Because of the computer book slump, there were hardly any booths by technology publishers.
Because we wore a technical publisher badge we were swamped by potential computer book authors, each hawking their book proposals. I must have a shoebox full of book proposals from aspiring computer book authors who want to get published.
Click here to read details about our trip to Book Expo 2005
Scout in the Big Apple
While attending this mega-conference we decided to use the opportunity to take Scout with us to refine his traffic avoidance skills. It’s very easy to take a horse to New York City and there are many hotels that accept all animals, great-and-small. When doing charitable training, we have been amazed at the number of hotels that want to help, and we have had many major hotel chains donate our rooms.
Click here to see a list of horse-friendly hotels in New York City
Native New Yorkers know that combining fantastic hot dogs with papaya juice is a culinary delight, and we had great fun munching dogs and chatting with the whores and crack heads at Gray's Papaya near Madison Square Garden.
Scout is a bit of a show-off and he displayed himself a few times, but a quick tap and the command "put that back" kept him socially acceptable.
Another treat was seeing Michael Creighton and meeting Laura Barnes, the author of the fantastic Ernest series of children’s books, a super-nice lady with a shared love of horses.
Click here to read about Scout in New York City
So, what’s going to be the hot books next year? We have a fairly good idea, but we always hold our cards close until the catalogs are published. As the boomers age-out and enter an age where they have high disposable income, many publishers are pursuing travel books. We also saw a huge interest in books about personal relationships.
Here are some book title ideas we have for next year:
- Finding the perfect man – Janet Burleson (This one was my suggestion)
- Scuba diving for the middle-aged professional – Mike Ault
- More “Insider Adventures” ™ travel books, focused on “safe” destinations
From the mail bag:
We have been getting e-mails asking about Lil orphan Annie, and I’m sad to report that she died quietly at 7 days-old in Penny's arms. According to Dr. O'Malley, Annie had signs of the “dummy foal” syndrome, most likely cause by oxygen depravation and head trauma. Penny was emotionally drained, devastated and she was crying uncontrollably at this unexpected loss.
We also lost “Dixie”, a severely deformed dwarf that we rescued four years ago. Rescuing crippled, abused and neglected miniature horses is a sad business, and we do everything to ease their suffering and prosecute the offenders. Janet’s latest book Helping Hooves describes how we saved Traveler and prosecuted his heartless owner for cruelty to animals, including the death of Hidalgo, a foal that he starved to-death.
Dixie’s story