Hating BookExpo: Just Let it Go

Few people will miss BookExpo now that Reed Elsevier has placed a hold on future BookExpo and BookCon conferences. BookExpo has been knocking on deaths door for at least ten years now. Then again, it’s hard to run a vibrant industry conference when the primary constituencies are at war and hate each other. When I first attended BookExpo, it was in the shadow of the American Booksellers Association (ABA) lawsuit over unfair trading practices and when I stopped attending regularly the industry was reeling over Agency pricing. Spaced in between, was Len Riggio berating publishers from the keynote podium. In those early years, we were counting the inexorable increase in Barnes & Noble and Border superstores, but at least we had competition and choice: Now the single Amazon superstore reigns.

As an executive deciding on attendance, BookExpo was important through the mid-2000s but as the show’s focus became narrower and attendance fell with fewer and fewer decision makers, the companies I ran declined to attend at all. But this was not the case with the London and Frankfurt fairs which were far more international and addressed a broader market. Oddly, Bookexpo never brought together the wider range of publisher which the other international fairs managed to do and this contributed to the decline. In retrospect, BooksExpo was always a regional show, we just didn’t see it. A reliance on the New York location was also a sad decision made mainly in the interest of cost cutting. As Trade became narrower and narrower, Reed Elsevier failed to deal with this dynamic.

Way back in 2008, I wrote a complaining piece about the show and encouraged the organizers to bring in actual readers and open the show to the public. This wasn’t a unique view by any means but all that got me was an invite to sit on their advisory group. This turned out to be an annual waste of time but at least I got a free pass to the show. As a group we were never encouraged to reinvent the show and, in the end, the group disbanded. As it turned out, I was excised without notice at some point.

Sadly, as part of the Reed Elsevier announcement they are also placing BookCon on ice. While they were a little late to the party in launching this add-on conference (which does include the public) the direction made more sense. It is a shame Reed Elsevier were unable to do more with BookCon but perhaps this will be revived down the road. I believe someone will fill the gap that exists to support the reading public with an informative and interesting conference but obviously, in the current COVID environment that may not be in our immediate future.

BookExpo will never return. In the old days, conflicts could be diluted across a wider group of somewhat equally powerful participants; there was more respect for equal partners in the fight. Today though, the market has become over weighted – the concentration of trade publishing and the power of Amazon. If you are an independent bookseller, which was the core of the old ABA conference, you have been left out in the cold for a while now. No one will miss BookExpo.

BookExpo Week: Education Sessions of Interest

Some of the many interesting sessions at the Book Expo conference here in the big smoke this week.  (Full Program)

Raise Your Revenue & Increase Your Profit Margins With Direct-To-Consumer Sales

Date: Monday, June 4 9:30 am - 10:20 am

Location: 1E04

Author/Participant: Don Leeper (Founder ) BookMobile
John Oakes (co-publisher) OR Books
Keith Shay (CEO) Ware-Pak
Molly Koecher (Vice President & General Manager) Cartech, Inc.

Description:
Direct To Consumer Sales (DTC) are an indispensible sales option for publishers who want to be successful. Savvy publishers can take advantage of Direct-To-Consumer Sales and look forward to an increase in earning potential and establishing social relationships with a target audience for future sales. By selling directly to the consumer, publishers earn the full retail price of their products, which translates into higher profit margins. As a publisher, each time you reach out and make a connection to your consumer directly, it builds your brand, utilizes the reaching-readers strategy, and can create a loyal audience for future titles and products. This informative and educational session will help publishers learn how to fulfill online ebook sales and the logistics of print fulfillment. Also included are the secrets to creating a successful promotional marketing campaign, building a consumer-focused website and how to take full advantage of Print on Demand (POD). 

Protecting Your Titles - Building Out The Digital Rights & Permissions Marketplace!

Date: Monday, June 4 11:00 am - 11:50 am

Location: 1E04

Author/Participant: Bill Manfull (Sales Director)
  Michael Healy (Executive Director, Author & Publisher Relations)
  Robert Kasher
  Dick Stahl (Managing Director)

Description:
The next digital frontier in publishing will focus on Digital Rights and Permissions! This exciting and informative session will focus on presenting a hands-on practical guide to protecting published works with the digitalization of Rights and Permissions. Publishers will learn exactly what the benefits are to having proper Digital Rights and Permissions in place for their titles. Learn how to handle legacy contract digitalizing and why making this a priority is so important in today's downloadable mobile environment. Publishers who want to successfully enter the online marketplace should be integrated into the Book Industry Study Group's controlled rights vocabulary for Onix3 metadata and this will be covered in detail during this session. 

The Changing Face of E-Book Reading: Presenting Trended E-Book Consumer Data, 2009 - 2012

Date: Tuesday, June 5 9:00 am - 9:50 am

Location: 1E16

Author/Participant: Len Vlahos

Description:
Peel away both the hype and the cynicism and find out how consumers are actually using e-readers and consuming digital content. Presenting results from the third volume of the Book Industry Study Group's (BISG's) Consumer Attitudes Toward E-book Reading survey, Len Vlahos will provide a window into the mind of an e-book consumer. From e-reader preferences to price sensitivity, learn what end users really think today, and how this thinking has changed over the past three years.

The Current Size of U.S. Book Publishing: Exploring Shifts (2008-2011) Across Format, Category and Channel

Date: Tuesday, June 5 - 2:00 pm - 2:50 pm

Location: 1E11

Author/Participant:
  Dominique Raccah (CEO and Publisher) Sourcebooks
  Moderator(s)
  Angela Bole   Speaker(s)
  Kelly Gallagher (VP of Publishing Services) RR Bowker
  Tina Jordan (Vice President) Association of American Publishers

Description:
In 2011, BookStats a joint venture between the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group revolutionized the way the book industry looked at its own data. For the first time, publishers, booksellers, and other stakeholders benefited from an accurate sizing of the entire book ecosystem based on a heralded new methodology. Now, in 2012, BookStats is back, bigger and better than ever. In addition to data across three angles format, category, and channel the new edition will include a deeper dive into category analysis along with individual company benchmarking. In this session, members of the BookStats Steering Committee will reveal topline results from BookStats 2012 and discuss the importance of good data to the entire industry. 

