See You Next Week at BookExpo America!

Just a week before the kickoff of BookExpo America, the busy world of bookselling and publishing has gotten that much more hectic. To-do checklists are getting shorter, last-minute appointments are being confirmed, dry cleaning is getting dropped off, and registered attendees for BEA are reminding themselves to take a few deep breaths, as they head into the final week before the show.

For many independent booksellers, the special events will begin in Brooklyn (the location of this year's Hotel ABA) on Wednesday, May 30, with a "Welcome to Brooklyn" kickoff event featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough, whose titles include, among many others, The Great Bridge and 1776. Then, registered booksellers will head off on one of eight walking tours of literary Brooklyn.

Thursday will be a Day of Education and networking for booksellers at the Hotel ABA, along with that evening's Celebration of Bookselling, also at the hotel. And Friday, the trade floor opens at the Javits Convention Center, which will be the site for the ABA Town Hall meeting and the association's Annual Membership Meeting.

For a full review of all ABA's convention-related programming, see BTW's "Countdowns to BEA" for up-to-the minute information, including details about Hotel ABA and ABA's Book Sense Lounge, ABA's Thursday Day of Education and the Celebration of Bookselling, and the Book Sense Author Lunch, the ABA Town Hall and Annual Meetings, and ABA informational programming on Thursday and Friday.

The ABA staff will be looking forward to seeing you throughout the show, and especially in ABA's Book Sense Lounge, Room 1E07 - 1E08 of the convention center.

Watch for BTW's daily reports from BEA online beginning late Wednesday, May 30, and in print at the show on Thursday, May 31.