E-books and bestsellers to draw readers to New York’s BookExpo
Rock legend Neil Young to be interviewed by Patti Smith. — AFP picLOS ANGELES, June 4 — One hundred years ago, Mark Twain was the featured author at New York’s BookExpo and 100 years later, rocker Neil Young will be appearing, interviewed by fellow musician Patti Smith at the 111th event at Manhattan’s Javits Centre.
Joining them at the event from tomorrow to June 7 will be best-selling authors and actor/authors, but the focus will be on the explosion of digital books.
With more than 500 authors, 30,000 visitors and 1,500 exhibitors in attendance, this premier book fair in North America features an ambitious agenda, from blogging and social media to a global market forum.
On June 6, Smith, who won the National Book Award in 2010 for her memoir Just Kids, will have a conversation with Young, who will discuss his upcoming memoir, Waging Heavy Peace, releasing this fall in North America and around the world.
Best-selling authors presenting readings from new books at Author Breakfasts include Barbara Kingsolver (Flight Behavior), Junot Diaz (This is How You Lose Her), Zadie Smith (NW: A Novel), and Michael Chabon (Telegraph Avenue: A Novel). They will attend Author Breakfasts for roundtable discussions.
There will also be a Bloggers Conference scheduled simultaneously and among the educational programmes, a webinar will guide “friends” to the “new” Facebook.
The spotlight yesterday was on the self-publishing of e-books, which had its own day-long conference, titled uPublishU, with panel seminars. Speakers included Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, and a representative of Lulu, another self-publishing site.
Self-published authors shared success stories, including Darcie Chan, who is on the New York Times Bestseller List with over 570,000 e-books sold. “The time for self-publishing has clearly arrived,” notes Steve Rosato, Show Manager for BookExpo, which is offering a special US$99 (RM309) discounted price for conference-goers.
Another highlight of BEA will be the Read Russia event at the Global Market Forum with publishers and more than 25 contemporary authors and booksellers seeking partnerships to showcase Russian literature, book illustrations and a film series.
For the first time, BookExpo America will make its high-profile authors available for viewing live and on demand with 20 hours of live coverage from the convention. Events such as Author Breakfasts will be streamed live across the web and mobile platforms. Find out more here. — Relaxnews