Digital Show & Tell

Date: Thursday, June 7 - 9:00 am - 12:00 pm

Location: 1E12/1E13

Author/Participant:
  Presenter(s):  Book Industry Study Group

Description:
At Digital Show & Tell, developed by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) and sponsored by BookExpo America (BEA), participants will "Speed Date" up and coming projects in the e-book, e-reader, digital book and digital content space. How it works: Over the course of four hours – punctuated with coffee breaks, of course! – eighteen demonstrators will elevator pitch their innovative digital projects to a small group of participants for 5 minutes. Once time is up, the participants will rotate to a new demonstrator. When all’s said and done, participants will have "dated" eighteen exciting new digital projects and voted for their favorite! Digital Show & Tell is for anyone in the book publishing industry that wants to get up close and personal with new technologies and talk directly with the people who created and use them. Separate registration is required through the BISG website for this innovative, experiential program. Visit http://www.bisg.org/events-0-813-digital-show-tell.php for more information. There is an additional $25 fee to cover the cost of refreshments. Please note: all participants are also required to have a BEA badge to attend. BISG will ask at registration whether or not the person already has a BEA badge

 (Full Program)

Rock Royal Neil Young At BookExpo

This will be more appealing than Barbara Streisand but that's just me.

Neil Young will be speaking at Book Expo to discuss his memoir.  Should be fun.  Here is the press release:

Officials at BookExpo America (BEA) have today announced that Neil Young will be appearing at the annual book industry trade show where he will discuss his upcoming memoir, Waging Heavy Peace.  The book will be published in North America by Blue Rider Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA), in fall of 2012.  BEA will take place in New York City at the Jacob Javits Center June 4 – 7, 2012 and Mr. Young is scheduled to speak on Wednesday, June 6 at 12 noon in the Special Events Hall.  The program, which will be called “A Conversation with Neil Young”, will follow an interview format and will be free to all convention attendees.  Seating will be provided on a first come, first served basis.  Lunch will not be provided but guests are free to bring their own lunch.   Mr. Young’s interviewer will be named in the near future. 

Widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation, Mr. Young is a singular figure in the history of rock and he has profoundly influenced popular culture over the past four decades.  He epitomizes the uncompromising artist.  In his book, Mr. Young will present a kaleidoscopic view of his personal life and musical creativity.  It is the year’s most awaited memoir and rights to the book have been sold around the world to a dozen countries so far including: Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Spain (and Spanish language in Latin America), Sweden and the United Kingdom. 

“I am profoundly grateful to Blue Rider and to Neil Young for making this stellar event possible,” notes Steve Rosato, Show Manager for BookExpo America.  “This appearance will be a highlight of our show and I am sure it will live on as one of our great all time moments in BEA history.   I have no doubt that on Wednesday, June 6 at 12 noon just about everyone in the Javits Center will be packed into the Special Events Hall!”
For more information about BEA, please visit www.bookexpoamerica.com and connect with BEA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

MediaWeek (Vol 5, No 6): Serendipity and the Internet, Facebook Users, Canadian Copyright Issues + More

Serendipity killed the Internet: Ian Leslie writing in More Intelligent Life

The word that best describes this subtle blend of chance and agency is “serendipity”. It was coined by Horace Walpole, man of letters and aristocratic dilettante. Writing to a friend in 1754, Walpole explained an unexpected discovery he had just made by reference to a Persian fairy tale, “The Three Princes of Serendip”. The princes, he told his correspondent, were “always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of…now do you understand Serendipity?” These days, we tend to associate serendipity with luck, and we neglect the sagacity. But some conditions are more conducive to accidental discovery than others.

Today’s world wide web has developed to organise, and make sense of, the exponential increase in information made available to everyone by the digital revolution, and it is amazingly good at doing so. If you are searching for something, you can find it online, and quickly. But a side-effect of this awesome efficiency may be a shrinking, rather than an expansion, of our horizons, because we are less likely to come across things we are not in quest of.

When the internet was new, its early enthusiasts hoped it would emulate the greatest serendipity machine ever invented: the city. The modern metropolis, as it arose in the 19th century, was also an attempt to organise an exponential increase, this one in population. Artists and writers saw it as a giant playground of discovery, teeming with surprise encounters. The flâneur was born: one who wanders the streets with purpose, but without a map.

Most city-dwellers aren’t flâneurs, however. In 1952 a French sociologist called Paul-Henry Chombart de Lauwe asked a student to keep a journal of her daily movements. When he mapped her paths onto a map of Paris he saw the emergence of a triangle, with vertices at her apartment, her university and the home of her piano teacher. Her movements, he said, illustrated “the narrowness of the real Paris in which each individual lives”

Interesting report from the Pew Internet that took a look at Facebook users.  From their summary:

The average Facebook user gets more from their friends on Facebook than they give to their friends. Why? Because of a segment of “power users,” who specialize in different Facebook activities and contribute much more than the typical user does.

The typical Facebook user in our sample was moderately active over our month of observation, in their tendency to send friend requests, add content, and “like” the content of their friends. However, a proportion of Facebook participants – ranging between 20% and 30% of users depending on the type of activity – were power users who performed these same activities at a much higher rate; daily or more than weekly. As a result of these power users, the average Facebook user receives friend requests, receives personal messages, is tagged in photos, and receives feedback in terms of “likes” at a higher frequency than they contribute. What’s more, power users tend to specialize. Some 43% of those in our sample were power users in at least one Facebook activity:  sending friend requests, pressing the like button, sending private messages, or tagging friends in photos. Only 5% of Facebook users were power users on all of these activities, 9% on three, and 11% on two. Because of these power users, and their tendency to specialize on specific Facebook activities, there is a consistent pattern in our sample where Facebook users across activities tend to receive more from friends than they give to others.  

• On average, Facebook users in our sample get more friend requests than they make: 63% received at least one friend request during the period we studied, but only 40% made a friend request.
• It is more common to be “liked” than to like others. The postings, uploads, and updates of Facebook users are liked – through the use of the “like” button – more often than these users like the contributions of others. Users in the sample pressed the like button next to friends’ content an average of 14 times per month and received feedback from friends in the form of a “like” 20 times per month.
• On average, users receive more messages than they send. In the month of our analysis, users received an average of nearly 12 private messages, and sent nine.
• People comment more often than they update their status. Users in our sample made an average of nine status updates or wall posts per month and contributed 21 comments.
• People are tagged more in photos than they tag others. Some 35% of those in our sample were tagged in a photo, compared with just 12% who tagged a friend in a photo.

