Shop Small & 2015 National Book Award Winners

I had a nice treat last night while flipping channels on TV, stopping to watch the American Express Shop Small promotion and there is Mitchell Kaplan from one of the great books stores anywhere, Books & Books in Miami (he has about 10 stores in total) .  

I stopped because Shop Small is such a powerful and great initiative.  Amex started it in 2010 and it is something that works amazingly well in the world of indie books stores.  So go out and shop at a local business or bookstore on Saturday Nov. 28th and you will probably be helped by an author if not someone from the ABA.  

Now check out the link, but don't blink - Mitchell owns the screen, popping in at the 7 second mark and is gone by the 8 second mark. 

LINK to Shop Small TV Promo 

While you are shopping on Saturday 11/18 - here are some great books to pick up:

The 2015 National Book Awards Winners: Young People's Literature Neal Shusterman Challenger Deep (HarperCollins Children's Books)   Share Tweet Poetry Robin Coste Lewis Voyage of the Sable Venus Alfred A. Knopf   Share Tweet Nonfiction Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me (Spiegel & Grau/Penguin Random House) Share Tweet Fiction Adam Johnson Fortune Smiles: Stories (Random House)

It is a buzzy time of year....

Submissions for BEA Editors’ Buzz are due next week - closing November 18th!!! 

If you have not been or don't know what a Buzz panel is: BEA Editors’ Buzz is one of the marquee platforms at BEA for promoting new titles.  It is where editors share their excitement and passion for their Fall 2016 releases!

Previous Buzz highlights: We Are Not Ourselves: A Novel, by Matthew Thomas; Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel; Five Days At Memorial, by Sheri Fink; Room, by Emma Donoghue; The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach, Brain on Fire, by Susannah Cahalan; The Maze Runner, by James Dasher; Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell; What’s Left of Me, by Kat Zhang; The Jewel, by Amy Ewing, and Life of Zarf, Rob Harell.

There are rules and selection guidelines for publishers to follow.  The three main Buzz panels are:

• Adult Editors’ Buzz

• Young Adult Editors’ Buzz

• Middle Grade Editors’ Buzz

The attraction for booksellers and industry people are hearing from the editor of the presented the title and understanding why they are so invested, what excited them in the first place, details on what made them believe in a title and why they expect it to be such a big book.  

BEA has added a Editors Buzz panels in 2015 for Graphic Novels and Translated Titles. We are now planning to add a Sci-Fi Fantasy Buzz panel for BEA 2016 in Chicago as well as plans to have the books available in a digital format..

Virtually every book that has been selected to one of the main Editor's Buzz Panels over the last 3 years has landed on the New York Times bestsellers list.  We look forward to getting all the submissions from publishers big and small, the books are selected by a very hard working committee.

BEA Potpourri Post

BEA is the midst of our busy fall as the team will be participating in NAIBA, NEIBA, Frankfurt & the Heartland Fall Forum over the the next few weeks.  Frankfurt is important for BEA as we get access to so many current customers as well as meeting many new prospects.  It will be s different feel as Frankfurt has consolidated the fair, closing Hall 8 (the English language Hall) and I suspect this will be a good thing and save me a couple of miles of walking between halls on a daily basis.  If you will be in Frankfurt, please visit the BEA booth: Hall 6.0 Stand B35 for a visit, we will have snacks and refreshments! 

We also enjoy going to as many of the regional events as we can staff, appreciating the direct feedback with booksellers as well as the time to talk with exhibitors one on one.  I am particularly excited about the Heartland Fall Forum for a number of reasons.  One, we are taking advantage of the chance to do a site inspection of McCormick.  That will be on Friday Oct. 9th at 9:30 - email me if you are interested in participating (srosato@reedexpo.com).  It has been 11 years since BEA was last in Chicago and it will be helpful to see the venue in person.  Here is the main reason for my excitement:  BEA will be doing a focus group with booksellers to hear first hand on the things we can be doing that better serve their needs at BEA.  I am very grateful to the ABA, the Great Lakes and Midwest Booksellers Association to helping BEA do this at the Heartland event.  

Some random thoughts and a couple of interesting links to share:

• Thank you Hurricane Joaquin for exiting stage right (apologies and prayers anyone to the Bahamas).   
• While the Yankees have limped their way into the 2015 Post Season, they are in the playoffs, and anything is possible, but it is feeling like a Mets or Pirates year
• Here is a terrific interview with Sonny Mehta and the Vogue slideshow is a perfect accompanyment:
• Vanity Fair interview with Sonny Mehta  
• Vogue.com Slideshow from the Alfred-Knopf Anniversary Party
• As publishers well know, part of the Amazon playbook is controlling access to their customers.  It is interesting to see that this tactic rolls across their business and is not just books in going after Apple and Google.   
• Amazon to Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices