58 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ SEPTEMBER 2, 2019
Fall Regionals
Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, Crown), early
birds will have a chance to attend a session titled
“Boosting Profits with Co-op.” It’s part of Ineson’s
overriding goal to use the show to make a material
difference in member stores’ business. Even the food
served at the author reception and other events will
be connected to new and forthcoming cookbooks
that could do well regionally. Other sessions
are meant to move the needle on a number of
marketing concerns, with panels titled “Visual
Merchandising for Inclusion” and “Digital
Branding.”● The format for this year’s author reception is
also changing to a Winter Institute–style one,
with one large room to accommodate even
more authors, up from 20 in past years to 25.
Among the featured writers are Lily King (Writers and Lovers,
Grove), Oge Mora (Saturday, Little, Brown BFYR), Kate
Elizabeth Russell (My Dark Vanessa, Morrow), and Richard
Stengel (Information Wars, Atlantic Monthly). To up the excite-
ment, author and illustrator Elisha Cooper (River, Orchard) will
create a painting during the reception. The details are stillbeing worked out, but the goal is to use his work to
raise money for a local literacy organization.● Another aim this year is to respond to what Ineson
calls “a youthquake” in NEIBA. While she wants to
appeal to all booksellers, she’s added several events
designed especially for younger store owners and
frontline booksellers, including a closing
keynote with Erin Morgenstern, who will
appear in conjunction with the publica-
tion of her sophomore novel, The Starless
Sea (Doubleday). Her debut, The Night
Circus, inspired a bookseller-themed wed-
ding; the cover of her new novel provided
the source for another bookseller’s tattoos.
In addition, Ineson is hoping to appeal to
younger book people with a late-night
pajama/costume party with Australia-based author Tamsyn
Muir (Gideon the Ninth, Tor.com) via Skype from one of the
conference hotels.● No major tinkering was needed for the association’s popular
author breakfasts or awards banquet, although this year, for theBOLD IDEAS, BRIGHT MINDS
The almost unbelievable story
behind the founder of Stanford
University.Drawing upon archaeological
evidence, this is a major new
biography of one of the most
remarkable rulers in history.An extraordinary journey
through the history of the
human imagination.