Intermixed with the show room was a robust schedule of panels avaliable for attendees to attend. BEA Panels were designed for booksellers and librarians, and were all relevant toward funneling interest in the publishing industry. Panel topics was related to a specific book/speaker or tips on how to improve with technology.
What’s Next for the Book?
Moderated by Steve Inskeep (NPR), the panelists were CEOs or Chairman from prominent publishing houses, and digital interest companies. This link actually has video of the entire panel. Here are some bits and notes on what I found to be an interesting part to the hour panel itself on discussing the future of the printed book.
- Publishers are definitely moving away from printed to go online with their properties.
- If it is sold as an app, then it is not a book, but we’re in the middle of creating a new medium.
- Only reason why we still call them books (regards to ebooks) because we have an author and ISBN. People would treat them as such.
- There are many ebooks known as enhanced ebook since there is interactive media in them. Al Gore’s Our Choice App was cited. With interactive media, it can be like a quilt being woven. Publishers and companies with e-media are creating a studio that brings in other media fields to work with authors on their work
- Children’s book has gotten the most innovation in this ebook market.
- Projects are beginning from an app background that may not necessarily have been a print background first.
- There is continuing anxiety, yet excitement for the future. The printed word is not going anywhere. But there is worry on quality, on how fast work is released can impact quality. So speed is an enemy, with a mash rush to create content.
- New Media is a trend or keyword for this panel
- A feature of this panel was the moderator’s call for attendees to ask panelists questions via Twitter using the hashtag of #Beafuture. So they actually answered a question I asked. The answer, Long range fiction is not good to be adapted, and great category is children books with much interaction. Cookbooks is possibly another choice.
- Use caution to compare the book industry to the music industry, since it is a very simplistic comparison, and there are so many reasons why people read.
7x20x21
Situated at the Midtown Stage, this is a panel of 7 speakers, 20 slides and 21 seconds for each slide. In a hot seat type scenario, these speakers talk about aspects within the niche of book industry. The panel was well attended, and laughter filled the crowd with certain parts of the presentations. The slides managed to poke fun, shock and amaze the audience, yet they all had a point.
Memorable points for me were:
- A comparison to the Phantom Tollbooth
- How the publisher industry is inevitability turning into a freelancers type work
- Reality of a public librarian
- How authors can be thrown a drink to the face if they announced themselves as such
Hosted by Ryan Chapman and Ami Greko, the panelists were: Ben Greenman, Rachel Rosenfelt, Misha Glouberman, Aaron Shapiro, Rita Meade, Kevin Smokler, and Colson Whitehead. On Flickr, I happened to snap specific speaker images.
Hot Fall Graphic Novels for Libraries, Education and Retail
This panel definitely was one of the few panels that spoke about comics at BEA, so this maybe the start of seeing the comic industry merge with the publishing industry. Moderated by John Hogan from Graphic Novel Reporter, the panelists were made up of public, academic, education and retail professionals. Panelist each chose five top titles for this year, with memorable mentions. This is the entire list, but here are the titles that stood out for me:
- Manga Man by Barry Lyga
- Americus by MK Reed and Jonathan David Hill
- The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladsone
- The Last Dragon by Jane Yolan
- Vietnamerica: a family’s journey by GB Tran
- Rasl by Jeff Smith
- Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths by Shigeru Mizuki
- Paying for It by Chester Brown
- Empire State A Love Story or Not by Jason Shiga
- Wandering Son by Shimura Takako
So there were plenty of other panels, I attended however due to how long this is taking me to write up. I pretty much listed out all the panel of book and graphic novel interest.
Flickr Link to this year’s photography.
Past JLHLS coverage:
BEA 2010: Part 1, and Part 2
BEA 2009: Part 1 and Part 2, Publishers getting Smarter or What?