NYC
or Bust
BookExpo
America Returns to Gotham, Pondering Its 'Donut Problem'
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (FEBRUARY 2002)
You
may as well cue up the ticker tape. Because when BookExpo
America lands in New York this May after a decade-long
hiatus, the annual book industry trade show “will be
celebrating its return to the publishing capital of
the world,” in the neon-lit words of its marketing staff.
And the pre-buzz press releases are rolling. For starters,
Rudy Giuliani will preside over the opening night
reception on Thursday, May 2, touting his new business
book, Leadership (Talk Miramax). No one
will yet confirm or deny, but the hirsute Al Gore
has been a rumored marquee speaker. Even the celeb-grunge
band Rock Bottom Remainders are back in action
for a Saturday-night gig at Webster Hall (proceeds benefit
the Get Caught Reading campaign, among other
efforts). But behind the advance hype for BEA’s reign
at the Javits Center from May 1 to 5 is a highly concerted
effort to parlay this New York moment into long-term
viability — all at a time of downward pressures on a
variety of BEA constituents. “The fact that we’re in
New York this year seems to be giving us a huge burst,”
BEA Show Manager Greg Topalian says in an interview.
“There is a lot of pent-up demand. Early indications
from independent booksellers in New England, the Mid-Atlantic
states, and the Tri-State area are very favorable. We
are expecting a very, very busy show.”
Indeed, for the sake of the book business — and for
the coffers of BEA parent Reed Exhibitions —
it better be. “Attendee growth is the key to our future,”
Topalian declared in a statement last year, vowing to
target “up to 20,000 new attendees” and to broaden the
show’s buyer base by targeting nontraditional retailers
such as grocery, gift, and museum stores, in addition
to pumping up rights activity and throwing in a variety
of other educational and retail attractions. This dash
of convention smelling salts was needed in part because
recent growth has been negligible, with attendance rising
to 21,898 in Chicago last year (up 1%), with 6,132 buyers
(up 3%), and 2,000 exhibiting companies on hand (even
with the prior year). But these numbers are a far cry
from the boom years of the early ’90s, when reported
attendance topped 38,000 and the show sprawled over
355,000 square feet of Chicago’s McCormick Place.
With a glance at today’s show floor, it’s not hard to
see why. “We have more publishers at the show, but publishers
are taking less space,” says Steve Black, Chief
Operating Officer for book distributor CDS. “I
think that’s a general industry trend. Look at Random
House. Years ago they used to take acres. Now publishers
that previously took four booths may be taking two.”
On top of that, the bulging technology pavilion of recent
years, which Topalian wistfully recalls as “an enormous
growth area on the show floor,” has turned bulimic.
And no amount of pre-show drum-beating will revive the
independent booksellers who have gone to the big remainder
table in the sky. “BEA has a very tough challenge,”
observes industry veteran Mike Shatzkin, “because
its historical roots are to serve the connection between
many publishers and many booksellers. But the manys
are diminishing on both sides. You’ve got a donut problem.
There’s a hole in the middle. It’s a serious weakness
in the core proposition.” Shatzkin stresses that these
larger industry trends are not Reed’s fault, and that
BEA has attempted to address the weakness by expanding
into nonbook areas, a broader technology segment, and
the rights business. (For the record, Shatzkin’s Idea
Logical Company and Publishers Lunch founder
Michael Cader are developing an annual rights
event called “Publishing in New York: An Editorial and
Rights Fair,” now targeted for 2003. They hope to hold
discussions with potential partners for the event, including
BEA.)
In many ways, BEA has made significant strides. After
feverish wooing of a number of no-show publishers, Penguin
Putnam remains the only noteworthy absence on the
show floor. “We continue to have conversations with
them, and we’d like to have them back,” Topalian says.
(For their part, Penguin officials could not be reached
for comment.) The show’s Spanish Book Pavilion, now
in its third year, is “slowly gaining traction,” and
will double in size this year. Then there’s the Retail
Multi-Media Expo, which will explore crossover retailing
opportunities among the book, video, and music segments,
and a “dramatically expanded” International Rights Center,
including a new rights symposium, which features a half-day
educational forum and networking event. The show’s foreign
contingent has been on the rise, Topalian says, and
he’s anticipating an even bigger jump this year, partly
to make up for the slackened pace of the post-Sept.
11 Frankfurt Book Fair. Plus, “the New York venue
makes it a slam-dunk for the UK folks,” who can inexpensively
hop across the pond. The rights center will double in
size this year, too.
That growth, however, has made for some awkward identity
issues, Topalian acknowledges. “We’re always a bit of
a tricky show compared to Frankfurt or the London
Book Fair, because we really have two purposes.
We are still the US distribution show for the largest
market in the world. But over the last five years we’ve
become a very significant rights event.” For some publishers,
the amalgam works. “Our international sales department
is there and is busy from the minute the hall opens
to the minute it closes every single day,” says Alison
Lazarus, President of Sales for Holtzbrinck,
whose unit St. Martin’s had dropped out of the
show, but has been back for the past three years. Lazarus
says show productivity has increased since she’s been
back, particularly due to close scheduling of appointments,
rather than languishing in a booth waiting for walk-ins.
Ditto for Ornella Robbiati, Editor-in-Chief of
Italian publisher Sonzogno, who schedules appointments
every 30 minutes, as in London or Frankfurt, and praises
the opportunity BEA affords to see US colleagues in
one fell swoop. “Coming in the middle of the year, BEA
is the perfect occasion to meet American publishers
and agents without waiting until Frankfurt,” she says.
“On the other hand, in the last few years, much of the
American publishing community has come to the London
Book Fair, which is becoming increasingly international.”
Others point out that paradoxically, the New York venue
has in the past made the show difficult for New Yorkers,
since many will have long commutes at the end of the
day — exacerbated by the transportation-challenged Javits
Center site — on top of family obligations they wouldn’t
have in Chicago or LA. Beacon Press Director
Helene Atwan adds that she’ll be exhibiting as
usual, despite anticipated problems with publisher attendance
and a dearth of promotional materials due to the earlier
show date. And then there’s that familiar New York drain
on the expense account. On that note, show organizers
have negotiated rates of under $150 per night with a
number of hotels, and have also scouted cheaper rooms
in New Jersey, with shuttles to the Javits. (Incidentally,
the Library Hotel is offering a show discount
of $50 per night off deluxe rooms, and $30 per night
off petite rooms, to friends of Publishing Trends.
Email adele@libraryhotel.com,
and mention Market Partners for the special rate.)
And grumbling over this year’s early date should be
allayed for the near future, as BEA moves to Los Angeles
next year, launching on May 30, then hits Chicago in
2004, kicking off on June 4. Then it’s back to New York
on June 3, 2005. “We unquestionably are looking at moving
the show year-to-year,” Topalian adds. “It was overwhelming
to us that being in one city didn’t draw enough new
attendance on a year-in, year-out basis.”
Taking
Book Sense to the Bank
In
the end, of course, the show is what you make it. “Every
year we have a better and better BEA,” says Dominique
Raccah, Publisher at Sourcebooks. “I find
it incredibly useful. I know I’m one of the only book
publishers who feels this way.” Sourcebooks will once
again be installed in its house-shaped booth, with various
accommodations available for meetings, and publicity
staff staking out the back patio. “I don’t think it’s
an order-writing show, and it isn’t meant to be,” Raccah
continues. “It’s a relationship-cementing show, which
to my mind is far more important.” In fact, Sourcebooks’
business with Books-A-Million more than doubled
this year after four meetings with the retailer at last
year’s BEA. And Raccah makes a point of taking along
between 15 and 20 people to the show, many of them editors:
“If the editors don’t know what’s going on at the grassroots
level, we are going to make a lot of bad decisions.”
Raccah also cites the ABA’s Book Sense program
as a “phenomenal” driver of show growth. “You may see
a revitalization in BookExpo simply because Book Sense
is creating the right machinery to support independents.”
Of course, no one could agree more than Carl Lennertz,
Book Sense Senior Marketing Consultant and big BEA booster.
“For every trend in bookselling today, I can go back
and spot a seminar or a panel at BEA where it was first
talked about,” Lennertz says. “Computerized inventory.
Newsletters. Reading groups. The use of co-op. Everything
that’s keeping independent booksellers going now came
out of sessions five, ten, or fifteen years ago.” Moreover,
Lennertz thinks so much bluster about the relative merits
of the show floor misses the point that crucial work
is accomplished in other ways, whether at educational
sessions or just over drinks at the bar: “Going to BEA
will pay for itself — you can’t put a price tag on it.
The next generation of bookselling innovations will
come out of this show.” So what’s the bottom line, Carl?
“You should come to get ideas and make money.”
©2002
Publishing Trends
