This year’s BEA was thrilling like a reverse roller coaster ride. Instead of the rush that comes from plunging from a coaster’s heights, this year’s show began in the trenches but quickly launched upwards through exciting conversations started in the aisles, over cocktails (especially at the Verso-sponsored BEATweetup), and among the terrifically diverse and focused information panels—including the inspiring 7x20x21 panel sparked by our own @DBerthiaume and turned into reality by Macmillan’s dynamic online marketing duo of Ryan Chapman and Ami Greko.
On the floor, Book: The Sequel made the Perseus Books Group booth a hive of activity worth returning to again and again. When Perseus asked Verso to join the B:TS team, we quickly signed up to be part of this exhilarating experiment in new publishing. From crowd-sourced content to a manuscript-to-finished product turnaround measured in hours, not months, Book: The Sequel highlighted what’s possible now—and the increased importance of integrating smart, targeted marketing at every stage of publication, from concept to bound books and beyond. In the ten days before publication, a Verso Reader Channel campaign drove significantly increased traffic to the project’s site, generating submissions from book enthusiasts across the country.
Is this the future of book publishing? The answer, as every author knows, is “show, don’t tell”: