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At Book Expo America in New York, co-existence reigns among print and digital worlds

Karen R. Long, Special to The Plain Dealer By Karen R. Long, Special to The Plain Dealer
on June 09, 2012 at 6:00 AM, updated June 11, 2012 at 1:36 PM
book-expo.jpgBook Expo America wrapped up Thursday, June 7, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City

New York -- This week, Book Expo America stretched for three days and spanned five centuries.

The publishing industry's annual trade show featured a carnival-like hive of more than a thousand vendors, giving off a vibe that a medieval fairgoer might recognize. Susan Cash peddled "The Complete Funky Winkerbean" in the Kent State University Press booth. A few dozen feet south in Manhattan's massive Jacob K. Javits Center, buyers clustered at the computers of OverDrive, a digital distributor that has never sold a physical book.

From its pilot 2003 experiment supplying digital books to the Cleveland Public Library, OverDrive now places e-books in close to 20,000 libraries with users in 204 nations, said David Burleigh, the company's vice president for marketing.

OverDrive also puts virtual books in schools -- including St. Ignatius, Orange and Shaker Heights high schools -- and has grown to 160 employees, requiring an expansion into a new Garfield Heights building.

"Everybody who has anything to do with books -- the supply chain is here [at Book Expo]," said Burleigh, who lives in Shaker Heights and is reading "Unbroken" on his Sony reading device.

Michael Heuer, who heads the direct-sales group for Hachette Books, was feeling jolly about the supply chain. He was busy discussing orders for "The Casual Vacancy," the first adult book from J.K. Rowling, which has a "worldwide laydown date" of Thursday, Sept. 27.

A veteran of more than 20 Book Expos, Heuer, who lives in Lyndhurst, said he concentrates now on "how to most efficiently and effectively sell our books -- in whatever format -- in a very rapidly changing environment."

One of those rapid shifts was explicit in the pedigree of "Fifty Shades of Grey," a self-published trilogy that is this year's breakout phenomena. Random House bought the rights from writer E.L. James and, in the last three months, has sold some 10 million copies, about half in paperback and half as downloads.

A more peaceful coexistence between print and cyberspace seemed to be settling in. The tony New York Review of Books announced at Book Expo that it is launching its own line of literary e-books.

Comic Stephen Colbert made quick work joking about the risque "Fifty Shades" in his master-of-ceremonies role at Book Expo, which he described as "the Lollapalooza of quiet reading to yourself." He plugged his own upcoming spoof, "America Again: Rebecoming the Greatness We Never Weren't," and faux whirled on Junot Diaz, whose 2007 novel "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" won a Pulitzer Prize.

RICHARD-RUSSO.JPGRichard Russo, who has his own Pulitzer for "Empire Falls," articulated his worries before the American Booksellers Association gathering.

"That must have been exciting to see the Pulitzer Prize van pull up to your house with balloons and a giant check," Colbert told Diaz.

Nearly two months after the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five major publishers, the tensions over commerce were audible on the show floor.

Richard Russo, who has his own Pulitzer for "Empire Falls," articulated his worries before the American Booksellers Association gathering:

"We no longer have Borders; Barnes & Noble is hanging by a thread. We've lost an enormous number of independent bookstores. The Amazon threat is real. It now has 75 percent of the market for books and electronic books."

Russo's figures could not be verified -- Amazon is famously tight-lipped about its business profile and market share -- but the ABA reported that the number of independent bookstores rose by 55 over the past year, from 1,512 to 1,567, a third straight year of increase.

Still, novelist Ann "Bel Canto" Patchett, who owns a bookstore in Nashville, Tenn., rose to her feet to rally her colleagues, going so far as to quote from the Agincourt speech in Shakespeare's "Henry V." She drew a standing ovation.

And Randall White, of Education Development Corp., said people were dropping by his booth to congratulate his company for deciding, earlier this year, to stop selling EDC titles on Amazon.

Still, a sense of more overall book commerce was evident, particularly for those working in the children's genre. Nicole Tugeau, a Cleveland Heights agent who represents children's book illustrators, said the rebound has started.

"Our corner of the industry is saying 2013 is going to be the year the pendulum swings back from the disaster three years ago," she said of the Great Recession. "We intend to have original characters and good books ready."
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