Book Expo 2011 is now just a memory, a blur of long aisles, new books, the latest publishing news and three days of meeting live with those we do business with all year.  In other words, our pleasure.

New York greeted the booklovers who descended upon the city with sunny skies and gorgeous spring weather, while inside the Jacob Javitz Center, booksellers, librarians, publishers and the entire cast of people responsible for bringing a book to market roamed the aisles to get a glimpse of the future.

They found that ebooks were the talk of the show, celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres still held sway as the largest draw and tickets for popular authors were available only if you were willing to rise early and cab over before opening hours (thank you to our own Lew Campbell for snagging tickets for me to get a Rick Riordan autograph, without which, I would not have been welcome at home.)

Chris Zane, owner of Zane’s Cycles and author of Reinventing the Wheel, was the first of our authors to hit the floor, spending Monday giving a session on creating lifetime customers  service for more than 250 eager booksellers.   Tuesday he signed books and got a visit from Matthew Budman of the Conference Board.

In the Gallup Press booth, author Tom Rieger signed galleys of his upcoming August book, Breaking the Fear Barrier.

Meantime, over at the Bard Press booth, publisher Ray Bard was debuting his newest project by taking a pool on title preference.  The One Thing or The Single Habit? He’s keeping survey results strictly confidential.

Meantime, we walked and learned, talked and laughed, saw old friends at Harvard Business Press, Wiley, Crown, Portfolio, St. Martin’s Press, Jossey-Bass, Open Road, Bard Press, Random House, and dozens of others.    We broke bread with our friends at 8OO CEO READ and Greenleaf Books and toasted the recent marriage of Yvonne Sen Primeau at our annual Gallup dinner.

Until next year!