When I spoke at BookExpo America back in May, I suggested editors should take a more active role in sharing their books with readers—and as the summer progressed, I’ve come to refine my understanding of the role new technologies can play in that process.
So yesterday’s announcement from the Association of American Publishers about the “Book Editors Online & Unscripted” webcast extravaganza lined up for the latter half of September seems like a step in the right direction. Basically, it’s your classic BookExpo buzz panel, chopped up and moved online, as the AAP lines top-deck editors and publishers from Houghton Mifflin‘s Rebecca Salitan to Grand Central Publishing‘s Deb Futter to give short presentations about one of their house’s most favorite books for the winter ’09 schedule, with Publishers Weekly chief Sara Nelson stepping in to ask a couple questions afterwards.
The focus is primarily on New York houses, although representatives from Wiley and Algonquin will be putting in appearances. One would hope that emphasis might shift over time—for that matter, one hopes the process is given time, and not treated as a one-off experiment, especially since it has potential to liberate advocacy from the industry’s usual seasonal cycles. Individual efforts by editors at every level are still important, especially efforts that involve conversations with readers rather than presentations to media and booksellers, but an industry-wide commitment to empowering editors to get out there and talk up books can’t hurt.