There's been a lot of controversy in Canada regarding proposed changes that the Canadian copyright clearance agency (Access Copyright) has imposed on copyright use.  After facing significant opposition to their new "all in" pricing model for universities, Access Copyright just announced the agreement of the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario to the new scheme.  While the agreement, based on a per student charge, is almost 50% less than the originally proposed rate it remains to be seen if this decrease will be enough to placate the other schools.  Opposition to the deal has already been voiced by the Canadian Association of Universtity Teachers (CAUT):

The Canadian Association of University Teachers is condemning an agreement two universities have made that allows for the surveillance of faculty correspondence, unjustified restriction to copyrighted works and more than a million-dollar increase in fees.

This week, the University of Western Ontario and the University of Toronto signed a deal with the licensing group Access Copyright that includes: provisions defining e-mailing hyperlinks as equivalent to photocopying a document; a flat fee of $27.50 for each full-time equivalent student; and, surveillance of academic staff email.

“Toronto’s and Western Ontario’s actions are inexplicable,” said James L. Turk, CAUT executive director. “They have buckled under to Access Copyright’s outrageous and unjustified demands at a time when courts have extended rights to use copyrighted material, better alternatives are becoming available to the services Access offers and just before the passage of new federal copyright legislation that provides additional protections for the educational sector”.

Turk also pointed out that the Supreme Court is set to clarify the educational use of copyrighted works in the coming months, clarifications that could undercut Access’s bargaining position. In contrast to Western Ontario and Toronto, many institutions have opted out of agreements with Access Copyright or are fighting its demands at the Copyright Board of Canada.

“These two universities threw in the towel on the copyright battle prematurely,” said Turk. “We call on other post-secondary institutions not to follow Toronto’s and Western Ontario’s example of capitulating to Access Copyright. It‘s time to stand up for the right to fair and reasonable access to copyrighted works for educational purposes”.

In the telegraph a look at 'vanity' magazine publishing impresses Thomas Marks (Telegraph):

Small magazines are proliferating in London. Steven Watson, the founder of the innovative subscription service Stack – which transfers the lucky-dip principle of the vegetable box to the delivery of independent magazines – speaks enthusiastically about the quality of their production values and content. There is The Ride Journal, freewheeling its way through cycle culture, Boat Magazine, a nomadic publication that relocates to a different city every six months, the offbeat fashion journal Address, the creative film criticism of Little White Lies. While many industry leaders are struggling for subscriptions and advertising revenue, their former readers have started generating editorial content for themselves.

No doubt some of these publications trade on their hipness and many flash and fade after a handful of issues. But they have an energy that raises them well beyond vanity projects: they begin like apprenticeships but the best evolve into impressive small enterprises. Nevertheless, there remains a certain amount of gratifying amateurishness involved: Scott and Smith describe lugging sale-or-return copies of Lost in London around London in a rucksack. Many writers and photographers relish the chance to take the imaginative risks they often avoid when they’re being remunerated – so long as they can find paid work elsewhere. 

From the Twitter:

Flow of venture capital into K-12 market exploded over the past year EdWeek

Utah is working on free online textbooks for high school http://shar.es/fjoan

Opening the book conference to people who buy books. Finally, (well, 2013) - BookExpo for the readers. BookExpo

Scientific publishing: The price of information Economist

In sports, ManUtd fought back from three goals down to draw at Chelsea. (MEN)

BookExpo 1999 - Repost

This was 'posted' in my final week at PriceWaterhouse before I took up my new role at Bowker. I had been collecting and commenting on news items and circulating a news digest via email on the industry for our Entertainment, Media and Communications practice for the prior two years and this 'post' is from my attendance at BookExpo 1999 (Los Angeles). It was posted 5/22/99. (All of my digests from those years are in my archive on the lower right of the PND blog page).


At the BookExpo show in Los Angeles, the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) reported that last years trade sales declined for the first time in seven years. This information was in contrast to the popularly held belief that internet or online sales had expanded the market for books generally and further the report indicated that affluent educated readers are buying fewer titles. In the day prior to this announcement, I asked Peter Olson CEO of Randon House (who was participating in a panel discussion) that if the market share of online booksellers was to grow to 20-25% of the market by 2003 as is predicted by BCG and Jupiter Communications where he thought this additional share was going to come from. He responded by saying that he believed online sales were incremental to existing book sales and therefore there would occur limited shift from other traditional outlets. The BISG reported that online selling accounted for 2% of total sales last year and as has been the case over the past five years independent book store sales declined and chain stores saw their share of the market increase.

During the same panel discussion, Michael Lynton – CEO of Penguin Group commented that the current price model for online book selling would almost certainly change and that the biggest risk would be the negative gross margin model. “If someone were to take all front list titles and sell them at a loss this would radically change the model for selling publishing product online.” Such companies sell ‘below the line’ products such as credit cards, services and advertising as sources of income. Priceline.com is the most recent example of a model that didn’t really exist on the web six months ago.

While at the show I also had a conversation with Mike Lovett who is the CEO/President of the Ingram Distribution Company. We spoke about the proposed purchase by Barnes and Noble of the company and he is convinced that the merger will go ahead. “They have interviewed – which is a polite way of saying deposed – many, many B&N and Ingram people over the past six months as well as others in the industry” he commented and that the Justice department he believed were ‘trying their best to understand the publishing industry.’ At this point he thinks that the original issues with the merger have been answered and that there may be some request to reduce operations in certain areas but for them it wouldn’t be a big deal. I would think that the transcripts from this review would be interesting reading for anyone interested in this industry.

At the BookExpo show, a company named On Demand Machine Corp displayed a book printing system that can print and bind a standard trade paper back in a machine which measures eight feet by four feet. This machine is designed to fit in a bookstore and can both store electronic titles in its memory and call up additional titles from the company head office via satellite. Customers can order the books, confirm the title is the one they want and purchase using a credit card. The transaction takes a little more than five minutes. The first full implementation is scheduled to take place in June at The Tattered Cover in Denver. My guess is you will see similar machines at Kinkos, Airports and other public places in the not too distant future.

