Boffo BEA for Indies -- Here's Proof in Pix!

Kicking off with the unlikely -- but appealing -- combo of wine and cookies at the Egyptian Theatre and running straight through to the final hours on the trade floor four days later, BookExpo America 2008 was a mega weekend for independent booksellers.

ABA's Day of Education on Thursday featured 16 educational panels and seminars, engaging keynotes from Ed Begley, Jr. and Amy Goodman, and a jam-packed, festive Celebration of Bookselling. The big news at the Celebration was the official launch of IndieBound, but there was lots of primetime IndieBound programming throughout the show, both at the busy ABA Lounge and at a special IndieBound information session on Saturday afternoon. And for all that was new -- including a full fall season of much-discussed titles -- there were also the BEA staples of parties (Cameron Diaz and Sean "Diddy" Combs canoodling on the couch at the Prince party!), 24-hour book talks, and the pleasant buzz of sleep deprivation that characterizes the once-a-year book sprawl of BEA.

Lots more coverage of ABA's educational programming is scheduled in upcoming issues of BTW, but here's a look at the highlights in pictures.

	The more than 800 ABA members staying at Hotel ABA, the Renaissance Hollywood, were greeted by association staff and volunteer booksellers at the Welcome Desk, where they picked up their BEA badges, a show guide, and more. A nearby table featured trade show-related information.

On Wednesday afternoon, booksellers gathered in the hotel lobby to embark on a Red Line walking tour of Hollywood and literary sites.
At the "Welcome to Hollywood" Reception, sponsored by ABA and the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association, at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, booksellers and Southern California authors mingled....
... enjoyed wine, supplied by Brown-Forman, courtesy of Harry N. Abrams, to celebrate Laura Holmes Haddad's Anything But Chardonnay (Stewart, Tabori & Chang) ...	... and ate special goodies, provided by Da Capo Lifelong Books and Mni's Bakery in honor of Mni Naill's new cookbook Sweet! Home Baking With Every Kind of Natural Sugar and Sweetener.
Outgoing ABA President Russ Lawrence of Hamilton, Montana's Chapter One Book Store welcomed guests to the reception on behalf of ABA and SCIBA.

On Thursday, ABA's Day of Education, sponsored by Ingram Book Group/Ingram Publisher Services, kicked off with a Plenary Session, featuring actor and environmentalist Ed Begley, Jr., author of Living Like Ed (Clarkson Potter).
Among the day's 16 sessions were the Graphic Novels panel, featuring John Shableski of Diamond Book Distributors, comic artist Scott McCloud, Jessica Stockton Bagnulo of New York's McNally Robinson Booksellers, and moderator Lisa Winn of ABA ...	... "Green Retailing," with Ferris Kawar, vice president of sustainability for Greenopia and The Green Media Group, Natalie Freidberg of All Shades of Green in Los Angeles, Suzy Staubach of University of Connecticut Co-op in Storrs, Connecticut, and moderator Oren Teicher, ABA COO ...
... and "Creating Killer Events," featuring Margie Scott Tucker of San Francisco's Books Inc., Collette Morgan of Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis, and moderator Dan Cullen of ABA.
At lunchtime, incoming ABA President Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands introduced Amy Goodman, co-host of Democracy Now! and co-author of Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times (Hyperion). After a moving address, which was given a standing ovation, Goodman autographed copies of her book for bookseller-fans.

The day was capped by ABA's Celebration of Bookselling, where a packed ballroom shared in the presentation of the Book Sense Book of the Year Awards, the Publishers Weekly Bookseller and Rep of the Year Awards, and the Lucile Micheels Pannell Awards.
Khaled Hosseini (A Thousand Splendid Suns, Riverhead/Penguin) accepted the Book Sense Book of the Year Award for Fiction.	In a video, Children's Illustrated winner Mo Willems (Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity, Hyperion Books for Children) said that one of the best parts about winning was beating Jon Scieszka, who then crept up behind him.
Joel Sheldon, CEO and majority shareholder of Vroman's, accepted the PW Bookseller of the Year Award.	Clark Kepler and staff accept the Pannell Award in the General Store category.
ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz announces the launch of IndieBound, a new initiative designed to unite booksellers, readers, indie retailers, local business alliances, and others in support of local activism and local economies and to lead an Independent Revolution.	Outgoing ABA President Russ Lawrence and members of the ABA Board took to the stage to celebrate the program's launch in their IndieBound gear.

On Friday, the action moved to the L.A. Convention Center, which featured the ABA Lounge. Here, booksellers found information about ABA and association-related Business Services, checked e-mail at Booklog's Internet Caf, and learned more about IndieBound.

The ABA Lounge also featured Author Autographing. Among those who signed books for ABA members were Jane Yolen (Here's a Little Poem; A Very First Book of Poetry, Candlewick) and Garth Stein, author of the number-one June Book Sense Pick, The Art of Racing in the Rain (HarperCollins).

Judy Blume signed copies of Going, Going, Gone! With the Pain and the Great One (Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers) to bring attention to the crucial First Amendment work of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression.

More than 40 authors joined ABA members at the Friday Author Lunch to celebrate the titles booksellers enjoyed handselling during the past year. Among those in attendance were Marisa Silver, author of The God of War (S&S), and Sherman Alexie, author of the Children's Literature Book Sense Book of the Year Honor Book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Little, Brown Young Readers).

Jane Friedman, then-president and CEO of HarperCollins, with special lunch guest and American literary icon Ray Bradbury.

Following the ABA Town Hall meeting was the Annual Membership Meeting, where Russ Lawrence gave his final report as ABA president.

On Saturday, ABA Chief Marketing Officer Meg Smith and Outreach Liaison Paige Poe presented an IndieBound information session, where members learned about the program's many different resources, including the Literary Liberation Box, soon to arrive in stores.

	And, of course, there was the trade show floor, where booksellers, publishers, and celebrities, including Alec Baldwin, Garrison Keillor, and Bernadette Peters gathered to discuss next season's hoped-for bestsellers.