Book Expo 2009--and Back to Gettysburg

I am leaving Thursday morning with Sarah Keeney, our marketing director, for New York City and the 2009 Book Expo.

The sad state of economic affairs and dismal general book sales numbers (not ours, but the large vanilla publishers) puts a cloud over the event. I recommend an interesting article on the entire conference and industry, Worried Book Industry Gathers for Convention.

Book Expos are generally very helpful (but completely overwhelming the first time you attend). That is to be expected with thousands of vendors, agents, writers, authors, librarians, booksellers, etc. all milling about.

Our headquarters is at the Casemate booth (our distributor). There, we will be meeting with editors of the Military and History Book Clubs, foreign rights agents, various book imprint buyers, audio agents, and many others. We are also meeting with one of heads of Penguin (who purchased our Playing with the Enemy title) to discuss other potential acquisitions.

Friday night will include a raucous (as always) red meat dinner with plenty of spirits with the largely British-UK publishers at a local restaurant. (That is often the highlight of Book Expo, though getting up early the next morning is often a chore.)

Usually we remain through Sunday, but this year we are leaving mid-afternoon Saturday with a recently signed author / blogger / former embedded reporter-correspondent (USS Kitty Hawk, March 2003; Baghdad, Fallujah, Iraq, March 2005; and Afghanistan, May 2008), together with a very experienced and widely known Washington, DC media person (who shall remain nameless) for a two-hour limo ride up into the Catskills, where we shall spend the night discussing his exciting book project (think history and current events, tied into political commentary), and how to package and market it during the 2010 campaign season. Stay tuned for more on that.

From there, Sarah and I will rent a car and drive Sunday evening to Gettysburg. Sarah has never been there, so that will be a treat. We will spend Monday meeting with various vendors, and then with several Savas Beatie authors, including JD Petruzzi, Steve Stanley, George Newton, Jim Hessler, and a couple others. We will fly back out of Baltimore on Tuesday evening. Somewhere in between, I wager, we will find time to show Sarah some of the battlefield.

I will report back on what we learn at BEA, etc., when I return.

Stay well and stay engaged.

--tps

New Civil War Generals Arrive

My son DT has two adult Bearded Dragons (Zeus and Lady Elizabeth). He rescued them from an acquaintance when they tired of them and essentially left them to die. Elizabeth laid a clutch of 14 eggs a few months ago, so we built an incubator, etc. but unfortunately they rotted, one by one. She laid another batch 45 days later, and this time they all were well formed, and grew large (they are very soft and leathery, off white, and oval).

Carol and DT purchased a new aquarium setting, lights, etc. to be properly prepared. They take 60 days to hatch.

The eggs deflate right before they babies hatch (some people see this and throw them out thinking they are bad). Then, within an hour or two, the dragons emerge bit by bit until . . . they emerge completely. Babies are about 3" long.

Yesterday a strong little beast emerged. Two more quickly followed. The next one was trapped inside his shell a bit, fought the good fight, but was defeated.

We named the first one Longstreet, the second one Lee, the third one Grant, and the fourth beardie (who was unsuccessful) . . . Bragg.

If your kids want fun, good tempered, very friendly, and relatively easy reptiles, I can recommend Bearded Dragons (full grown about 18 inches).

We are only keeping one--hopefully Longstreet!--and DT has an arrangement to sell the others for $20-25 apiece to a local store. I think he is finally understanding how the free market works. (Now, if only our . . . OK, I will stop.)

--tps

Take the American Civics' Quiz

Think you know general high school-level civics?

Take the American Civics quiz.

No need to register. It will grade your score, tell you the average score, and point out which questions you missed. Share your scores if you dare, and which you missed.

I missed one question out of 30. Ironically, it was (I think) #27 about the free market system--the love of my life beyond the lovely Mrs. Savas.

Have at it.

--tps

Significant Increase in Manuscript Submissions, Pt. 1

Something interesting is underway. I call it the reshuffling of the manuscript deck.

The downturn in the economy has resulted in massive cuts in the publishing industry. Job cuts and consolidations have sliced through publishing houses of all size. As a niche/reference publisher, we have not felt the downtown (yet, thankfully), but have prepared for it nonetheless.

One of the interesting ramifications of this, something I began to notice last October, was the increase in manuscript submissions by email, phone, fax, and snail mail. Many were for manuscripts that had been under contract and had sat for months or in a couple cases, as long as two years, before being let go by the publisher. The upshot is that instead of an average of one query a day, it has doubled to about two-plus a day.

We have always been blessed with more good manuscripts than we can use, and our program is stronger and more vibrant than it has ever been. The veritable flood of manuscripts inundating us makes it even harder to decide what titles to produce.

Stay tuned for a discussion of how manuscript submissions break down in terms of subject matter (ancient history, Civil War, current events, etc.) I get asked that quite often, and I think it will be an interesting blog post to produce. (You will have to decide if it is interesting to read.)

--tps

Gettysburg Poll Closed

The results were interesting.

