The biggest exhibitors are the major publishers–the MacMillans, Random Houses, Knopf–of this world, despite their b…… and moaning about how tough the business is.  These exhibit areas are lavish, with video, state-of-the-art signage, giant logo-ed carpeting. Not surprisingly, Google was there too, and Amazon and Barnes & Noble–as well as major distributors to independent bookstores, including Ingram and Baker & Taylor.    There were whole aisles–several of them–of displays by university presses, as well as hundreds on lesser known small publishers.  Plus, the e-book and audio book people.  And printing companies, collective promotion companies, foreign publishers (from Belgium to Israel to Saudi Arabia), and the San Francisco Writers Conference, the only entity like it I saw with a booth.  Attendee categories range from exhibitor to agents to booksellers to librarians author to book club member (how Eli registered: husband of published author was not a category!)

Since I’d self-published, so to speak, I didn’t have a publisher’s site to feature me at a signing.  Those that did included some big names, such as best-selling mystery writer  Michael Connelly, who was actually there signing books for a line of devotées that even Eli, a fan, thought was too long.  His patience, or lack of same, didn’t even respond to the free book  which came with the signing.  There were also huge lines for signings at Harlequin (romance) publishers.

Ah, the free books–that was an amazing phenomenon that I hadn’t expected.  (And we succumbed to a few more than we should have, considering that we’re schlepping them back to San Francisco this weekend, despite our limited luggage space for this Denver-New York-Chicago-Milwaukee odyssey of friends’, book, business, family, and reunion events strung one after another.) I’ll let you know what I like when I read the few I picked up.  Just like at the Jewish Book Network event–so many interesting books (so little time to read).

AFTER THE AUCTION did get some visibility at Book Expo.  I had signed up for a spot on a new titles showcase that was prominently positioned in the Javits lobby outside the exhibit areas–well placed near food, restrooms, newsstands, and seating (a much appreciated commodity after traipsing through the Expo).  And, networker/worker of a room (even a giant one like Javits) that I am, I met quite a few “relevant” people.

Like other self-publishing companies, Lightning Source the resource I used, was represented–as part of the massive Ingram exhibit (Ingram owns Lightning Source, one reason I chose it, as Ingram is a major book distributor). Sadly, I had no advance clue that some of their self-published products would be on display at that exhibit.  I asked the rep, who said, “Who’s your Lightning Source sales rep?”  So, I know now, if this happens again, that this is one more area of self-promotion–my self-publishing company sales rep!!  The key to a shot at exposure at the company’s exhibit.

So, I had my moment (or days) in the sun at Book Expo.  But for me, it was a learning experience, part of the totality of the learning experience that is publishing a book.

But maybe the next book will be displayed at one of the biggie publisher’s sites, with a queue for my signing.  It would be nice for Eli to have the patience to stick around for that one!

I’d really targeted this year’s JBN meeting as my timing goal for getting my book published.  And I was amazed at how many other authors apparently had, too.  The sessions run like a well-oiled machine: Each author gets two minutes to speak, and the next speaker sits in an “on deck” seat.  While the timekeeper doesn’t exactly use a hook or play Oscar night music, her bright red signs announcing 1 minute, 30 seconds, 10 seconds and her ultimate times-up rise from her seat are pretty effective in keeping the speakers in line.  That is, except for a couple–including at least one prominent novelist, Cathleen Schine, whose latest book, The Three Weissmanns of Westport, only got a great front-page review in the NY Times Book Review (which she did mention, but who wouldn’t?).  It surprised me that such a relatively well-known writer would appear for this try-out session; maybe it surprised her, too, but that was no reason for her to disregard the rules and ignore the timekeeper trying to be polite but firm.

There were other higher profile writers either there last night or presenting at one of the other JBN sessions.  The range of subject matter was from cookbooks to novels to religion to memoirs to history to a  single Jewish woman’s guide to life “between Bat Mitzvah and babushka.” (Age-wise, that talk put me in the babushka category, I think.)  From 5 pm to after 7–bang, bang, bang–there must have been 35 presentations with a few quick stand-up and stretch breaks (I don’t think anyone even got up to go to the restroom).