Other interesting comments from panel discussions at BookExpo:
The traditional book distribution channel poses too many problems for some publishers particularly those which are smaller. The difficulty they face is not the risk people will copy their books rather that customers couldn’t find them in the first place. Placing content on the web actually increased sales of the printed product by 30%. National Academic Press and Rough Guides are examples of this. Additionally, McGraw Hill’s Beta Books have been so successful on line (while still generating bookstore sales) that the company is expanding the availability on the internet of non technical titles as well.

Many people commented that the highest risk job in publishing is ‘International Rights Manager.’

Xerox has developed a product that allows the production of a book anywhere in the world via web ordering. There will be literally 100,000’s of titles which were previously ‘out of print’ available via print on demand to individuals over the next five years. Additionally, what are now considered ‘non viable’ titles by publishers will also be made available as publishers make publishing investments without the huge investment in large volume printing. Coupled with this, some projections assume that front list sales will decline as a percentage of total sales as back list sales increase.

S&S and Proactive Digital

When the Bowker team launched our first online product we learned by experience, but one thing we got right was perspective. Even though nearly 100% of our revenue was in print, from that day forward we became an online database company. There was nothing we didn't consider to elevate our online product in the consciousness of our customers minds: not pricing, content, sales support or marketing. Our goal was to migrate all our customers from the print to the web product as fast as possible. Admittedly, there were many before us in the online database world who we could point to for guidance but we still managed to make mistakes. For example, we quickly understood that customer service was no longer about tracking a book shipment as it was about technical support, and selling wasn't about cold calling from New Jersey rather it became training on-site. Still, we were fast learners.

In the process of proactively migrating our customer base we aggressively increased the price of our print version while also reducing the content. We continued to add new content and new functionality to the on-line product while only moderately increasing pricing. We pulled back from third party data licenses and migrated these customers to our platform so we could maintain a direct relationship with all our customers. We placed sales reps in the field which hadn't been done for many years, and later added trainers in the field to ensure our customers were using the product to its capability.

All of these proactive tasks were established to not only support our new on-line business but also eliminate our print business. We always knew online and electronic was our future and we wanted to get there as fast as possible. Our product was better online and our relationship with the customers was more positive and engaged than it ever had been in the print environment. Most importantly, the company was able to survive and gain in strength which never would have happened had we not proactively engaged a digital strategy.

This week Simon & Schuster appears to have taken a similar proactive step in defining their own online future by placing 5,000 titles with Scribd. Many trade publishers at BookExpo seemed content in commenting on eBooks counting less than 5% of revenues (I'm being generous). In shugging off the (in)significance of the stat they also seemed to be saying 'it's not really up to us' to drive these numbers faster. And why would they want to drive eBooks when print is still so important? (This is the point where I point back to my example above).

In working with Scribd, S&S has said "we want to have some say in our digitial future" are we are not going to leave it in the hands of Amazon to dictate to us. I applaud this somewhat isolated example of a publisher taking control of their fate - however small the effort may appear to some at this stage - and look both for S&S to seek other relationships and for other publishers to join them. Which publisher will be first to eliminate a first edition print in favor of digital only?

Readers at BookExpo?

If like me you have stayed over the weekend at the Frankfurt bookfair on even one occasion you will know that the fair opens to the public. A public largely interested in reading and publishing. The startling thing about this is that on each day YOU CAN'T GET DOWN THE AISLES FOR THE PEOPLE!

I bring this up because not only do the US and UK publishers bitch and moan about having to man their booths at Frankfurt - and generally, myself included, the executives tend to evacuate early Saturday anyway - but these same publishers are not interested in opening up BookExpo to the public either. Admitting there are some logistical issues, but in the face of a BookExpo where the most common statement on the floor seemed to be 'will this be the last or second last' one, I would argue opening BookExpo to readers and customers might not be such a bad idea. Actually, I don't have to argue it because Richard Nash has done so on the PW show blog this morning:

I draw the following conclusion. The publishing business is not in trouble because there's no demand for books. It is in trouble because there are changes afoot in how best to satisfy the demand, changes to which there are suitable responses, two of which are fostering fan culture, and generating a sense of occasion, and the leaders of the largest publishing organizations are failing in their professional responsibility to implement these responses. By reducing their participation in BEA at the same time the media participation has increased by almost 50%, by refusing to open the Fair to the readers on Sunday, these CEOs have effectively thrown in the towel. They are managing the demise of the book business, pointing fingers at any generic social forces they can find, failing to see the one place the responsibility can be found, their own damn offices.

Don't Forget: Blogger Signing at BookExpo; 1pm Saturday

Firebrand Technologies has organized a 'blogger signing' at their booth 4077th during BookExpo and I am participating. It sounds like a lot of fun and an opportunity to meet a lot of blog readers across a spectrum of topics. Firebrand is the owner of a great application named NetGalley which automates the process of providing review copies to reviewers. Sign-up if you are a reviewer and don't forget to come by the 4077th booth to meet all of us.

I will be at the booth at 1pm on Saturday - pen in hand.

(Bare in mind however, that I will not be signing any body parts and generally speaking a hand shake will do).

Here is a note from Firebrand:

Firebrand is thrilled to announce that 44 bloggers signed up to be at our booth (#4077) during Book Expo America. It’s clear from how quickly this idea went from concept to reality, that book bloggers need and want to create community-to-community relationships with publishers, retailers, and readers. This is an incredibly exciting time in publishing!

We invite every publisher at BEA to review this schedule and mark their calendars, so they have a chance to meet the bloggers who are helping to sell their books.

The schedule is below. We have a couple of new entries (Sarah Weinman, Ed Champion, and Austin Allen) not listed below, or if you have trouble reading the layout below, Click Here

You can also see the list here.

BookExpo In New York

This news will come as a nice surprise to publishers weighing the continued benefits of BookExpo given the show was scheduled to visit Washington and Las Vegas in the next several years. From their press release, BookExpo has announced that the show will take up semi-permanent residence in New York.

BookExpo America has announced that it is moving the show to New York City where it will take place at the Jacob K. Javits Center through 2012. The show was previously scheduled to take place in Washington DC in 2010 and Las Vegas in 2011. In so doing, show organizers are also re-shaping the convention so that it will now occur on a shortened schedule during the work week.

The next BEA, which had already been scheduled to take place in New York City in 2009 and which will include all the leading publishers, will take place, as has been announced, on Friday, May 29 – Sunday, May 31. It will not be affected by the strategic change in scheduling. As always, there will be a full day of conference on Thursday, May 28 before the exhibit floor opens.

