Report by Linda Yau
On the weekend of December 6-7, and held at the General society of Mechanics and Tradesmen was the 21st Annual Indie & Small Press Book Fair. This was sponsored by New York Center for Independent Publishing and was a way to showcase the city’s small press and independent book publishers, during this holiday season.
Several weeks prior to the book fair, I was notified by For Beginners Press and Mr. Perry Brass of this event. Admissions was open to the public, so I went with an interest of seeing what books were out, and published by the New York City’s localized independent book publishers.
In spite of weekend train schedule, traveling there was a short seven stop ride for me. The book fair was held near 42nd Street Times Square, so that was an ideal location. I was not disappointed by what I was able to see when I was there.
There were three levels of publisher booths, and on the third floor, a room was also set aside for various featured panels or author events, of which I was unable to attend any of them. I was able to see, when they were changing events though, that it looked to be well attended.
I browsed and made my way around the various publisher’s booths though, passing out to some publishers my JLHLS card, as a way of publicizing the journal itself. Perhaps something will come of it.
There was a wide variety of books available among the publishers, such as books on sailing, comic books, poetry stanzas, young adult, inspirational books, cookbooks, travel books, script books, and Sony ebooks readers. There was even a French publishing agency that was seeking contacts of American publishers to sell their books to. Apparently this was a book fair, that was not only for the public to purchase books, but an opportunity for the various publishers to network with one another.
On the second floor, I was able to take a clear shot picture of the representatives from the eat.shop travel guides, that J LHLS has some reviews of, sitting next to For Beginners Press, of which J LHLS also has a review for.
Because of time constraints, I was only able to attend the Book Fair on Saturday morning, so I ended my time at the Book Fair, with review copies from Ms. Kay Williams and Mr. Norman Beim’s publications, and another book for personal reading. So please be on the look out for those books reviews.
For more information about the book fair itself, and participants, their website is here.