Afterward there was a kosher wine and hors d’oeuvre reception (the site was the Park Avenue Synagogue on the upper East Side of Manhattan) which was a chance to network with the Jewish Book Network.  Cathleen Schine may be a literary star, but this is where  neophyte novelist Linda Frank shines!  Armed with my new business cards (book cover on the back), I made the rounds and tried to talk with a representative of every city there.  Of course, my peripatetic life gave me a head start, as there were people from Milwaukee, Denver, and the Bay Area, and I already knew a few of them, as well as a friend’s daughter who runs the Jewish Book Festival in Austin and an old friend who’s an active volunteer and donor at the West Palm Beach JCC.

Will I get any speaking gigs from this?  Who knows?  Budgets are tight across the country, so flying in an unknown from San Francisco might not be a slam dunk.  In Austin they only bring in one fiction writer per festival.  I’m assured of Bay Area appearances, I’m told, and possibly as “home town girl” in Milwaukee.  Maybe Montreal, DC, New Orleans. But I got myself and the book out there.

And I’ve got some great tips on new books I want to read!

An e-publisher is courting me.  We had a long talk a few weeks ago during a week in which there was so much e-publishing buzz that I felt very cool and with-it in today’s world.  William Styron’s family was making news about the fact that his longtime publisher, Random House, didn’t have rights to e-publish.  E-publishing rights weren’t even thought of in Styron’s heyday. In December Media Bistro sponsored a New York City digital publishing summit in led by Jane Friedman, a publishing industry luminary formerly with Harper Collins, who’s made the leap to e-publishing (of old titles, such as Styron’s) in a start-up, Open Road Integrated Media.

But e-publishing is not a perfect answer and hardly a universally accepted concept.  Personally, my patronage of and concern for book stores (especially independents) notwithstanding,  I have to confess to the Kindle as a guilty pleasure.  We bought them in preparation for this fall’s Africa trip that didn’t happen; you’re not allowed much luggage on safari, and the long plane trips mandated lots of reading.  With six books downloaded, I’ve used the device, despite not going to Africa.  It’s fun and SO easy to read print adjusted to my eyesight and to carry around (downside is it’s one of the electronic devices flight attendants want you to turn off for take-off and about 20 minutes before landing).

But my potential market for Secrets of the Afikomen will mandate a physical product.  And, if a book succeeds through some form of self-publishing, there’s a chance a big name might pick it up later.  Not likely with e-publishing. Publishers aren’t going to let those rights slip away for long.

Good segue to self-publishing, which is what I’m really pondering here.  I’m beginning to explore this option and fighting to conquer the ego part of succumbing to it.  Is it for losers in the formal publishing world?  Is the caché of a “real” publishing deal still worth the struggle? The reality is that a newcomer, even with a book deal, is not likely to be showered with big publishing perks like a goodly advance, a book tour, or much marketing help.  There’s a lot I’d have to do myself either way, and I’m prepared for that (this web site is the beginning).  But distribution to book stores is a problem with self-publishing.  Here in San Francisco we hardly have room for that proverbial garage full of books to load into the car and schlep around the country.  Yet, I’ve seen at least one self-publishing “house” advertise its products in the New York Times Sunday Book Review section, which is a good sign of the potential for this route.

Lots to uncover and discover.  But this is the year.  Time to embrace the Chinese New Year Tiger and make it happen!

