• I am currently surrounded by many boxes, which arrived today. I cannot recommend FedEx Home Delivery enough, should you decide to move cross country. My trusty desktop computer, the box I’ve deemed the Command Center, is almost hooked up. (Apologies for grammatical gaffes to those who have been kind enough to point them out. The laptop, which I’ve been using for pretty much everything in the past week, is very much the secondary computer.) And I’ll be very close to boogeying here once the desk arrives this week. In the meantime, here is a roundup of BEA reports.
• The Literary Dish serves up The Unofficial BEA Story, covering the African-American publishing end of the conference. (I don’t know if this content was aggregated from somewhere else, but I’m glad it’s posted somewhere.)
• Patrick Carbidge has Part I and Part II.
• Vegan Cupcakes.
• Megan Sullivan is convinced that it’s all about long days and long nights. Plus, she managed to meet Philip Roth.
• Critical Mass has posted a report on the crisis panel.
• Buzz Girl has pictures. As does Mary Reagan.
• Detailed diaries from Dan Wickett.
• Jim Winter confesses he’s a trade show virgin.
• World Unleashed’s list of hot galleys.
• A BEA Omnibus from Mark, with links elsewhere.
• Russell Simmons even showed up.
• David R. Godine avoided conversations about baseball.
• There are apparently budget hotels that are iPod themed. Whether podcasts were siphoned into each room through hidden speakers is anyone’s guess.
• The Post BEA (Sausage) Links Edition.
• Lou Anders: “BEA is lived on your feet, fueled by Starbucks, and endured by great conversations….”
• I did notice more comics booths this year. The Beat has a roundup on that end.
• More links from Oxford University Press.
• I will try and go through upcoming titles at some point this week or next. This year, instead of interviewing publicists at the big publishers, I opted to spend most of my floor time around the smaller publishers. On Sunday, I grabbed every catalog I could. I now have half a suitcase filled with them.
• The number of overly safe titles and lackluster galleys really surprised me this year. Perhaps it’s the shakeup from the Perseus restructuring or declining sales, but, while there were galleys that excited me (and I had no idea that I was as much of an enthusiast of Richard Russo until I saw the galley of his next book), there weren’t many that wowed me the way they had in previous years. Of course, the proof is ultimately in the books. I will say, however, that, of the larger houses, Bloomsbury and Grove/Atlantic seem to have the best pickings. And it was great to see Small Beer maintaining a booth this year.
• More later.

Another reason not to underestimate Not in Brooklyn Ed. He’s live blogged the Oprah-Cormac interview.

The photographic case against Sting. (via James Tata)

Here’s what dictionary.com say about the word “crisis”:

1. a stage in a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events, esp. for better or for worse, is determined; turning point.
2. a condition of instability or danger, as in social, economic, political, or international affairs, leading to a decisive change.
3. a dramatic emotional or circumstantial upheaval in a person’s life.
4. Medicine/Medical.
a. the point in the course of a serious disease at which a decisive change occurs, leading either to recovery or to death.
b. the change itself.
5. the point in a play or story at which hostile elements are most tensely opposed to each other.

We can eliminate the medical definition altogether, unless, like me, you count the “book reviews are good for you and blogs are bad for you” nonsense as pathlogical. We can eliminate the first definition because while the column inches are evaporating and whole newspapers are starting to absorb wire copy (read, for example, how much of the current Newsday books section is composed of original, non-Tribune Company content and you will see the marks of cannibal teeth), I cannot believe that book reviewing is dead. If the turning point involves the hypothesized convergence point of print and online, John Freeman, the somewhat diffident moderator for Sunday morning’s panel, certainly didn’t mention much of it. So is this a personal crisis? And if so, why not be candid about this? Perhaps the fifth definition is in order, given the inexplicably hostile look that John Freeman offered to me when, on my way out of the conference room, I reiterated the point that Freeman continued to make throughout the panel: “Remember, John, all voices need to be represented. Email me.”

Item: The two most common words uttered during the Crisis in Book Reviewing panel were “business model.”

