A BEA Diary – 2004 – Part 2
Wednesday
As I got dressed, I kept thinking of the song “Another Opening, Another Show.” I’ve been exhibiting at PMA-U for many years but this year was different because I had a new product… actually a completely new concept ….. JAYA123. In previous years I had passed out brochures and CDs. This year I brought a laptop to demonstrate the system and instead of long, wordy flyers, I put my entire “pitch” on both sides of a business card. Long ago Dan Pointer had taught me a simple marketing secret. People will toss out brochures…. but they tend to hold on to business cards… they are easy to carry and easy to file.
I got downstairs at 8 am ready to go. And I was alone. Well, not just me… all the vendors were alone. So where were the students?
We were to learn a very unpleasant truth… that AGAIN, the PMA planners tried to put too much into too short a time space. Over the years the PMA has scheduled more and more seminars and has allowed less and less time for the attendees to visit the vendor booths. We complained about this last year and were told that this year would be different. Well, like all things PMA, there is the truth, the whole truth, and the PMA truth! So as the morning got underway, the students went to class, came back during the morning break to scarf a quick snack, and then back to class. There was no time for them to visit those of us who paid for a good part of the program.
The morning wasn’t a total loss, but I don’t think more than 20 people came over to our table. I was keeping track by the number of “Cool as a moose” buttons I was giving out. And by lunch time, I still had a whole lot of them left!
Like in previous years, PMA did the “birds of a feather” lunch thing. They put “topic” signs on each table…. like “Literary Fiction” or “Travel” or “Marketing” and you were to sit at a table that had a subject that interested you, with the idea that there would be table talk on the issue. Well, it never worked in the past and it will never work in the future and you’d think that PMA would have gotten a clue by now… but they haven’t. Anyway, I sat next to Michael Kennedy of Asklepiad Press. who has a fascinating book on the history of surgery. Maya had done the cover (outstanding) and I enjoyed talking with the doctor. I have high hopes for his book.
After lunch, the students went back to class. I had a long chat with Marion Gropen of Gropen Associates. She and I differ on the amount of complexity one needs to “accept” in order to keep good records. As you might expect, she’s a big fan of double entry bookkeeping, being an accountant and all, so we had a debate on the idea that “easy is better.” I think that I won the debate. However, she’s a bright woman and while she is just starting her practice, she knows who her market is, and I have no doubt that she will be able to build a substantial business giving financial advice to the industry. She’s a bright woman and she will make things happen for herself. Keep your eye on her.
During the afternoon, Barbara DesChamps came by and introduced herself. This is another self-assured young woman. She is starting a line of travel books and if anyone can make a go of it in this difficult genre, it’s Barbara, owner of Chateau Publishing.
The highlight of my day was when I got to meet Pam Schwagerl of Tsaba House. Every once in a while you meet a publisher who does everything right. Pam planned her work and is working her plan. She has lots of help with her two “drop dead beautiful” daughters (one is below) and her son. She’s also a JAYA123 victim (oops, I mean customer) and when Pam told me that JAYA is a big help to her business because it frees up a lot of time to do the important stuff, it just made my day.
Pam with ‘babe-a-licious’ daughter. Can you tell them apart?.
While it was nice to see firends and clients, we saw very few prospects. By the time the last session was over, everone raced back to their room to change for the Ben Franklin Award dinner that was coming up. I took off my “on your feet all day” running shoes, put on a clean shirt, and went back to the ballroom for the dinner.
The food was rather good this year but in a not so subtle hint, the patrons were provided with saucers as dinner plates. Everyone was pretty pissed off about it. Obviously, the PMA does not want to pay for a lot of food and by giving micro-plates, it is hoped that people would eat less. Well, all it did was keep people in the aisles and in line longer. I hate cheap… and sometimes the PMA is ultra cheap… it’s like they take lessons from Shel Horowitz (the king of cheap!).
Another tradition is that for the Ben Franklin, I sit with Peter Goodman, Mayapriya Long, and Sharon Goldinger, among others, and we “dis” all the nominees and winners. Joining us this year was Shel and some friends of his I did not know, nor remember. The table talk was not about books, but about how we were all getting on this first day. Toward the end of the dinner, Shel made the comment that “My darn cell phone won’t work in Chicago.” I cracked up the table by saying “You know Shel, you gotta pay the bill.” Anyway, for a group of publishers who were not making a whole lot of money in this business, we were a happy lot. And after the 17th trip to the buffet table, we were about ready for the award ceremony.
The outgoing president of PMA, Don Tubesing gave an opening address that was really terrible. Fortunately it was short. It’s hard to be funny when you’re not. Don is a hell of a nice man, was a good PMA president, but public speaking is not his cup of Joe. So we were glad when Jan finally got on with the presentations.
About the only surprise of the evening was how boring most of the books were… both in design and in concept. The only one that I thought that was really interesting was “The Food Journal of Lewis and Clark.” It had a good cover by my friend Tamara Dever. It was one of the few nominations that I would have gone out and bought (and probably will.)
And talking about nominations, the comic highlight of the evening was in the nominations for Reference. Nominated were “The Big Book of Masturbation” followed by a tome titled “Talking With Your Hands.” And you say that PMA judges have no sense of humor. Masturbation won, which made me happy… no not for what you think… but because the publisher, Leigh Davidson of Down There Press is an old friend and a client of our software.
Actually a number of our clients were either nominated or won and I was hoping that someone would get up and say “… and I want to thank the makers of JAYA123 for their terrific product that freed up so much time so we could create our wonderful book… yada, yada.” It didn’t happen.
One reason it didn’t happen is because at least three quarters of the winners did not show. I can understand if a small, one-book press can’t afford to send someone to BEA, but Globe Pequot? They have more money that all of us put together. They entered (and won) a bunch of categories so you’d think they would send at least one person to pick up any awards that they might get. But they were a no-show… and the award dinner ended about an hour earlier than usual. No one missed it. An hour is long enough.
Oh, and the Book of the Year was (drum roll) Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. No. I’m not kidding. It’s true. They won. Do we have a creativity problem with this industry or what? You wonder why young people would rather play Game Boy or XBox than read a book? There you have it, right in front of you. If you don’t get it, then there is nothing I can say to you.
After dinner we retired to the bar to drink some beer and talk about what a wonderfully creative industry we must be in when a dictionary can win B.O.T.Y. It was a very short discussion.