Worldcon Blog Supplemental—Friday

First, to continue with what happened Thursday night at the convention, I attended a Literary Beer with Lou Anders. 

photo by Catriona Sparks

He’s the editorial director of Pyr Books.  The Kaffeeklatches and Literary Beers are opportunities for a small group of people who sign up early to meet with a professional in the business to talk about whatever strikes their fancy.  This is much more satisfying than going to a typical workshop. 

Lou Anders continues to be of the opinion that mass-market paperback books will die out soon, just as he said at a Norwescon I attended a couple years ago.  He also said he does not think New Adult (with protagonists aged 18 to mid-twenties) will become a legitimate category.  However, he also said that Young Adult readers are growing older and want something more mature.  Although he knows much more about the industry than I do, perhaps I can put these statements together in an optimistic way. 

So on Friday itself, a number of booksellers put on their presentations of their upcoming new books.  Tor had several, of course, but one in particular stuck out to me:  Antigoddess by Kendare Blake. 

It features characters from Greek mythology such as Athena and Hermes.  My Athena stories feature these characters, so this was of particular interest to me. 

Baen Books had their usual dynamic presentation, hosted by the publisher, Toni Weisskopf. 

photo by Dravecky

As usual, she gave out free books to anyone who was active military or a veteran.  When that happened, someone in the audience got up and walked out.  It’s like there are two different worlds out there.  I remember in one of the airports I was in, the airline had early boarding for people who were active duty military.  When a woman walked up for that reason, some people spontaneously applauded, while a young punk looked sulky.  But way to go, Toni Weisskopf! 

Toni also believes that “in time,” e-books will supplant mass-market paperbacks.  These are not the larger paperbacks—called trade paperback—or the hardcovers, but they are the most common sort of paperbacks.  For more on this topic, look at my previous post here.  

And here’s the entrance to the exhibition hall, where booksellers and lots of memorabilia are on display.  Worldcon really is a professional convention, and convention goers must show their badges to security to enter the exhibit hall.