Pronunciation: \ˈzhän-rə, ˈzhäⁿ-; ˈzhäⁿr; ˈjän-rə\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from Middle French, kind, gender — more at gender
Date: 1770

1 : a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content
2 : kind, sort
3 : painting that depicts scenes or events from everyday life, usually realistically

As the protagonist in Secrets of the Afikomen, I should be uniquely qualified to answer this question about the book my friend, Linda, has written. Ah, yes, we are friends–we’ve spent a lot of time together over the years as she’s worked to tell my story. Some in the book business strive to pinpoint a genre within fiction. Let’s go over some of the choices: mystery, thriller, literary, science fiction, romance, historical, women’s, spiritual. Then there are a couple that are new to me: chick lit and hen lit. And the “biz” categorizes uses the terms commercial and trade book, too. I understand commercial; trade fiction????

Where does Secrets of the Afikomen fit?

Like many people–Linda and me, to name two (OK, at least one of us is a real person)–it’s not a round peg in a round hole. The book transcends genres. It has elements of mystery, historical, women’s hen lit (sometimes called matron lit or granny lit, when referring to authors and female protagonists over a certain age), and I get a nice romance, too, though it’s not the bodice-ripping type. Linda and I admit we’re not literary here. But we’ll take commercial!

So, genre-wise, we’re a hybrid.

Does genre matter? Not to us. What matters is that people enjoy the read and that they get the chance to read Secrets of the Afikomen. Getting published would be a good way to accomplish this, of course. But these days there’s even not just one definition of getting published. More on that soon…

My story–the quest to find my Seder plate–was complicated enough. The vagaries of the book business these days serve up yet another mystery (but no romance).

I’ve used this as my (latest) working title, because my protagonist, Lily, gives her quest for the looted Seder plate a code name.  Lily is no Nancy Drew, VI Warshawski, or Aimée Leduc; she’s not a private investigator (either pro or amateur) or policewoman, just an ordinary Manhattan person who instigates a search over three continents when the missing object is something stolen from her family, Arguably, as a journalist she’s armed with skills applicable to this search.  And no shrinking violet is our Lily.  In fact, “Uncle,” Nachman Tanski, thinks codenaming it is way too cavalier for the seriousness of tracking old Nazis.  “This is not child’s play, like hunting for the Afikomen,” he says.

Secrets of the Afikomen is my fifth working title since I started to write the book.  In order they’ve been The Collector, Treasures & Values, Herbs Bitter & Sweet, and Return.  Here’s how I’ve traversed this part of the journey, and why:

The Collector: I was thinking Daniel Silva.  Most of his titles: The with Some Oblique Soubriquet: The Assassin, The Messenger, The Defector.  But I meant The Collector to refer to the Nachman Tanski character; in my early iterations of the book, he was a more influential player.  Besides, The Collector has been done and done in books and movies (including a new one, I think, but I still remember the Terrence Stamp/Samantha Eggar version).  However, The Collector lives! It’s still my computer file name for everything related to the book.

Treasures & Values harks to Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons thinking.  I’ve never read it and haven’t seen the movie (I only resorted to “reading” The Da Vinci Code on CD while recovering from a detached retina).  Dismissed early by prospective agent pitches.

Herbs Bitter & Sweet: Lily’s looking for a Seder plate.  Bitter herbs (maror) play a big role in the Seder ritual: usually, we use horseradish to depict the bitterness of life for the Hebrews under Pharoah, plus a bitter green vegetable and salt water to guarantee that we don’t forget that we were slaves.  Sweet—Lily’s story is not all bitter.  One agent thought this sounded like a book about organic food.  (Now I’m thinking it’s a potential title for a new Passover cookbook?)

Return: I love Ian McEwan’s Atonement and Saturday.  There is plenty of RETURN symbolism in the story, including the name of character Eliezer Ben Shuvah (Ben Shuvah in Hebrew meaning “son of return.”)  Pooh-poohed by another agent, who actually thought Herbs Bitter & Sweet wasn’t so bad.  (And you were wondering why this has been such a “trip”?)  Also, my developmental editor, Alan Rinzler, (www.alanrinzler.com) nixed it, too, and helped me select Secrets of the Afikomen from a list of possibilities.

If a book deal is in my future, it will be named whatever the publisher wants.