The new schedule means that BEA will have New York City as its home for the next four years in a row. BEA Show officials note that they are keeping their options open with regard to dates and location after 2012. The dates for BEA through 2012 are as follows: 2010: Conference/Special Events and Show Preview Tuesday May 25th (exhibit hours 4-6pm), Wednesday, May 26th (9-6 show hours), Thursday, May 27th (9-5 show hours). 2011: Conference/Special Events and Show Preview Tuesday May 24th (exhibit hours 4-6pm), Wednesday, May 25th (9-6 show hours), Thursday, May 26th (9-5 show hours). 2012: Conference/Special Events and Show Preview Wednesday May 30th (exhibit hours 4-6pm), Thursday, May 31st (9-6 show hours), Friday, June 1st (9-5 show hours).

“We feel that this is a move that is timely and responsive to industry needs,” notes Lance Fensterman, Industry Vice President and Show Manager for BookExpo America. “It makes sense on a multitude of levels, not the least of which is that it will provide the majority of our exhibitors with a cost reduction, as well as more flexibility in managing their presence at the show. We wanted to take decisive action in setting our future course and this is our first major step towards a new vision for BEA for years to come. New York City is also the publishing capital and we are anxious to build a strong identity between New York and BEA. There is a significant media presence in New York City and we would like to take advantage of this, not only by building media attendance, but by involving the media in a substantive way in our programming.”

Time to Re-Think BookExpo

Imagine the lone guy on the periphery minding his stand with only a solitary apparently lost attendee to keep him company once an hour. By some accounts that was the state of affairs sometime over the weekend at BookExpo America in Los Angeles. In advance of the fair Thomas Nelson, one of the largest publishers in the US decided to pass on attending the show. This action was different than the publisher boycott of several years ago; in this case, Nelson recognised that exhibiting at BookExpo is increasingly irrelevant in addressing the dynamics of the market place. In an age when the traditional publishing schedule is looking decidedly frayed, how BookExpo measures these dynamics will determine how many publishers continue to value their attendence.

In much the same way that Publisher's Weekly has seen their traditional advertising model change fundamentally as the bulk of bookstore book purchases are made centrally and six - nine months in advance of publication, BookExpo is in danger of suffering a similar dislocation. In PW's world there is no need to advertise and in BookExpo's world attendance becomes an expensive way to reach independents. More publishers will drop out - perhaps not next year as the show is in New York but it will happen, because the current show format is an old and increasingly ineffective tool. The decline will accelerate as more publishers take advantage of electronic marketing and promotions tools such as NetGalley (functionality will rapidly expand across the MarCom value chain) and more publishers will experiment with virtual trade shows , webinars and virtual worlds like Second Life.

There are two segments to BookExpo - the education program and the exhibits - and both need revamping. On the education side, BookExpo is losing ground to new upstarts like TOC and SIIA conferences. In both these cases, the conference organizers are successfully exploring the intersection of publishing and technology which many of us in the traditional publishing world continue to battle. Attending SIIA conferences with its breadth of content and technology companies all addressing new and old problems in unique ways can be a stunning business experience. At BookExpo we may see this in isolated cases but not comprehensively. In the traditional publishing market an education program similar to TOC or SIIA is still a market opportunity given the concentration of publishers attending BookExpo. On the other hand O'Reilly (TOC) may have already established the beach head. Consumers are decidedly lacking at BookExpo and in some other trade education programs panel discussions include consumers - in one memorable case they were all thirteen year old girls. Our business is in complete flux and that's the kind of education we should be looking for.

On the exhibits side, BookExpo must lead in the expansion of marketing and promotion programs that go beyond the physical limits of a three day event in a location not everyone can attend. The BookExpo America site should be a 365 day exhibit space. Many publishers and some websites are hosting e-versions of their catalogs. Coupled with more product details, ordering facilities, merchandising tools, etc. the traditional conference attendee should be able to visit and interact with all publisher products on the BookExpo site. (I do mean all publishers). The experience can and should be better than visiting the physical show. The traditional publishing calendar is disappearing - it serves no purpose (just as television has eroded their producer driven schedules) other than as a reminder of the formulaic approach to publishing. The physical exhibit can continue but it must change unless it is to devolve into a middling trade show for small and medium sized publishers.

BookExpo also needs to think strategically about exhibitors and to seek new categories of attendees. There should be more technology companies, service companies and others. Since the market is retail what is more logical than encouraging more vendors who market store systems and products? On the technology side there are many vendors who want to expand into the publishing business but do not attend BookExpo. They do attend SIIA, TOC and Book Business conferences. Expansion along these lines is a double-edged sword since a target audience needs to be in attendance. For that, a stronger education program and specific outreach programs need to support exhibitors and attendees. First time exhibitors should get two years for one paid year for example. (As an aside, I also believe the central exhibit floor 'neighborhood' where the largest publishers congregate should be broken apart to encourage more interaction).

Anyone who has stayed over the weekend at the Frankfurt bookfair (as I did on my first visit - and never again) will hiss and blubber over the idea that BookExpo be open to consumers. This issue has previously been debated by BookExpo managers, and indeed at Frankfurt, the issue of consumers attending the fair has long been controversial with the UK and US publishers. My suggestion is based on simple logic. Book reading is declining so what better way to introduce consumers to what publishers have to offer than showing them. Look at the success of the various city wide book fairs including the one in DC.

I have always enjoyed attending BookExpo but seeing the lack of traffic in many areas this year I doubt I would be the only one considering rethinking my exhibition participation for next year. The fact that BookExpo is in NYC next year will cover over the troubling issues because of the influx of many publishing staffers. In reality the addition of 10,000 publishing staff attendees from NYC is not really what will help return BookExpo to the preeminence it deserves.

Links for BookExpo

A few items of interest from BookExpo.

BookTour: Set up by Chris Anderson (Long Tail) to aggregate information about Author tours. (Around for a while but I've never mentioned it).

BookVideos.tv: Here are all the publishing clients and their videos using the BookVideos format. (Also around for a while).

MuseStorm: Widget maker working with publishing clients.

Mobifusion: A mobile platform that several publishers are using.

EarlyWord: A new blog/website launched by ex- Publisher's Weekly Editor & Chief Nora Rawlinson and ex- PW Publisher Fred Ciporen. The site aims to help Libraries with Collection Development and you can find out more about their philosophy on the site.

