Today I will have a recap of what I saw and heard at PLA, yesterday, Thursday April 4, 2024. Please note, I write these posts at night, after a long day at conference.
This the middle day of the conference and it was very busy, filled with exhibit hall time and panels.
The day began in the Exhibit Hall where I was going to visit all of the Adult Library Marketing people at the publisher booths, but with a twist. You see my friend Sarah Read who on one side of her life is a Bram Stoker Award Winning Author [for The Bone Weaver's Orchard] and a nominee right now [for Root Rot], but on the other side she is a librarian who is the Readers Advisory Librarian for the Oshkosh [WI] Public Library. She is new to her role and needed to meet all of the fabulous library marketers. And she also wanted to recruit them to do book buzzes for her Library's YouTube Book Buzz series.
We visited, iRead, Penguin Random House, Soho [who have a new Horror imprint], Sourcebooks, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Hachette, and Harper Collins.. We chatted with all of the reps, learned about the new books, and got Sarah introduced to everyone.
I even took this picture of Sarah and Lila Denning at the S&S booth:
From 12-1 Robin and I were at the NoveList Booth and then we had a lovely meeting with our editor from ALA Editions, but first, we visited our books at the booth (photo credits to Lila)
Then, I finally made it to a session, and it is great one to share with everyone as well, the Book Buzz" Presented by Booklist which featured the Library Marketers I saw earlier presenting their upcoming titles. And for all of you I have not only their wonderful PDF with all the titles and key appeal info about each, but also a spreadsheet of the titles with ISBNs to make your ordering much easier.
The next program was in the same room and it was one that Robin and I were very interested in attending, and I will tell you, it was worth it: Diversifying Your Displays and Book Lists presented by the Tulsa City-County Library. The crux of this program was about creating Diverse Displays Guidelines. I will be writing a much longer post about this program in the future when I can give it the time it deserves. But they did make their slides (with speaking notes) and their Diverse Display Guidelines available for all and encouraged all of us (and by extension you) to use all of it to help you serve your patrons.
I ended my sessions with:
Each author spoke about their books and we had a room full of RA library people, friends old and new, listening to it all and spending time together. A great way for day 2 to come to a close.
But wait, there's more...I want to end this recap with a nod back to yesterday. During Robin, Yaika, and my presentation there was a question about where to find books list featuring plus sized and curvy characters. Our friend Lila Denning, who runs a site focused on Passive RA was on the case and wrote this blog post to answer that question.
Tomorrow is the final day. I will be staying until the end as my flight does not leave until after 9pm, so look for a recap on Saturday morning as well.
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