BEA -- Five Weeks and Counting

This week, BTW shines a spotlight on Thursday, June 2, programming at this year's BookExpo America (BEA) for children's booksellers, for African-American booksellers, and for college stores. BEA will be held from June 2 - 5, at New York City's Jacob Javits Convention Center.

Programming for children's booksellers begins at noon on Thursday with the Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC) Annual Meeting in Room 1E 9-10. Membership in ABC is not required for attendance.

The annual meeting will be followed by ABC's 20th Anniversary Celebration Lunch, from 12:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. Boxed lunches can be ordered by ABC members through the ABC national office. (Information is available on the ABC website at www.abfc.com.)

During lunch, author and illustrator Alexandra Day will speak and celebrate the 20th anniversary of Good Dog Carl, the first of her popular books starring Carl the Rottweiler. Carl himself will also be in attendance. The 2005 winners of the Lucile Micheels Pannell Awards will also give presentations about their award-winning children's programs.

Children's Booksellers Afternoon programming, from 2:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. in Room 1E 9-10, is sponsored by the Children's Booksellers and Publishers Committee (A cooperative committee of the American Booksellers Association [ABA], Association of Booksellers for Children [ABC], and the Children's Book Council [CBC]). This programming is part of ABA's Day of Education and is open to all BEA attendees.

The Children's Booksellers Afternoon will feature National Book Award finalist Julie Ann Peters (Megan Tingley Books, Little, Brown and Co.) speaking with her editor, Megan Tingley. Their presentation will be followed by the Children's Book Buzz Workshop, in which editors and marketing staff from a variety of publishing houses present exciting new titles in small roundtable discussions with booksellers. Participating publishers include Atheneum; Bloomsbury; Candlewick; Charlesbridge; Clarion; Dial; DK; Dutton; Eerdmans; Farrar, Straus & Giroux; Greenwillow Books; Gingerbread House; Harcourt; HarperCollins; Henry Holt; Hyperion; Innovative Kids; Little, Brown and Company; Margaret K. McElderry; National Geographic; Patria Press; Puffin; Putnam; Random House; Raven Tree Press; Roaring Brook; Scholastic; Shadow Mountain; Viking; Walker & Company; and Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster.

ABC's 20th Anniversary Gala Celebration, from 5:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m., will be held at the Copacabana, 560 West 34th Street, just a half-block from the Javits Convention Center. Programming highlights include:

• 5:00 p.m. - 7:15 p.m. The Secret Garden Silent Auction
  Donations from children's illustrators and authors will be available for bid in a silent auction. The auction and dinner are open to all, but admission to the auction is open only to ticket holders.
• 7:30 p.m. - 8:45 p.m. Dinner
  Sponsored by Candlewick Press and Greenwillow Books.
• 8:45 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. Presentation of the E.B. White Read Aloud Award to the 2004 and 2005 Winners. The 2004 winner is Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner; the 2005 winner is Wild About Books by Judy Sierra, illustrated by Marc Brown.
  
  Speakers include Kate DiCamillo, winner of the 2004 Newbery award for The Tale of Despereaux and the 2001 Newbery Honor Award for Because of Winn Dixie. Her new book for 2005 is Mercy Watson to the Rescue. Kevin Henkes, winner of the 2005 Caldecott award for Kitten's First Full Moon, 2004 Newbery Honor winner for Olive's Ocean, and 1994 Caldecott Honor winner for Owen. His new book for 2005 is So Happy, illustrated by Anita Lobel.

From 12:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m., NACSCORP is sponsoring the College Store Literary Luncheon in Room 1A 03-04-05. Booksellers are invited to join their college store colleagues for lunch ... and to listen to some favorite authors. To RSVP, contact Cindy Thompson (cthompson@nacs.org) at the National Association of College Stores.

The College Store Idea Exchange & Roundtables, from 2:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m., in Room 1A 03-04-05, will focus on sharing proven strategies that can help make a store both more profitable and an even more valuable resource in the campus community. Programming includes:

Planning and Marketing by the Numbers
Return on Investment (ROI), stock turn, and expense-cost activities aren't just for bookstore managers anymore! All buyers in college bookstores need to know how their department contributes to the bottom line. If your eyes glaze over when talk turns to financial information, this session is for you -- everything you ever wanted to know about how to create a stronger and more profitable general book department!

Event Planning For the College Store
Does the thought of planning an author event make you quake with fear or quiver with excitement? Whether you're about to host your first event or your fiftieth, this session will give you dozens of tips on how to make your event a memorable one. Learn how to effectively market your store to publishers, agents, and authors, and take home valuable information and event planning tools to help you successfully advertise, schedule, staff, and budget for in-store events.

Registration for the program for African-American Book Industry Professionals is not required. (Information about AABC is available from Emma Rodgers of Black Images Book Bazaar in Dallas at blackimagesbooks@sbcglobal.net.)

The day's events will begin with an Opening Session and Luncheon in Room 1E 12-13, at 11:30 a.m. At the luncheon, which is sponsored by Jump at the Sun, an imprint of Hyperion Books for children, there will be a presentation designed to help booksellers sell children's literature to institutions and families.

The luncheon will be followed by a Keynote Address at 1:00 p.m. in Room 1E 11. Speakers will be author Walter Dean Myers and illustrator Christopher Myers, who have written and illustrated young adult and children's books both separately and collaboratively. Recent collaborative titles include Blues Journey and Harlem, a Caldecott Honor Book.

The afternoon's programming will feature two workshops, both geared towards boosting the bottom line.

From 2:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., moderator Vanesse Lloyd-Sgambati of the Philadelphia public relations firm The Literary, will lead the panel How to Sell Children's Books. The workshop will enhance booksellers' ability to select and sell books appropriate for standard, accelerated, reluctant, and remedial readers. Joining her on the panel will be: Author Irene Smalls, (Jonathan and His Mommy); author Jacqueline Woodson, (Miracle's Boys); Bernette Ford, CEO of Color-Bridge Books; and Michele Echols, a literacy consultant for nonprofit organizations.

From 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., Felicia Wintons, bookseller of Food for Thought in Tampa, Florida, will moderate the panel Remainder Books to Increase Your Bottom Line -- Purchasing, Pricing, and Positioning of Publisher Overstock Books.

Following the panel, there will be a Closing Reception from 5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

For more information about BEA, including ABA educational programming and special Book Sense and Free Expression events, go to www.bookweb.org/aba/convention/.