BigUniverse: Children's books that you can create yourself.

217Babel.com: Interesting collaborative writing project.

Small Publishers and Foreword Magazine

Foreword Magazine is celebrating their 10th anniversity and they asked me to write something on the changes I have seen in the past 10yrs or so.

Many years ago I attended my first BookExpo conference in Miami. On subsequent visits ever since, the rows upon rows of independent publisher booths have both awed and discouraged me. I have frequently said to friends and colleagues that as a reality check anyone considering establishing a publishing company should attend a BookExpo before committing dollar one. For many (myself included), there is a romantic notion attached to publishing which isn’t entirely undeserved; however, a trip through the aisles will prove that the unique idea you thought you had for the ideal publishing house or list is represented multiple times perhaps even in the same aisle.

At Bowker I saw a relentless procession of new publishers adding their information to Books In Print. Each year we saw approximately 10,000 new applications for ISBN numbers and these applications were fairly constant between the mid-1990’s and 2002. At the turn of the century, the numbers of new applications began to grow inexorably and is most likely well over 12,000 by now. The growth in self-publishing and the democratization of the publishing process is to ‘blame’.

In 2005, (if I recollect correctly from my Bowker years) 18 publishers produced almost 40,000 titles and 13,000 publishers produced 77,000 titles. (Including all titles the number published in 2005 was 180,000 give or take). On average, each of the 13,000 publishers published less than 10 titles per year. While these numbers reflect one year (2005) the data was proportionate to the entire Books In Print database of 5mm titles and 165,000 publishers. To emphasize the breadth of suppliers, I have heard Barnes & Noble say they order at least one title from 45,000 publishers in any given year.

All new publishers and existing independent publishers publish in every niche imaginable with lists ranging from one title to several thousand. Each publisher knows their market is intensely competitive and that titles will never be successful unless they are supported by an intensive focus on marketing and promotion. Naturally, some do this better than others.

There are significant challenges that small and medium publishers must overcome; getting their titles noticed is the greatest. At Sourcebooks, the company has adapted traditional advertising and marketing principles and applied them to the book industry. The results are instructive (and impressive). At the core of their business model is the understanding that each new title is a ‘product’ which requires a specific marketing and promotion plan. (Marketing’s four ‘p’s: product, promotion, price and place). At Sourcebooks, the difficult questions regarding how the title will be marketed and promoted are asked at the adoption stage rather than applied by rote as the book is being printed. Sourcebooks is a proven example that publishing can be done successfully by approaching the business less as an avocation and more as a market driven business. In order to be successful, more small and medium sized publishers will need to adopt similar programs to support their publishing efforts.

Other challenges abound. For example, we may begin to see the self-publishing model begin to impact the available pool of authors. Many authors may come to realize they can produce and promote their own title(s) and make more money rather than work with a traditional publisher. It has long been the case that the success of any title was dependent on the level of self-promotion provided by the author: As manufacturing and editing become commoditized, the author may wonder what a publisher’s value add will be if the titles’ success resides entirely on their promotional abilities. More authors may decide to do it themselves.

All businesses evolve and publishing is no exception; I see more and more independent publishers begin to adopt better financial controls, better marketing and promotion and make more astute title selections. While some significant challenges have occurred over the past 20 years – publisher consolidation, retailer consolidation, a reduction of independent bookstores – there have also been some impressive positive improvements. Opportunities represented by more effective use of technology, digital distribution and online advertising should all be experimented with, embraced and adapted to the publishing model. I also believe we will see more small and independent publishers seek out and work with some of the self-publishing companies (Author House, Lulu) where each supports the other’s business model. There remain opportunities in the independent publisher market: Look for me in the aisles in Los Angeles.

Book Expo Session

I am hosting a Panel discussion at BookExpo this week. Please join us for an interesting look at digital content and how publishers are learning to experiment with social networking and consumer interaction.

Feel free to contact me if you are attending BookExpo and would like to meet. (michael.cairns @ infomediapartners.com)

Here is the panel description and some background on the panelists.

Digital Bundling: Considerations, Combinations & Costs
1:00AM - 12:00PM (Thursday, May 29, 2008)

Most publishers are committed to allowing consumers access to electronic versions of their books whether on their own account or via programs such as the Google Book program. Some publishers are going a step further and are allowing consumers to interact with and create their own products using the publisher’s content. As publisher’s build their content databases, digital bundling will become a significant part of the product mix and will change the concept of the customer – from bookstore to consumer - and the concept of the product – from book to service. Rapid improvements in technology will enable ‘mass customization’ of publishing products and will fundamentally change the relationship with customers. While many publishers are still tentative in their e-book experiments others are already experimenting with digital bundling. As these publishers experiment, what are their experiences, what are the issues and what costs exist as these publishers engage their customers in new and revolutionary ways? Hear from publishers who are experimenting or are contemplating launching making their content available to consumers for new and exciting products.

Panelists and Bios:

Sheila Clover English – CEO of Circle of Seven Productions, Executive Producer of Reader’s Entertainment TV and author of the ebook entitled The Book Trailer Revolution Book Marketing and Promotion Through Digital Video

Mrs. English is a member of the Association for Downloadable Media where her video performance rating system has been a topic of conversation, shared at the ad-tech convention and now under review with the Internet Content Syndication Council where Circle of Seven Productions has joined the likes of CBS, Associated Press, Google, Reuters, Studio One, NBC and other top media companies that will help shape the future of online video syndication.

Mrs. English has been interviewed by NPR, Newsweek Magazine and most recently The Wall Street Journal regarding book trailers and will be featured on the Robert Scoble Show this July talking about book trailers and online distribution.

A multi-award winning copy writer and executive producer and a member of the International Academy of the Visual Arts, Mrs. English has pioneered many milestones for digital video in the publishing industry. Her company, Circle of Seven Productions created the first book trailer to play in a movie theater, mall screens and the first to win the prestigious Telly Award.

Tom Hall is a Senior Digital Product Manager at Lonely Planet in Melbourne, Australia. For the past 2 years, he's been responsible for the development and launch of Pick & Mix, a program which allows consumers to buy, download and print individual chapters from Lonely Planet guidebooks. Prior to this, he managed the http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ home page and the ThornTree travel forum.

