Grand Central Publishing gave away 1,000 ARCs of Pete Dexter's Spooner (September) on the first day of the show alone. Another favorite was Leila Meacham's debut novel, Roses (January); attendees were more than willing to tote around the sizeable 624-page galley.
A Simon & Schuster staffer Tweeted about the publisher's signings and giveaways, which drew people to the booth to pick up galleys of The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker (September) and other titles. The Glass Castle memoirist Jeannette Walls promoted Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel (October), while Jennifer Weiner fans received the news that her latest novel, Best Friends Forever, has been moved up to July for summer reading.
Two long-awaited books stirred interest. Dorothea Benton Frank's Return to Sullivan's Island (Morrow/June) is the sequel to her debut novel, Sullivan's Island, published nearly a decade ago. Six years after The Time Traveler's Wife appeared, Audrey Niffenegger returns with Her Fearful Symmetry (Scribner/September), the story of American twin sisters who inherit their aunt's apartment near Highgate Cemetery in London.
Shannon Hale worked double time for Bloomsbury USA, promoting both the young adult novel Forest Born (September) and a page-turner for grown-ups, The Actor and the Housewife (June).
The adorable cover (a cat perched atop a dog's head) and title for Why Dogs Are Better than Cats by Bradley Trevor Greive and photographer Rachel Hale (Andrews McMeel/October) stopped pet lovers in their tracks. Feline owners (which include several Shelf Awareness staff) should rest assured that the humorous pictorial tome is simply "pro-dog, not anti-cat." On its fall list Andrews McMeel is also serving Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong by Jen Yates (September). The book of confectionary calamities is based on the author's website CakeWrecks.com.
Although Mitch Albom was not in attendance, readers queued up to receive signed advance reading copies of Have a Little Faith: The True Story of a Last Request (September), his first nonfiction book since Tuesdays with Morrie. It was one of Hyperion's scheduled giveaways, as was a guide promoting And Another Thing . . . by Eoin Colfer (October). The Artemis Fowl author was tapped by the late Douglas Adams's widow to write the next installment in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. The guides, which include a history of the series and a letter from Colfer, were also distributed at Comic-Con.
Show-goers in need of a sugar fix indulged in cherry pie and apple pie courtesy of ILR/Cornell University Press. The desserts aimed to draw attention to Counter Culture: The American Coffee Shop Waitress (September), a pictorial tome and ode to the women who help make diners and coffee shops neighborhood institutions. Author Candacy Taylor is an award-winning photographer and former waitress.
In another the food-aided marketing effort, Micki Sannar promoted her signing by roving the convention center and handing out cookies (chocolate or lemon, which this reporter can attest are both delicious) made from recipes in her recently-published cookbook, Olive Oil Desserts: Delicious and Healthy Heart Smart Baking (Mikko Publishing). The enticement worked--there was a long line at her signing later in the day.
It's a landmark year in the history of BEA's host city--2009 is the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's arrival along the river bearing his name. In conjunction with the Museum of the City of New York, Running Press is producing New York 400 (September). The full-color tome is a "birthday card to New York," said associate publisher Craig Herman. The company is marking another milestone with Barbie: All Dolled Up (September), a celebration of 50 years of the beloved toy. The book has a 50,000-copy first printing and will be promoted by Neiman Marcus, Toys R Us and other retailers, along with the shopping mecca Mall of America.
A poster featuring the bright pink jacket of I Sold Andy Warhol (Too Soon) (The Other Press/September) was hard to miss. Author and art dealer Richard Polsky was on hand in the publisher's booth to talk about the book, a behind-the-scenes foray into the art world and the sequel to his memoir, I Bought Andy Warhol.
Pat Conroy couldn't make it to BEA because of health reasons, but that didn't stop people from lining up at the Random House booth to receive a copy of his forthcoming novel, South of Broad (Nan A. Talese/August).
Chronicle Books's Audrey Hepburn: International Cover Girl by Scott Brizel (November) showcases magazine covers on which the screen legend and fashion icon appeared. Another retro icon was also garnering interest: Pictorial Webster's by John M. Carrera (July), which features more than 1,500 engravings that originally graced the pages of Webster's dictionaries in the 19th century.
Last week's announcement about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor spurred interest in Newmarket Press's The Latina Guide to Health by Dr. Jane Delgado (January). The paperback original will be published simultaneously in Spanish and English and is the company's first Spanish-language title. How Shall I Tell the Dog?: And Other Final Musings by the late British humorist Miles Kington (July) is Newmarket's first Indie Next List Great Reads selection. Attracting the attention of passersby was Lisa Grunberger's Yiddish Yoga (August)--along with bagels and cream cheese--the story of a recently widowed Jewish grandmother who accepts as a gift a year's worth of yoga lessons, which have surprising results.
Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius by Colin Dickey (September) represents new territory for Unbridled Books--the publisher's first nonfiction title that's not a memoir. Two fiction works of note are Mattox Roesch's Alaska-set debut, Sometimes We're Always Real Same-Same (September), and Masha Hamilton's fourth novel, 31 Hours (September), the story of a mother who has little more than a day to reach her 21-year-old son before he embarks on a suicide bombing.
For tech-savvy tourists, DK Eyewitness Travel launched its Top 10 guides for iPhone and iPod touch users. The 10 digital guides--which include Las Vegas, Los Angeles and London, with more in the works--are available at the Apple App Store and retail for a recession-friendly $7.99.
HarperCollins' Symtio cards offering electronic galleys were well-received by the tech-savvy and those willing to experiment with the digital (and environmentally friendly) format. Along with a description of the book and an author bio, the glossy, color cards--an effective promotional item on their own--include instructions on how to download ePub and PDF files onto Sony Readers, iPhones, Windows or Mac computers and other devices. Offerings included The Book of the Shepherd by the Scribe, aka Joann Davis (Harper Studio/October), and More of This World or Maybe Another (Harper Perennial/October), a collection of stories by New Orleans carpenter Barb Johnson. Director Guillermo del Toro's novel The Strain (Morrow/HarperAudio), the first in a vampire trilogy and on sale today, is available as an MP3 narrated by actor Ron Perlman. In true Hollywood fashion, there is a trailer for the book featuring actors performing a scene from the story.--Shannon McKenna Schmidt