QUESTION: If you had one day to visit Gettysburg, and could only visit one area of the park, what would you see?

Day 1: West of Gettysburg: 5 (15%)

Day 1: Oak Hill and north of Gettysburg: 2 (6%)

Day 2: Culp's and Cemetery hills: 5 (15%)

Day 2: Longstreet approach/Peach Orchard-Wheatfield area: 10 (30%)

Day 2: Little Round Top: 5 (15%)

Day 3: Pickett's Charge: 5 (15%)

Day 3: East Cavalry Field: 1 (3%)

Other: 0 (0%)

By a two-to-one margin, the choice was the fighting on the left end of the Union line (Longstreet's approach, Peach Orchard, stony Hill, Rose Farm, Wheatfield, et. al.), with 10 of the 33 votes (30%). Three other locations tied for second with 5 votes each (15%).

Reading question (think about this for a moment): Does how you answered reflect your reading habits? For example, if your answer was "Pickett's Charge," is that also your favorite topic to read about at Gettysburg?

One other question: What are your three favorite books on Gettysburg? If you could only have three in your library, what would they be, and why?

Thanks for participating.

--tps

Gettysburg and Visiting the Field

Having recently returned from Gettysburg (and since I will be there again for at least one day in early June), I have had the opportunity to discuss with many people what they enjoy about visiting that expansive, beautiful park. Everyone seems to have a favorite destination within the park. I know I do.

Hence my question, posed on the left. Think about it, and select your favorite area of the field to visit.

Does it correspond to what you pick up to read?

Hmm.

--tps

Back from Gettysburg and DC

Being away for a week is a long time, especially when running a business. This week, however, flew past and as the final day dawned, I can honestly say we were not ready to return.

[Caption: Author William Frassanito and DT Savas discuss one of Bill's books. DT talked with the Gettysburg legend for 90 minutes, and both seemed to enjoy it. Note that D.T. is actually leaning on Bill's arm as he listens intently. I read Bill's Antietam book when I was just a few years older than DT, so it was a little odd watching him talk with Bill so many years later.)

Thankfully, I was able to meet many of our authors, business owners, and customers, scout out possible new topics for books, and investigate new outlets for selling our titles.

In Gettysburg, my son (DT, 13) and I met up with J.D. Petruzzi and Steven Stanley (authors of the soon-to-be-released The Complete Guide to Gettysburg), and a short time later linked up with Silent Sentinels author George Newton, who helped navigate a brief tour from the Reynolds' wounding monument north to the Railroad Cut. Although the weather was terrible (cold, rainy, and very windy), the RR cut caught DT's attention. He really enjoyed George's talk, and even ventured down into the cut and walked around. George stayed on the bridge, yelling information down into the cut while DT walked around, shouted questions back, and seemed to have a mini-epiphany. On Oak Hill, DT joined another group and listened intently to the discussion as we adults were encouraging him to hurry back to the car!

Later that night we met up with Jim Hessler, author of the forthcoming Sickles at Gettysburg (July 1, 2009). John Hoptak, a ranger at Antietam who happens to live in Gettysburg joined us. John and I are working up a book on Antietam commanders. It promises to be quite interesting. He has also graciously agreed to help JD and Steve on their next project (Guide to Antietam, similar to the Gettysburg guide). As I discussed in an earlier post, I had never met any of these fellows, so it was very enjoyable to do so.

The story of our evening at the Reliance saloon has already been making the rounds, and you can read about it on JD's post here.



[Caption: L to R: Dwayne Siskey, J.D. Petruzzi, Jim Glessner, Jim Hessler, Steve Stanley, Ted Savas, John Hoptak. In front: DT Savas. The fetching Mrs. Savas had to be convinced that the beer bottle was empty. Was it?]

The tour of the field the next day by local David Moore and his wife Carol (in company with JD) was very interesting. The tree cutting has substantially improved the field, and the exposure of the Triangular Field / Devil's Den region was especially helpful to understanding the action. I had been to Gettysburg at least a dozen times before, but had never approached the town from the north, and had never been to Benner's Hill. Those vistas impressed upon me how foolish the Confederate position was: long exterior lines, weaker terrain). What were they thinking?

Although the weather was bad in Gettysburg that Saturday, we made it back in record time to DC to catch a game at the Navy Yard between the Nationals and Orioles. The weather was perfect, our seats were 15 rows behind the visitor's dugout, and the game was exciting, with a Nationals 6-5 win.

A highlight of DC was an Italian dinner with Brad Gottfried (author of Maps of Gettysburg and forthcoming (next month) Maps of First Bull Run and his new wife Linda. Both are wonderful, gracious people and it was such a pleasure to meet them.

Later in the week, DT and I visited Arlington Cemetery (I might post on that), and took a short metro ride up to Roslyn to meet with Dimitri Rotov. We had a nice dinner and some great discussions about . . well, you can imagine. His blog is always fascinating; he is even more fun in person.

Thanks to everyone for making the trip a wonderful experience.

--tps