Disclaimer: Due to a thundering hangover I was nursing from the previous night’s partying, I arrived twenty-five minutes late. So if there was more priority given to book reviews as an editorial or intellectual crisis, then please let me know. But from all concerned, it appeared that the crisis was more about “gots to get paid” rather than “gots to get read.” I suspect this was one of the reasons why Carlin Romano vociferated from the back how he was disappointed that the conversation was more a collection of middle manager-speak and laid into Heidi Julavits. I suspect this was one of the reasons that Ron Hogan likewise raised hell.

Ergo: I must therefore conclude that the crisis then was about the personal pocketbooks of all involved. And if this was the case, why assemble a group of arts editors (and a few lower tier money people) to talk about a subject outside of their expertise?

There is no time to provide much in the way of context. The day is almost gone. So here is a gonzo precis of what transpired on Sunday morning.

Heidi Julavits: Not fond of less than 4,000 word reviews.

Oscar Villalon: Disagrees. The fate of the book world is linked to the fate of the review world. Decline of the literary world is linked to the decline of criticism. Does not like Consumer Reports squib-like reviews.

Stacey Lewis: Publicist of City Lights Books. What sells books? When a customer comes in and cites a source. Feels very strongly in mainstream book reviews and regional papers. Alas, the book review position is now amalgamated with the arts editor position. The good people lost at the Village Voice Literary Supplement, including Ed Park and Joy Press, always paid attention to City Lights. The new answer? Alternative press and radio.

Maud Newton: The smartest of the panelists. “If I had known this panel was to be called the ‘Crisis in Book Reviewing,’ I would have demurred.” Pointed out that she doesn’t read print newspapers. She and many people 35 and below reading online. How many truly read the paper in print? The blog is just a different form. She doesn’t see the cause and effect relationship. “I’m puzzled by the level of animosity that has on occasion come from newspapers.”

Villalon: “We drink the Kool-Aid.” Openly admits that book review sections don’t have a business model.

Mike Merschel: We need to promote. “We’re taking for granted that the books section will be there” “The print edition is not dead. I don’t think people are aware of the influence it still has.”

Julavits: “The 650 word review is bullshit.” Slight susurration from crowd.

Freeman: “The distinction is the quality of the writing.”

Villalon: It’s never been our goal to sell books. The mass media sets the agenda, but “we in no way tell you what to think.” (I raise my hand here to quibble with this elitist paradox. Alas, I am invisible to the mumbling moderator beating the same two tedious generalizations over and over again. The distinction is in the quality of the argument.)

From the audience: Jerome Weeks! “I never thought I’d be in the position of defending the 800 word review.” Weeks points out that all the critical editorial positions are gone but that the space at the Dallas Morning News is still there. “Yet the paper is making a profit.”

Merschel (the current DMN books editor, by the by): “Let your publishers know.”

Ron quibbles quite rightly about the hyperbolic nature of Freeman’s flummery.

Freeman (resembling Ari Flesicher with hair and not for the first time): “It’s important to have all points of view on there.” The less points of view, the same points over and over.

POT KETTLE BLACK!

Villalon: Astonished that the Chron has lost $330 million since 2001. No online business model. Where did this money go?

Carlin Romano: See introduction. Also, fiery words about the fact that young people do read print. Objecting to corporate nonsense.

Melissa Turner [incoming features editor for the Atlanta Journal Constitution]: I have drunk the Kool-Aid.

(What I’m thinking right now as I continue to raise my hand. Do you really want to be confessing that you’re drinking the Kool-Aid when you are likewise complaining about a crisis? I never get a chance to address this question.)

Villalon: On young readers, “if you try to be hip, they will never ever read you.”

(Third question now in noggin: If you don’t write with a fresh voice, they will never ever read you. Alas, I am not among Freeman’s “all points of view,” because he’s a frightened hypocrite.)

Julavits: Smartly advises that we need to embrace that book reviewing is a labor of love.

Various conversations with swell people as panel closes. I mention something to Oscar Villalon (just to help him out) about POD newsstands being one solution. For the most part, everyone is very kind and affable.