BookExpo: The Abridged Editon
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The massive three-day trade show has traditionally allowed booksellers and publishers from around the world to meet and schmooze, to learn about upcoming book releases, and to–perhaps–talk business. Then last year the ABA, a group mostly made up of independent bookstores, lost Random House after suing the giant publisher for allegedly offering sweetheart deals to the larger chains. Since then other publishing heavy hitters have joined Random House on the no-show list. Doubleday, Simon & Schuster, Harper/Collins, and William Morrow won’t have exhibits at this year’s convention, citing the high cost of attending. BookExpo spokesman Greg Mowery says the defections, while not necessarily permanent, indicate that book publishers are reconsidering the ways they do business: “Publishers were spending a lot of money at these trade shows, and now I think they are in the throes of rethinking what they want to do.” While many of the big publishers are staying home, Mowery says, the total number of booths should remain stable because the fair is now open to more exhibitors with only a peripheral interest in selling at bookstores. These include purveyors of music CDs, videotapes, computer software, and gourmet foods.
“The number of blue badges–the industry people who actually buy the books–has been decreasing at the trade show in recent years,” says Alexander Dee, Ivan R. Dee’s vice president for sales. Furthermore, he argues, most publishers deal with buyers at bookstores almost every day, so they don’t need a booth at BookExpo. Dee even forfeited his $1,762 deposit, or 75 percent of his total booth fee, when he decided to scuttle his plans; he figured spending the remaining 25 percent plus additional costs wouldn’t have paid off. This will be the company’s first absence in nearly a decade.
It was a far-from-merry Christmas last year for the producers of That’s Christmas! The multimillion-dollar mu-sical at the Shubert Theatre was supposed to become an annual holiday treat, but Chicagoans turned a cold shoulder, forcing the production to quietly cancel performances and sneak out of town earlier than scheduled. Yet that costly debacle won’t deter the granddaddy of all holiday shows–New York’s Radio City Christmas Spectacular–from parading into town next December. A new version of the Radio City Music Hall show, featuring the world-famous Rockettes, will play 22 performances between December 11 and 27 at the Rosemont Theatre.