Tom has a long and checkered background in leading software projects and products. Prior to joining Lonely Planet in 2003, he was an IT Consultant to the Egyptian Ministry of Health in Cairo, and a Supervising Producer at Ninth House, a San Francisco eLearning startup. He has degrees in American Literature and and Writing from the University of California, San Diego.

Laurie Petrycki is the General Manager of the Head First and Missing Manual divisions at O’Reilly Media, Inc., where she oversees the development and creation of all products and services. In the Head First division, she and her team shape content to cultivate passionate users by making learning easy and fun for the brain. With the unique Missing Manual format, the goal is to respect readers' intelligence and help them get stuff done. As part of the publishing community for almost 20 years, Laurie has expertise in all sides of the business-- including editorial, production, and manufacturing--and has published on various technological and educational subjects.

David Wilk is an independent consultant and marketer (Booktrix.com) with broad experience in publishing, book packaging, sales, distribution, e-commerce and marketing. He has the privilege of working with authors, publishers and their books, in all formats, at the intersecting points of creativity, technology and cultural change. All applied to the traditional matters of art and commerce.

He has lately been working as a publishing industry consultant to Shared Book, a “reverse publishing” technology that enables content rich websites to give their users a broad array of publishing tools. Shared Book is inherently a mass customization and personalization engine. It is also somewhat chameleon-like, insofar as its many features can be deployed in different configurations, depending on the specific market needs of its site partners.

For example, children’s book publishers are using Shared Book to create extremely simple (and highly profitable) personalized versions of some of their classic titles, printed one at a time, with no changes to the essential art and text of the original books. Random House was first with Poky Little Puppy, the success of which was sufficient for them to be adding another 50 titles to the program this month.

Content rich sites including magazines that have extensive digitized and tagged content sites are enabling newly developed quick tagging tools which allow their site visitors to assemble a customized book from any article or photograph that sits on their site. Allrecipes.com and several other cooking sites give their users the ability to create customized and personalized cookbooks using either site supplied materials, or user generated content or both.

And there are even more complex uses possible with Shared Book’s sophisticated annotation engine – academic publishers and social networking sites are looking at an application that will allow professors to create custom texts for small or large study groups.

The applications of the highly evolved electronic publishing platform that Shared Book has created will enable traditional and nontraditional publishers to serve customers with the content they want in easily created customized and personalized forms.

Book Expo America

I have been shanghaied into arranging a panel discussion at Book Expo in LA. It will be interesting and I am looking for several more panelists. Please let me know if you would like to participate and or if you have any recommendations as to who I could ask to participate.

The following is a draft of the panel discription:

Digital Bundling: Considerations, Combinations & Costs
Most publishers are committed to allowing consumers access to electronic versions of their books whether on their own account or via programs such as the Google Book program. Some publishers are going a step further and are allowing consumers to interact with and create their own products using the publisher’s content. As publisher’s build their content databases, digital bundling will become a significant part of the product mix and will change the concept of the customer – from bookstore to consumer - and the concept of the product – from book to service. Rapid improvements in technology will enable ‘mass customization’ of publishing products and will fundamentally change the relationship with customers.
While many publishers are still tentative in their e-book experiments others are already experimenting with digital bundling. As these publishers experiment, what are their experiences, what are the issues and what costs exist as these publishers engage their customers in new and revolutionary ways? Hear from publishers who are experimenting or are contemplating launching making their content available to consumers for new and exciting products.

Moderator: Michael Cairns, Information Media Partners
Thursday May 29th: 11am - 12pm
Panelists:

BookExpo America Conference: Podcast

Many of the conference sessions at BookExpo were taped for Podcast as was the session I hosted.

Here is the link.

This session provides an overview of the social networking activities of various publishers and provides a window into their motivations, successes and expectations. It is hosted by Michael Cairns, founder of Information Media Partners. Speakers include Michael Hyatt of Thomas Nelson, Carrie Kania of Harper Perennial, Jim Behrle of Overlook Press, Karen Christensen of Berkshire Publishing and Malle Vallick of Harlequin.

BookExpo Quotes: Friday

Amazon Digital:
4mm orders in one day - during Christmas season
42mm unique visitors each month
67mm active accounts

1 in 2 Books sold is in the Search Inside the Book Program: "Browsing pages sells more books"

Incremental sales up lift is 6.5%

Amazon allows consumers that "the know have a propensity to buy based on their account details to delve deeper into the content and gain more access to content"

Generally an very interesting presentation of the completeness of Amazon's digital marketing and promotions support for publishers.


Overheard in the isle: "this book is a combination of Catch 22 and Patrick O'Brien"

Book Expo - Quotes

Shatzkin - End of General Trade: "Print will be the last media to be read on a device....and we shouldn't be proud of that." With respect to published content, "all obsessions no matter what it is will be indulged" and brands as a result "move to a very granular level"

Gomez (Print is Dead): "there will be no e-book revolution until we come up with another name for it" which reflects the interactive nature of the product. And there will be "integration not another IPod". We need to "thinkof the children" who are and will be consumers of our content.

Hyatt - Social Networking for Publishers - It is important "to be authentic" in communications because users will see through what you are doing. Resist the temptation to have someone "ghost write your blog" because you will be found out.

BookExpo Panel Meeting

Reminder to readers: The panel I am hosting at BEA is at 2:30 this afternoon in Room 1E04. On the panel are executives from Overlook Press, Harlequin, HarperCollins, Berkshire Publishing and Thomas Nelson. See you there.

Publishers Must Blog!

As publishers we are in the content creation and information business. As owners of the means of production we have always been the gatekeepers between creation of intellectual works and the consumers of this material. It should be no surprise to any of us that the expansion of new media application erodes the foundation of these gates as individuals gain direct access to an audience and leverage facilities to comment and opinionate about the very output that we in the publishing industry labor hard to select for them. At the same time, search undercuts and demythologizes the power of branded content, and provides the average Joe with information and content that is good enough for their immediate requirements.

If you can’t beat them join them: Developing a social media strategy that encompasses blogging should be a foundation of all publishing house marketing and promotion plans. I have mentioned before (in relationship to book reviews) that I am less convinced of the value of typical marketing programs supporting book promotion. My macro view above can only be mitigated by joining the new media fray and developing networks of interested parties that can nurture, support and perhaps develop content that you produce as a publishing house. As market segments evolve, I think they will become narrower and more defined and publishers that support communities (via social) must be able to participate in these communities in a meaningful way in order to be successful. This is already the case on computer book publishing.

