Book Expo America in LA
I'm enjoying a cigarette outside the Los Angeles Convention Center where they're holding Book Expo America this year. Talk about your pop cultural pulse point. As you can see, John Hodgman is holding court to promote his latest Dr. Bronner-style dissertation, More Information Than You Require. He's not signing books, per se, but little promotional brochures that are basically the treatment, a sample chapter and, best of all, on the back, the marketing treatment (to entice book sellers to stock lots of copies based on the buzz such marketing will generate). To whit:
- Author Tour
- National Television Interviews
- National Print and Online Advertising
- Featured Guest Speaker at BEA
- National and REgional Radio Interviews
- Newspaper and Magazine Features and Reviews
- Targeted Online Marketing
Speaking of hotties, man, if you're looking for incredibly cute, mousey girls with an intellectual bent, look no further. A few of them aren't even publicists or marketers! I will, however, try to reserve judgement on those in line for an autograph by the author of Skinny Bitch: Bun in the Oven, your guide to staying thin after a pregnancy. The author herself certainly achieved the goal and then some. (And is it ironic that a book for people looking to stay skinny has a food metaphor in the title? I can't decide.)
Some favorite juxtapositions? Waiting in line for an autographed copy of a book for my pops as a Father's Day gift, people asked if I was in the line for Salman Rushdie or Tommy Chong (it was neither -- I don't want to give away the surprise). The Rand Corporation's booth was right across from Dharma Publishing, which means someone has a sense of humor. Grabbing a free bookbag to stuff more free books and galleys into, I was horrified to discover it was from the publisher of Porn Nation: Conquering America's #1 Addiction.
Not so horrified as to put it back, of course. I need something to carry Crime by Irvine Welsh, High Life by Matthew Stokoe and of course a copy of Pony Play. I should run into the Erotica ghetto soon enough as I make my way to the far end of the main floor. My favorite score so far? Cooking the Gullah Way from UNC Press. What I probably won't get around to is asking what the McSweeney's kids think of Keith Gessen's beef -- they might get mad and not let me take a nap in their tent.
