TODAY'S NEWS

BookExpo America 2009 Seen as Productive Show
By Jim Milliot
With the nation still in a recession and book sales sluggish, the publishers, booksellers and other industry members did not know what to expect from this year’s BookExpo America, but most came away feeling the trip to the Javits Center was worthwhile. “We did what we came to do,” said Michael Kerber, president of Red Wheel/Weiser/Conari. “We even wrote a couple of orders,” his partner, Jan Johnson, chimed in.

Fears by some exhibitors that the Javits would be empty were unfounded, as total attendance was put at 29,923. Excluding exhibitors, total “verified attendees” was 12,025, up 30% from last year in Los Angeles, but down 11% from the 2007 New York show. The verified attendee category includes book buyers (7,066), plus licensing and rights professionals, non-editorial media, authors, and film and TV production personnel. (The perception that the aisles were narrower this year than in the past, an observation reported in Show Daily, was incorrect. BEA executives said the aisles were the same width.) Read on »

Sterling Teams With Napoleon Hill
Sterling Publishing has inked a partnership with the Napoleon Hill Foundation, a non-profit educational institution, to do a series of books called Think and Grow Rich. The first title in the series, Three Feet from Gold, by Sharon Lechter (co-author of various titles in the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series) and Greg S. Reid (The Millionaire Mentor), is slated to hit bookstores in October. The deal also marks Sterling's first in a Harper Stuido-like program called Author Ownership, which offers authors lower advances in exchange for a bigger cut of profits.

Gold is, according to Sterling, a modern-day version of Think and Grow Rich, which Napoleon Hill, a successful self-help author from 1930s, originally published in 1937; the title went on to become one of the bestselling business/self-help books of its time. Gold will be published to coincide with the 100th anniversary of when Hill began researching Think and Grow Rich. Speaking to the Author Ownership program, a rep from Sterling said other titles are "in the pipeline" and that the publisher is "actively trying to entice authors" to publish in this fashion.

BookExpo America 2009: Oneworld to Open New York Office, Expand Into Fiction
Oxford, U.K., independent publisher Oneworld Publications will open its first North American office in New York in July. Distribution in the territory will continue through National Book Network.

Editorial director Juliet Mabey said, “America is now our largest single market, and with so many of our authors based over here, opening an office in New York is the obvious step. She said establishing an office in North America will help Oneworld strengthen its presence here and acquire more American titles.Read on »

The PW Morning Report
By Craig Morgan Teicher
A BEA Rundown; Google Gets into E-Books. Read on »

Blogs

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Be Happy!; The Secrets of Happy Families; Michael Lewis
Today, Good Morning America hosted bestseller Robert Holden, whose latest is Be Happy! Release the Power of Happiness in YOU (Hay House, 978-1401921804, $25.95; Hay House abridged CD, $34.95). Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Execs at BEA
On Thursday, the opening day of BookExpo America 2009, Lance Fensterman, BEA general manager (far left); Rick Joyce, chief marketing officer, Perseus (center left); Tom Allen, AAP president (center right); and Oren Teicher, CEO of the ABA (far right) stopped for a picture. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

PW VIRTUAL EDITION

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