I was excited to attend my fourth BookExpo this May. Sad to say, the conference will be in Chicago in 2016, but hopefully it will return to NYC at some point. The exhibits, as always, were fantastic. They offered many free books; however, as a librarian, I have access to way too many free books, so I resisted the temptation. The New York Times had a booth, as did many major book publishers, such as Scholastic and National Geographic. The Romance Writers of America was there, and many authors were signing and selling their books. There was even had a booth selling handmade journals. All in all, it was a great time.

Women Entrepreneurs: Launching and Building a Start-Up by the Women's Media Group

This session featured Linda Holliday, CEO of Citia, Ann Hedreen, co-owner of White Noise Productions, Susan Uszala, President of NetGalley, Joanna Herman, CEO of Librify. It was good to get leadership perspectives from successful businesswomen and book recommendations from them. Women, like men, can start businesses, which may or may not become profitable. As we know, most businesses fail within the first two years.

Herman moderated the panel discussion. She asked if the type of start-ups that women launch are different than those from men. 

Holliday opined that businesses can be launched without venture capital. 

Uszala mentioned that the investors and the business are the CEO's supervisors.

Holliday said that some investors expect very high returns.

Uszala wanted to build a business that could last a long time. For her, the focus should be on the customers.

Hedreen wants meaning in her work, and this is more important to her than money. She started selling advertising space in grad school, and she learned how to sell from books.

Uszala stated that leaders need to discover their weaknesses and work on them.

Holliday said that it is impossible to care about everyone since that is overwhelming. People should care about their colleagues and their direct reports. If you spread yourself too thin, you can dissipate your accomplishments.

Uszala finds the book publishing industry to be very friendly to women. Her husband works in the financial services industry, and his colleagues are very dismissive of her accomplishments.

Herman was told by men when she was fundraising as a mother-to-be that she was the first pregnant woman that he has seen raising money in two decades.

Uszala told her supervisor she was pregnant, and he asked how much time they had. She told him that she did not have cancer, and she would be back.

Holliday relayed that 40% of women who go on maternity leave do not come back. Amazingly enough, she had seven women go on maternity leave at the same time, which almost killed the company. Some corporations have cultures where staff are expected to work 24/7, then they get rich and retire early. Start-up is a high-maintenance sport, and it requires much time, as do children. You really need to quiet everything else in your life in order to launch a start-up. The vast majority of entrepreneurs are male.

Herman mentioned that most of the customers in the book industry are female.

Uszala said that there are different patterns to the way that the work world is evolving. It is no longer the formula of going to school and getting a job. People's career paths do not necessarily follow a common linear path anymore.

Hedreen's customers realize that she works from home, and they do not mind if her son occasionally wanders through a meeting. However, the blurred boundaries of today are somewhat liberating. She recently wrote a book, and her customers think that this is super-cool. It is a huge time commitment to market a book.

The Modern Bookstore's Graphic Novel Section 

I learned that people write graphic novels on classics or Shakespeare, but it is important to do it well. There is a lot of mediocre literature out there.

New Strategies and Developments for Digital Higher Education by the Chinese-American Education Publishing Forum

Some of the lecture was in Chinese, and there was translation equipment on the seats. It was good to see an academic panel discussion on the global knowledge economy. The moderator asked if there are certain disciplines that are more resistant to digital instruction, and the response was Architecture. He then asked if certain disciplines lend themselves better to digital instruction, and the response was accounting and techie disciplines.

Digital Branding: When to Start, What to Do, and Why It's Important, featuring Fauzia Burke, Amy Hughes, and Kristen Frantz from FSB Associates

Digital branding is what comes up when you do a Google search on someone's name. Authors have to market their books. First impressions are made in one-tenth of a second, so it is very important to have an appealing digital media imprint. Authors should stick to a platform that they like and use that. For example, I love blogging, but Twitter and Facebook do not appeal to me. YouTube is good for people who excel on video. Pay attention to authors' Amazon pages and Goodreads is Amazon-owned. Think of both your new and returning customers. A smaller, more engaged audience can be more valuable than many followers. A mailing list of email address can keep users informed of upcoming books and events.

Public Libraries, the Publishers' Friend in the Digital Age

E-books can be expensive for public libraries to buy. Libraryreads.org is a good resource for librarians.

AAP Annual Librarians' Book Buzz

This session contains publishers' pitches for adult books. A few books for children were discussed. I have never been to an adult book buzz, so it was interesting. We discussed stories of international travel, wildlife, maple cookbooks, online dating, a teen superhero who was president, and a Winnie-the-Pooh book.