Who's reading e-books? Bowker's v-p of publishing
services Kelly Gallagher offered a sneak peek at the latest findings
from the Book Industry Study Group's third fielding of "Consumer
Attitudes toward E-Book Reading," which will be released in July.
"We're
beginning to look now at some real exponential growth," said Gallagher,
adding that since 2006, e-books have steadily risen from 1.5% to 5% of
the total market, with a very steep gain during the past year.
He
stressed the substantial presence of male e-book readers (51%), and
also noted the iPad's dramatic early impact. Although the number one
e-book device is still the computer (37%), the latest figure represents
an 11% decline since the first fielding in November, 2009. Amazon's
Kindle is number two at 32% (10% gain), but lurking in seventh place is
the iPad at 3%, despite the fact that the survey was conducted just
three weeks after its release. We'll have detailed coverage of the BISG
study soon.
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Spring(field) Fever: Long lines of fans queued up to meet Rick Springfield and have their picture taken with the pop icon (among them romance author Terri Brisbin). He was there to tout his memoir, Late, Late at Night (Touchstone, October), in which he shares the story of his years in music, film and television and discusses his lifelong battle with depression.
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"Real life is too extreme for fiction. I second that. Big time."--Sarah Ferguson, speaking at the Book & Author Breakfast yesterday, where she introduced authors Cory Doctorow, Mitali Perkins and Richard Peck.
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Stephanie Anderson left the show floor with more than galleys and swag. The manager of WORD in Brooklyn, N.Y. (and Shelf Awareness Namastechnology columnist) received a makeover by Bobbi Brown make-up artist Mark Hopkins. Cosmetics guru Brown was on hand, too, in the Chronicle Books booth to promote her latest tome, Beauty Rules: Fabulous Looks, Beauty Essentials, and Life Lessons for Loving Your Teens and Twenties (August).
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Paying tribute to a reader of a
different sort. During a "Get Caught Listening" presentation at the
Midtown Stage yesterday, bestselling author Nelson DeMille praised
Scott Brick, the actor who narrates his audiobooks, saying, "I get
as much fan mail now about Scott as I do me." DeMille joked that when
people tell him what a great job Brick did as narrator, he wants to
say, "Excuse me. I wrote the book."
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Turning 40: Hard to believe, but Garry Trudeau (at left, signing posters for a long line of fans) has been drawing Mike Doonesbury, B.D and the gang for 40 years. This fall, Andrews McMeel will release the deluxe, slipcased 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective, a collection of 1,800 of those strips plus essays by the author.
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Busy Day at BEA:At lunchtime, Kathryn Stockett gave a speech thanking indie booksellers for their support as she accepted the Adult Debut Book of the Year Award for The Help at the Indies Choice Book Awards (see more on the awards below). Later in the afternoon, she signed books in the Penguin booth. Fans were served generous slices of caramel cake while they waited on line.---
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The incredibly prolific James Patterson signed Witch & Wizard: The Gift, the next book in his YA fantasy series, which he co-wrote with Ned Rust. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers will release it in December.---
The "Nonfiction for Kids & Teens" panel discussed how to raise the profile of nonfiction in stores, schools and libraries. At right at Jennifer Brown, moderator and children's editor for Shelf Awareness; Laura Godwin, v-p and publisher of Holt Books for Young Readers/Macmillan; Angela Carstensen, head librarian at New York's Convent of the Sacred Heart and chair of the 2010 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction; Steve Sheinkin, children's book author; and Elizabeth Bluemle, president of the ABC and co-owner of Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vt.