Book Expo 2010 ended in a haze of publisher-provided booze and vey sore feet Thursday.

Aside from the raging anger at not getting invited to Hatchette’s blood-swap party with Keith Richards on Wednesday evening, I found this year’s show much more invigorating, with misguided optimism replacing the moribund atmosphere that was ubiquitious last year.

A few observations:

Nobody really has a clue about publishing’s digital future. It’s here tostay, but printed books are not, as one ICM literary agent put it, “going to go bye-bye”. The music industry gives us a good cautionary tale with regards to pricing, but that’s about it.

My favorite galley, that I’m glad I made sure to snag as soon as I got there, is Washington author Jonathan Evison’s “West of Here” due early next year from Algonquin.

I think my favorite quote of the show was from a publisher who said, with regards to ebooks “So much is happening that we know nothing, but we know everything”.

Maybe BEA should have waited to get feedback on how attendees and exhibitors liked the two day format before announcing that next year’s show will return to a three-day schedule.

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Found in the men’s room at the Javitz Center, due in November from NYU Press.

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Is from Gavin Grant at Small Beer Press, who, when giving me a galley of “Under the Poppy”, described it as “a Victorian brothel novel, with sex and puppets…sometimes on the same page”.

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I lied a bit on the title here, as I’m actually going to write about what happened yesterday, which was all about ebooks.

Most of the discussions were about ebooks being an ongoing area of growth for the publishing industry. And, true as this is, it seems like a lot of booksellers are still trying to get their heads around the fact that very thing that publishers are rushing to embrace for growth potential will be the very same thing that could eliminate the need for bookstores in the first plate.

Subsequently, there was also a lot of talk about how books and ebooks can coexist in the same bookstore.

Michael Norris from Simba Information gave a presentation called “I’ll Never Pay Over $9.99 For Ebooks”, which used research data to debunk certain ebook myths.

This presentation gave me my money quote for yesterday: “The $9.99 ebook is half bullsh!t”.

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It’s BEA time again, and I’ll be sending updates from NYC. They may not have much in the way of proofreading department, as I’m writing from my phone, and there is only so much quality control you can exert when you’re typing with your thumbs.

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The Mongoliad, a  serialized story created by Snow Crash author Neal Stephenson, and written by him, Greg Bear and others, is set to be unveiled Tuesday. Apparently, it will be available through a series of custom apps, and will be  “something of an experiment in post-book publishing and storytelling”.

Unfortunately,  you’ll have to be in San Francisco to check it out.

Color me curious. Will these be free apps, or will the apps be free, but charges applied for content?

What really has me scratching my head was this email, sent to those who signed on to be part of The Mongoliad’s mailing list,  which states

We’re also working closely with artists, fight choreographers & other martial artists, programmers, film-makers, game designers, and a bunch of other folks to produce an ongoing stream of nontextual, para-narrative, and extra-narrative stuff which we think brings the story to life in ways that are pleasingly unique, and which can’t be done in any single medium.

I can’t say that I’ve thrown words like nontextual around since I was in college studying literary theory, but I am intrigued, and will be keeping my ear to the ground on this one.

(via io9)

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CBS has decided to produce a weekly sitcom based on Justin Halpern’s Sh*t My Dad Says (It Books HC 9780061992704 $15.99). The book itself is an offshoot of his blog of the same name, which has around 1.5 million followers.

While the show would definitely have to tone down the language of the book, the show’s producers hit upon a stroke of genius by casting William Shatner as the foul-mouthed, tough-loving father.

However, it seems that not everybody is thrilled with this being on network television. Watchdog group Parents Television Council has issued a statement saying that by programming this show, CBS has demonstrated “its contempt for families and the public”.

Pardon me, but I wonder which is more contemptible: a television show or a group of self-appointed moral vigilantes who think that the families of America are incapable of turning the channel if they don’t want to watch something that might upset them.

I mean, if you think you are going to be offended by a show called Sh*t My Dad Says, I’d say it’s a pretty good bet that you’re either going to A)not watch it, or B)watch it only in an effort to fuel your indignation.

Which is a more productive use of thirty minutes?

As far as I’m concerned, I think I’ve found the perfect Father’s Day gift, and how can that be demonstrating familial contempt?

(via EW’s Popwatch)

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This Tuesday will mark the release of the third and final (for now) installment in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy-The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

Salon has already gotten the ball rolling, publicity-wise, with Laura Miller’s feature The Girl Who Conquered the World, which will be the first of what Knopf promises to be a blurry of activity (including Sonny Metha (!) appearing on Charlie Rose.

Make sure you have enough copies on order, because while this won’t be Harry Potter big, it could be Lost Symbol big.

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I just got my copy of the new Counterpoint/Soft Skull catalog, and all I can say is ah my gahd, these are awesome!

Looking like the cinematic counterpart to Continuum’s 33 1/3 Series on influential records, Soft Skull is publishing a series of monographs on films called Deep Focus, and it will debut in November with Jonathan Lethem’s book on John Carpenter’s They Live, and Christopher Sorrentino writing on Death Wish.

Can I just say that I really, really, really can’t wait for these books? I love the concept, and I love the design (which reminds me of the designs of Spacesick, particularly his I Can Read Movies series, which I wrote about just over a year ago).

As I said then, I’m a junkie for books, movies and design. This series looks to have these bases covered.

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Congratulations Paolo Bacigalupi and indie press Night Shade Books on winning the Nebula Award for the novel Windup Girl (Night Shade PB 9781597801584.

This novel has been very, very well received and as its profile continues to grow, so should its sales.

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