Book Expo (BEA) Notes

Last week's events included the American publishing world's most significant trade show, known as Book Expo America (BEA). The exhibition, held in New York's unlovely Javits Center, featured a hustling amalgam of salespeople, agents, authors, and anyone else who wanted to make a buck buying or selling "content." My interest in this publishing pow-wow was to discover buyers for my firm's overstock products. Remainder day was a trade-only event, which made my visit focused and surprisingly pleasant.

There's little romance in the remainder and overstock business. One of publishing's secrets is the role of a book's print run. For some publishers, it's financially wiser to print more books than they are likely to sell either in the retail market or via wholesalers. In effect, the excess quantity is planned to occur, as the books will reach the remainder market and generate some revenue for the publisher.

The remainder vendors know who they are and what they're buying. The ones I met were surprisingly open and chatty, though sharp-eyed and skilled at quickly sizing up their counterparts. They also happen to know what customers want to buy. Their insights may very well correspond with their Big Five publishing brethren and sisters, whose book choices vary between astute and dim. The remainder buyers are notably immune to hype; for them, it's all about moving units. I found that approach a refreshing one.

In contrast, BEA's entranceway was filled with extravagantly-sized banners exuberantly praising the latest works of popular authors such as Jodi Picoult. A number of these lionized authors were television or movie celebrities, an ironic comment on the book biz that no one noted, or at least articulated. The most painfully fawning of these banners was one dedicated to Lena Dunham, the New York/Hollywood axis' new bright young thing. My only comfort from this rather bleak display was the knowledge that one of last year's BEA shining authors was Mitt Romney's wife.

I also attended a couple of sessions on social media and "publishing." One presentation, by Goodreads founder Otis Chandler, ran out of chairs after 450 people were seated. (Chandler, who sold Goodreads to Amazon, was not singled out as an ambassador of evil, as an Amazon rep might have been.) A later panel discussion on social media and e-books caught the eye of around 250 curiosity seekers. Clearly, the data-driven world has increasingly encroached upon publishing. No one, however, thought to consider how independent authorial voices would survive the religious belief in data's allegedly revealed truth. How would a Henry Miller, Anais Nin, William S. Burroughs, or Chester Himes (just to name a few writers) ever have emerged from a wilderness of "likes" and "trending now"?

Amazon Swallows Up Goodreads

Is Amazon your friend?
(image: janefriedman.com)

With the ink barely dry on the Amazon-CIA contract, the Seattle-based tech colossus has purchased the social media book site Goodreads, according to a report in today's Financial Times. The FT report did not cite a purchase price, or other acquisition details. As is Amazon's characteristic practice, the deal announcement was made via a statement. This Amazon tactic is intended to keep the media at arm's length, so that pesky questions are never acknowledged and Amazon can keep an iron grip on its message.

Goodreads was founded and owned by Otis Chandler, the grandson of the eponymous Chandler who was the publisher of the Los Angeles Times. (A fascinating piece on the investment side of Goodreads appears courtesy of Wade Roush's interview with its two venture capital investors. The story appears in xconomy.com.)

The tale of the tape is that Chandler the Youngest saw opportunity to link books and readers together. While that assertion may be accurate, his larger intention was to build a successful tech company. What many of Goodreads' bibliophiles did not realize was that the site essentially was a data collection machine. In that sense, it fit neatly into Amazon's business model. Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO, has consistently maintained to anyone who would listen that his company has always been first and foremost a tech enterprise.

Amazon's sense of timing was exquisite. The story was reported in the late afternoon hours prior to Good Friday. The markets happen to be closed on Good Friday, and many people have been celebrating the Passover and Easter holidays. The slow news cycle was a made-to-order event for the Amazon coup.

Of course, the Obama Administration's pro-Amazon Department of Justice has not made any comment on Goodreads' annexation into Jeff Bezos' expanding tech empire.