Sign of the Times

Last year, at the Book Expo in Los Angeles, the Staples Center was awash in giant advertising banners. You can always tell which books the publishers have sunk the most money into on the basis of the enormous fucking signs on display in the lobby. The biggest banner last year was for Call Me Ted, Ted Turner’s autobiography. I have never seen anybody read or review this book in real life, but the publisher put a gigantic amount of money behind the book, pushing it relentlessly on bookselers.

This year, because everything sucks for the publishing industry, the signs are a little less ostentatious. Here we have a sign from Harlequin featuring a cookbook by insanely popular romance author Debbie Macomber. (Click to engorge, although it’s really not that interesting.)

There was also an inflatable Clifford the Big Red Dog:(Click to turn Clifford into a giant, red, throbbing blotch on your monitor.)

In fact, the only real ostentatious show of publisher swagger is this: BEHOLD DAN BROWN’S DOOM COCK:

(You will note that this photo is 666 pixels high. Coincidence? I THINK NOT.)

But the most curious thing, besides the C-SPAN bus that was taking up a ton of space in the Javits Center, is the sign advertising a new participant in BEA: The United Arab Emirates. Does this mean the Middle East is absconding with America’s staggering literary might? Could be. Stay tuned.