Registration Opens for Celebration of Bookselling, Meet the Editor, Publicists Speed Dating at BookExpo

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

Booksellers can now register for the American Booksellers Association’s programming exclusively for members who will be attending BookExpo 2017 next month in New York City.

The program includes the popular Celebration of Bookselling and Author Awards Lunch, two Publicists Speed Dating sessions, and an opportunity to “Meet the Editor” at publishers’ offices around the city.

In addition, tickets are on sale now for the ABC/CBC Speed Dating Lunch With Children’s Authors and the Silent Art Auction to benefit American Booksellers for Free Expression and Every Child a Reader. The program also includes author autographing sessions exclusively for ABA member booksellers in the ABA Member Lounge (Booth 721) on the Javits Convention Center trade show floor.

  • The Celebration of Bookselling and Author Awards Lunch, always a highlight for booksellers, will be held from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 31, in the Special Events Hall of the Javits Center.

    The Celebration will feature the presentation of the 2017 Indies Choice Book Awards and the E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards as well as the introduction of Indie Next List authors and award nominees.

    Reservations are free of charge and limited to a maximum of four booksellers per ABA member store location. Seat assignments will be e-mailed prior to BookExpo; following the lunch, a number of the Celebration’s participating authors will be signing exclusively for ABA members in the ABA Member Lounge (Booth 721) on the trade show floor. Reserve a seat for the Celebration here.

  • Meet the Editor will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 31, at various publishing houses around the city.

    Booksellers will have the opportunity to experience the book editing process through in-person visits with editors at their New York offices; more than 25 publishers are participating. Booksellers will go directly to their assigned publishing house at 9:30 to meet with editors for approximately 90 minutes.

    The structure of the editor meetings will vary by publisher and are meant to give a behind-the-scenes look at the philosophy and process of book editing. Booksellers will be on their own to return to the convention center following the publisher visits. Booksellers will be randomly assigned and will receive their publisher information by e-mail prior to BookExpo.

    Preregistration for Meet the Editor is required by Friday, May 12. Preregister for Meet the Editor here.

  • Publicists Speed Dating sessions will be held from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 31, and from 9:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. on Friday, June 2, at the convention center.

    ABA member bookstore owners, managers, and event coordinators will meet one-on-one with publicists. Booksellers will visit at least five to six tables of publicists per day; booksellers that sign up for both the Wednesday and Friday sessions will meet with different publicists each day. During the timed “dates,” booksellers will have the chance to promote their stores and discover what publicists look for when planning author tours. (To help booksellers prepare for their visits, ABA will be offering a free webinar on creating a store media kit; watch for details in next week’s edition of BTW.)

    Here is a partial list of the publishers participating in Publicists Speed Dating; others will be announced as they are confirmed:

    • Abrams
    • Akashic
    • Auzou
    • Bloomsbury (Adult and Children’s)
    • Candlewick
    • Capstone
    • Coach House Books
    • Coffee House Press
    • Consortium (Arsenal Pulp; Central Recovery Press; Cinco Puntos; Haymarket Press; Talon Books)
    • Dundurn Press
    • ECW
    • Fabled Films Press
    • Grove/Atlantic
    • Hachette Book Group (Grand Central; Hachette Books; Jimmy Patterson; Little, Brown; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Nashville; Orbit)
    • Harlequin (Adult and Teen)
    • HarperCollins (Ecco; Harper; Harper Children’s; Willam Morrow)
    • little bee books
    • Macmillan (Adult and Children’s)
    • Nobrow/Flying Eye
    • W.W. Norton
    • Papercutz
    • Perseus Books Group (Avalon Travel; Da Capo; Public Affairs; Running Press; Weinstein)
    • Penguin Random House (Avery; Anchor; Berkley; Blue Rider Press; Clarkson Potter; Crown; DK; Dutton; Knopf; Pam Krauss Books; Penguin Books; Penguin Young Readers; Putnam; Random House; Random House Children’s; Riverhead Books; Viking; Vintage)
    • Quirk Books
    • Rare Bird Books
    • Scholastic
    • Simon & Schuster (Atria; Simon & Schuster Adult and Children’s)
    • Sourcebooks
    • Workman (Artisan; Workman)

Preregistration for Publicists Speed Dating is required by Friday, May 12. Booksellers can sign up for the Day 1 session (Wednesday, May 31) and/or the Day 2 session (Friday, June 2). Booksellers will meet with at least five to six different publicists per day. Preregister for Publicists Speed Dating here.

  • The ABC/CBC Speed Dating Lunch With Children’s Authors will be held from 12:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. on Friday, June 2, at the Javits Convention Center.

    ABA members and friends of CBC who purchase tickets will enjoy a lively lunch with more than a dozen children’s book authors as they pitch their new projects. Tickets are $35 each. Space is limited and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Booksellers will receive their table assignments via e-mail prior to BookExpo.

    Preregistration and prepayment are required by Monday, May 15. Order tickets for the ABC/CBC Speed Dating Lunch here.

Ticket sales for the following event opened earlier:

  • The Silent Art Auction to Benefit ABFE and Every Child a Reader, featuring the Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards, will be held from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 31, in the Javits Convention Center’s South Corridor.

    National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Gene Luen Yang will serve as honorary chair of this event, which is sponsored by the ABC Children’s Group at ABA and the Children’s Book Council (CBC). In addition to the announcement of the winners of the Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards as selected in voting by young readers across the country, this year’s Silent Art Auction will celebrate the 75th anniversary of Random House’s Little Golden Books imprint, which began in 1942. The auction will feature a special selection of works celebrating the Little Golden Books legacy.

    Auction tickets for ABA member booksellers are priced at $11, a 90 percent discount off the regular price of $110. Discounts are also available to librarians and friends of ABFE and the CBC with the use of special discount codes. Order tickets now. (To receive the discount, booksellers must be logged in to BookWeb when ordering.)

    ABA member booksellers are invited to the ABC/CBC Reception for Children’s and Teen Choice Book Award finalists from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, June 2, in the ABA Member Lounge (Booth 721) on the trade show floor.

    The reception will feature 2017 Children’s and Teen Choice Book Award finalists, including Mo Willems, Lisa Papp, Bob Raczka, Laura Gehl, Joyce Wan, Leigh Bardugo, Rachel Renée Russel, Nikki Russell, Don Tate, and MarcyKate Connelly. Refreshments will be served and limited quantities of the award winners’ books will be available in the lounge galley room.

More information about ABA’s programming at BookExpo can be found on BookWeb.org.

Booksellers can register for free badges to BookExpo by providing an ABA member ID number during the registration process. Booksellers who don’t know their ID number should send a request with their name, title, and store name to [email protected] or call (800) 637-0037, ext. 7536.

Thanks to financial support from Reed Exhibitions, ABA member booksellers can reserve rooms at The Row NYC Hotel at a rate of $200 per night, including all taxes and fees. At publication time, a limited number of rooms were still available. The Row NYC Hotel is located at 700 Eighth Avenue. To access Hotel ABA reservation information, booksellers will need a BookWeb username and password.