When I started this blog, like everyone else I sought links to place on my blog. I found many but few from established publishers. Over the past year, I have seen more publishers enter the blog world but the numbers still seem small for an industry dependent on words and information. Authors and publishers should develop a blog strategy and blogging should be a natural extension of any publishing house. This idea was the genesis for the panel presentation I am hosting at BookExpo this week.

• As I thought about the theme of the panel meeting, my thought process mirrored the approach I took and the benefits I saw in establishing a blog.


• Blogging gave me an opportunity to experiment with new technology


• I became a publisher/content producer and, as traffic increases, one with responsibility to an audience


• Develop a personality beyond a ‘resume’ or existing professional reputation


• As popularity increases, the blog becomes a center of a growing network of interest


• Expands a professional network: who knew there were as many people with shared views and perspectives?

As I mentioned, there are a number of very popular publishers who are actively blogging but in my view every publisher should have numerous blog sites: some official but the company should also support individual blogs by its employees. Developing a code of conduct is relatively simple and in some cases the employees themselves can be instrumental in formulating this code. (Obviously, the company cannot police every corporate blogger; however, every employee has some fiduciary responsibility to act responsibly towards the company they work for). While affiliation with a publishing house is powerful, as an editor, marketing director, or publisher, I would recommend developing your own blog – so that you can build an online personality that is somewhat separate from the corporation. That is not to say that you can’t blog for the house, but developing your own blog enables flexibility and individualism that can and will be important to you professionally. While you support your current publisher you are also developing your own brand.

As a publisher, or one who works in a publishing organization, it seems redundant to explain the mechanics of getting started as a blogger: You really should know this stuff because it is what your audience (and some competitors) has been doing for a few years now.

• Choose from any number of hosted tools: Blogger, WordPress, Icerocket, Moveable Type and many, many others. I use Blogger but if I were to do it over, I would pick one of the other popular tools. Blogger has only recently added basic functionality that others have offered for a considerable time.


• Pick a name: Perhaps not as easy as it would seem and I would err on the side of professionalism rather than something like ‘monkeyboy’. (Unless you are a publisher at National Geographic in which case it may be appropriate). Using your name is perfectly acceptable - as many do. I would not recommend tying the blog name to the name of your publishing house (they may not allow it anyway) because the blog wouldn’t be portable.


• Plan out your first few weeks of blog posts and use your experience as material. If you are an editor your titles and authors should be the focus of your interests and don’t expect that you will ‘hit your comfort zone’ in terms of content immediately. It took me several months before I started to deliver content in a thematic way.


• Learn from what the other publisher bloggers are doing and link to as many sites as possible. The more links you establish the more you will be noticed. Establish a del.icio.us account and ‘clip’ the articles and blog posts you find interesting. Not only is this a valuable resource for your own research but you can use these links as material for your blog posts. Once a week, I capture my ‘clips’ in a blog post.


• The marketing and promotional aspects of blogging are still evolving but establishing a social network that links consumers, authors, publishing executives, agents, etc. will be a powerful tool to support the house’s publishing product. The social community can be useful in developing markets, expanding reach and gauging interests and/or trends. All important aspects of marketing and content acquisition functions.

A few months ago, I heard Joe Wikert (of Wiley) speak about publisher’s blogging activities and why they can’t afford not to. I asked him about the branding issue: Was he the brand or is it John Wiley. He pointed out that while he promotes Wiley incessantly there are no Wiley logos on his site. The site is supported by Wiley in the sense that they do not edit or ask him to manipulate any content. Wikert suggested that the company did take a considered look at employee blogging activity and decided on a ‘common-sense’ approach which meant self governance by the bloggers. Wikert said his blog is really not a Wiley product but he believes his blog is valuable to Wiley because it proves to an important community (the IT world and technical book authors) that Wiley understands the community and environment. The separation from Wiley does allow Wikert to express his own opinions which as a purely corporate blogger he might find difficult.

Establishing a personality as a blogger should be a professional requirement of all of us in the publishing community. Don’t forget to let your employer know and understand what you are doing and what you want to achieve since full disclosure may eliminate problems later on. Don’t be afraid to use your contacts and network of professional relationships to get the word out and if you are really lucky the company may link to your blog from their web home page which should drive more traffic to you. Lastly, use web analytics tools available from Feedburner or Google Analytics (and others) to track your traffic and let you understand what works and what doesn’t.

Get started.

BookExpo America Conferences

Ted Hill (fellow traveller and friend of the blog) let me know of a seminar he is hosting at BookExpo and here are the details:

Best Practices in Digital Marketing: The Publisher’s Perspective

Most trade publishers know that they can no longer rely on traditional marketing alone to connect with readers, but they are uncertain where they should invest scarce dollars in the many new opportunities presented by the net. Separate the buzzwords from the best working practices as you negotiate the shift from print to digital marketing. Topics include product marketing, working with online merchants, the company website, author-driven marketing, and how to build value over time.
Date: Thursday, May 31, 2007
Time: 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM
Place: Room 1E03

If you’re interested in the above, my frequent collaborators, Mike Shatzkin of the Idea Logical Company and Brian O’Leary of Magellan Media will also be speaking on topics on the same day that you may find valuable.

And as he mentions, Mike Shatzkin (fellow traveller and friend of the blog) also has a seminar and the details are as follows:

The End of General Trade Publishing Houses: Death or Rebirth in a Niche-by-Niche World describes how digital change is eliminating the ecosystem that sustains general trade publishing houses. But the good news is that the ecosystem we see replacing it is one general trade houses can actually migrate to, if they recognize the challenge, accept some painful realities, and start now. I know the speech will be provocative; I think it will also be entertaining and I hope it will put a lot of things most of us already know into a comprehensible framework.

Thursday, May 31, at 10 am, room 1E04

That same afternoon, May 31, at 2:30, in Room 1E11, I am moderating a session called Digital Search Intermediaries: New Roles and Channels for Publishers. This is about Digital Asset Distribution, a subject on which I am currently co-authoring a White Paper and co-hosting conferences dedicated to, in New York on June 21 and in London on July 12.

The speech I gave on DADs at BISG's Making Information Pay is now posted on our web site. You'll find it at http://www.idealog.com/speeches/mipdads.htm

The second seminar above conflicts with the session I am hosting unfortunately....

See you all there.