International Book Fair: Guadalajara

Thomas Nelson's President and CEO Michael S. Hyatt sounds encouraged and energized by what he saw at the International Book Fair in Guadalajara, Mexico last month – and as an exhibitor at the show, Hyatt is uniquely qualified to comment. He's done so at his blog.

Here's my cliff notes, with Michael's full article HERE:

• The Book Fair is sponsored by the University of Guadalajara, and is 20 years strong.
  
  
• It's a general market show. Grupo Nelson chose to exhibit. Only Christian publisher to do so.
  
  
• The booths were sophisticated and reminded Hyatt of BEA. Beautiful product, great graphics and great signage.
  
  
• Floor opened 9 to 5:00 p.m. for publishers, booksellers, printers, the media, agents, authors, etc., and 5 to 9:00 p.m. to the public.
  
  
• Over 525,000 attended. Aisles jammed. Hyatt says he's never seen so much excitement about books.
  
  
• Half of the attendees were under the age of 30.
  
  
• Aprox. 17,000 booksellers attended from 39 countries

I find it incredibly refreshing that Michael's comfortable enough and transparent enough to blog in this fashion and from such a unique perspective. As President and CEO of a major publishing house, wisdom and logic will tell you he has a bunch on his plate, so kudos to Michael for sharing his wisdom and insights with the rest of us, from where he sits. I've learned a great deal personally from his posts.

( via From Where I Sit blog ) – and – (Grupos VP/Editors Larry Down's Blog )