BEA 2011- Part 2- Mindy Kaling hosts the Adult Author Breakfast

I got to meet Kaling at BEA

On Day 2 of BEA 2011,  Mindy Kaling (best known as Kelly Kapoor and a producer/writer/ of TV's The Office) hosted the Adult Author Breakfast. Kaling has a book publishing in November titled Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns).


Kaling is very funny person, as evidenced by her opening remarks, when she said the audience was sitting there looking at her thinking, "Is that Padma Lakshmi?" "Did she start Google?" and "Is she a Southern state governor?", finishing with "Isn't she a tertiary character on a 4th rate network sitcom?"

She worried about following last year's host Jon Stewart, but she needed have bothered; she was hilarious. She reminded people that she is a "big deal on Twitter, which is the opposite of a book". According to Kaling, Ernest Hemingway would be "a god on Twitter", while "James Joyce would be bad".

According to Kaling, anyone "with a  sexy librarian fetish" would enjoy this breakfast, and she had never seen so many "sensible shoes and tote bags." She described the room as "a high school reunion where all the jocks and minorities were killed in a crash". Then she joked that she saw "a black guy, even some straight guys. Oh, they work here at the Javits Center." I laughed heartily at her jokes.

Her book is a series if short essays, with titles like "Don't Peak in High School", "These Are Body Parts I'd Give Up To Be Skinny Forever" and "Why Do Men Put Shoes on Slowly?". She places her literary style between Tina Fey, who has no vices, and Chelsea Handler "who has every vice known to man".

She hopes her book does as well as the three-year-old boy's story Heaven Is Real, whom she claims is "now friends with Kanye". She said that "so few people have met Jesus, I hope he monetizes the sh#t out of it", which got a huge laugh, as did her line that "Book TV makes up for The Kardashians. 


Breakfast goers got a short excerpt of her upcoming book, and it is very funny, much in the vein of Tina Fey's Bossypants. My favorite essay is "Guys Need to Do Almost Nothing To Be Great"; there is a lot of good advice for guys in that essay.

She then introduced "the random panel" who only have in common that "three of us are white, which apparently is important to you guys." Diane Keaton was described by Kaling as "the pinup girl for literate, sensitive men who date women."

Keaton began with "we're gonna slow it down now, my book is a sad book." Then, Again is the title of her memoir, mostly about her relationship with the most important person in her life, her mother. Keaton spoke lovingly about her mother, who passed away after battling Alzheimer's.

Her mom Dorothy worked at Hunter's Bookstore in Beverly Hills, and Keaton said it was "a great to see such a large group of booksellers." Dorothy wrote her entire life, about being a woman, about going back to school at age 40, and raging against her husband's cancer.

In 1993, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, but continued to write everyday , "in sentences, then just words, then just numbers until she couldn't write anymore".

Keaton spoke of never marrying, saying that she dated unattainable men, like Woody Allen, Warren Beatty and Al Pacino. She said "I wanted to be adored by all, yet chose to stay safe in the arms of Dorothy and Jack" (her dad).

While reading from her upcoming book about her mother's battle with Alzheimer's, she broke down and it was a moving, sincere moment. She sobbed noticeably, and the entire room became silent and teary-eyed.

Keaton said that her book is about "what's lost in success contrasted with an ordinary life". I can't wait to read it when it publishes.

Author Jeffrey Eugenides had the unfortunate position of following Keaton, but Kaling introduced him by saying that when she sees a copy of his Middlesex on a guy's bookshelf, she knows he's OK. She called Middlesex "a literary canary in my sexual coal mine".

Eugenides became a writer because he "didn't want to get up this early" which elicited a laugh from the audience. He joked about the morning's "trajectory from comedy to Alzheimer's to something sadder- marriage", which is the topic of his upcoming book, The Marriage Plot.


He described the process of writing this book, where his protagonist Madeline is "besotted with 19th century novels". Most great 19th century novels have marriage as its plot, and Eugenides updates that with his characters, who we meet following college in 1982.  It sounds intriguing, but he didn't have anything to share with us, as he just turned it in to his editor the day prior.

I missed the end of the program with author Charlaine Harris, who was the only author to have a complete book to share with everyone, the latest in her Sookie Stackhouse series, Dead Reckoning. Fans of HBO's True Blood series have something new to look forward to.

How a book goes from proposal to publication

During BEA, I had the opportunity to visit the Harper Collins offices with a group of bloggers. We were treated to a discussion of how a book, in this case The Beekeeper's Lament by Hannah Nordhaus, goes from proposal to actual publication and beyond.

Editor Michael Signorelli began by describing the pitch he received from Nordhaus' agent about an article she had written about a beekeeper. She thought there was a good story there, one that would make an interesting book. Signorelli loved the proposal, and Harper bought the book.

With a non-fiction book like this, you usually get a proposal and outline of the book, with a few chapters written. A fiction book is usually bought on the basis of reading the entire novel first, which makes sense. The editor wants to make sure the ending of the novel works.

Signorelli's job is get everyone else excited about the book, and he did a terrific job with this book. Robin Bilardello from the Art Department showed us several different cover ideas they created before settling on the current one (see photo).

She spoke about using just bees on the cover, but that may turn some people off. (People have strong feelings about bees.) Some covers had bees, some had bees on flowers, some had a rendering of a beekeeper. We saw different fonts, and some of the covers differed only very subtly.

We heard from Erica Barmash in Marketing (a great host for the day!) and Jessica Wells in Sales discuss the different ideas they had to sell the book. Erica talked about reaching out to to bloggers, matching up the right book with the right blogger, and how she uses the Harper Perennial blog, The Olive Reader, to generate excitement. Jessica works with many of the big retailers, and I enjoyed her perspective of working with them during this changing economic atmosphere.

Gregory Henry talked about publicity, and I found his talk most interesting. He did not work on this book, but the ideas he ran through on how he would publicize this book to the many different special interest groups (targeting beekeeping organizations, farming organizations, newspapers in target areas such as California, where the beekeeper frequently worked, and Denver, where the author frequently writes for the local paper, NPR Radio) fascinated me. He was full of ideas, and this is something I used to do when I worked in a marketing department for an upstate mall. We had a very small budget, so creativity was key. I loved his creativity!

After a delicious lunch, we were joined by four Harper authors- Diana Spechler, who wrote Skinny, Greg Olear, author of Father Mucker (a great title), Lauren Belfer, author of A Fierce Radiance, and Talia Carner, author of Jerusalem Maiden. 


The authors spoke to us in small groups, and the conversations were lively and interesting. (I was delighted to run into Carner at a book signing she had at BookHampton in East Hampton last week, the link to my post on that is here.)

The best part of the day was hearing people who are so passionate about their jobs. This group loves books, and their excitement about their jobs was contagious. They inspired us all with their enthusiasm to keep on doing what we're doing.

Editor's Buzz Panel at Book Expo

The Editor's Buzz Panel books

My favorite panel at the Book Expo is the Editor's Buzz Panel. Six editors each present a book from their publishing house that they are proud of, and one that they hope will be a big seller.

Denise Roy, a senior editor at Dutton, presented the novel The Underside of Joy by Sere Prince Halverson. It is the story of a woman who loses her husband in an accident. She has been mom to her husband's young daughter, but the girl's birth mother comes forward after the funeral to claim her daughter. It is an exploration of the complex relationship between two moms, and it is not what it appears to be.

Roy identified so strongly with the book because she too lost her husband at a young age, and she understood these characters.

Kathy Pories of Algonquin Books (one of my favorite publishing houses) spoke about Naomi Benaron's Running the Rift. The novel won the Bellwether Prize, chosen by author Barbara Kingsolver. Pories states that in her 15 years as a editor, she has never been so moved by a book as she was by this one.

It tells the story of a young Rwandan boy who wished to compete in the Olympics as a runner. Rwanda was undergoing the tragic genocide at this time, and this novel "coveys the beauty and tragedy" of this country. The young runner does not want to get involved in the Tutsi/Hutu conflict, he only wants to run, and this novel "forces us to recognize the repercussions of being apolitical".

Michael Pietsch from Little, Brown & Company had the book that most intrigued me, The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. He had me at "it's the story of a catcher on a college baseball team". (My younger son caught since the age of eight.)

It's more than just a 'baseball novel' though. It's a novel about youth, of striving for perfection, of figuring out who you are, who you will become. Peach said he had "aching tenderness for these people". It has "two love stories, a death, a championship season- who could ask for more?" Not me.

 Popular author James Patterson said that is reminded him of The World According to Garp, which is one of my all-time favorite novels. This one moved to the top of my TBR list immediately.

Alaine Salierno Mason of W.W. Norton spoke about Diana Abu-Jaber's Birds of Paradise. She worked on Abu-Jaber's first novel, Arabian Jazz, and she believes that this will be her breakout book.

Set in Miami it's about "family, food and real estate- the three most important things in life." She says it is "deep and sophisticated", and speaks to "youthful passion and rebellion versus middle-aged wisdom".  Avis is a pastry chef whose thirteen-year-old daughter ran away five years ago. It's the story of how a family is lost to each other and must find each other again.

Mason states that this book is "a new level of literary achievement, so rich with complexity you can chew on it after reading."

Jenna Johnson from Harcourt Mifflin Houghton brought debut novelist Justin Torres we the animals, a slim story of three brothers and "the push, pull and comfort of each other". It forces us to "reconcile who we are with who our family wants us to be". It's "filled with energy, beauty and fireworks" and "this book creates hardcore fans."

She says that it is filled with original imagery and overcomes you. I met Torres at BEA when he was signing books, and he was just the most delightful person. He had a big smile for everyone, and seemed so thrilled to be there. He is a very genuine person.

The last book was from Alison Callahan of Doubleday, and it was Erin Morgenstern's novel The Night Circus.  Callahan got the manuscript and read it in five hours in the office cafeteria. It is set in the 19th century, where a magical circus pops up in a city for one day, then moves on to the next city.

There is a duel between two magicians, a game that only ends when one of the magicians dies. Celia and Marco find themselves pitted against each other, and falling in love at the same time. Callahan said that this is "like reading a book in 3-D, with pop-in visuals where you can smell the scents". It is a "feast for the senses in every way".

She says it is a big love story, like The Time Traveler's Wife. I can tell you that the buzz on this book at BEA reminded me of last year's Room by Emma Donoghue. Everyone wanted this ARC, and the line for her signing had hundreds of people in it, snaking all around the Javits Center. I spoke with one man who said that this was the most exciting, incredible book he's ever read.  I also liked the marketing of this book- Doubleday had people dressed in black and red, handing out bags of popcorn; it made an impression.

So to recap, the six books from the Editor's Buzz Panel in the order in which I want to read them:
1. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
2. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
3. Birds of Paradise  by Diana Abu-Jaber
4. The Underside of Joy by Sere Prince Halverson
5. Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron
6. we the animals  by Justin Torrres