book business, It Takes a Village Books: 30 Years of Building Community, One Book at a Time, is coming out in early June and is published by Chuckanut Editions on the store's Espresso Book Machine. Based on some reading of random sections, it looks like a good read. Who wouldn't like a book whose first sentence is "Hey! Let's open a bookstore."
As a panelist at the session on "The New Reality: Alternative Business Models for Independent Bookstores," Robinson spoke of his original decision to acquire an Espresso Book Machine: "We wanted to send our customers the message that this was a store that was going to move forward with the times."
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Arantxa Mellado Bataller from Ediciona, moderator; Patricia Arancibia, BarnesandNoble.com; Larry Bennett, Baker & Taylor; and Jesus Badenes, Planeta, discussed "New Technologies in Spain and Europe" as part of the Global Market Forum on Tuesday morning.
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The 2010 E.B. White Award Winners were announced last night at the ABC Not-a-Dinner and Mostly Silent Auction last night, held at the Edison Ballroom in Manhattan.
Picture Books category: Peter Brown for The Curious Garden (Little, Brown)
Older Readers category: Kate Messner for The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. (Walker)
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Late addition to tomorrow's party lineup: Rizzoli Bookstore at 31 W. 57th Street invites BEA attendees to a '70s- and baseball-themed party for Dan Epstein, who will be signing copies of Big Hair and Plastic Grass: Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s (Thomas Dunne Books). Cracker Jacks will be served! Opening pitch at 5:30 on Thursday. Party lasts until 7.
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Cupcake alert: as part of its launch of the reality-romance line True Vows, which matches romance novelists with real life stories, HCI is offering cupcakes at booth 3577 at 2 p.m. today. Also at the booth, romance novelists Julie Leto and Judith Arnold will sign ARCs of Hard to Hold and Meet Me in Manhattan. ARCs of Icing on the Cake will go with the cupcakes.
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More on Perseus's 10x10 event that asks BEA attendees to pick the 10 most anticipated fall titles in general as well as the 10 hottest titles in 10 categories: attendees may vote on the website www.bea10x10.com. Results will be announced tomorrow at 4 p.m.
