Tina Brown and Lisa Petrillo.
Irene Sperber
The 2018 Miami Book Fair kicked off on Sunday, Nov. 11 with Tina Brown discussing her latest, “The Vanity Fair Diaries.” The fair exited after a climatically blessed weekend street fair as the sun set on Sunday, Nov. 18 with John Kerry and his book "Every Day is Extra.”
Founded by Miami Dade College and community partners, the Miami Book Fair is touted as the nation’s finest literary festival, according to official information....and us of course.
Miami has enjoyed this literary soiree since 1984. (yes, we know, before you were born.) I was interested in how the written word stays afloat in our modern existence, living lives assaulted with ideas, information and technology constantly flying into our consciousness, that relaxing with a book seems ever more challenging. I am speaking from experience here.
Digging into statistics, I latched onto a few practical facts that may be of interest to you as well.
“In the last presented year (2017), 687 million printed books were sold in the U.S.” (The Statistics Portal)
Books & Books founder Mitchell Kaplan.
“The number of e-books sold in the United Statespeaked in 2017, reaching 266 million units.” (The Statistics Portal)
“The average traditionally published book which sells 3,000 in its entire lifetime in print only sells about 250-300 copies it's first year.”(The Statistics Portal)
“....as of 2010 writers and authors earned a median salary of $55,420 per year, or $26.64 per hour. These numbers are for freelance writers and authors of books, though, and novelists income is harder to pin down because usually, income depends on book sales and contracts.” (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
So, there you have it. It does appear that more people are taking pen to paper, or finger to keyboard to tippedy-tap their way into fame and infamy as self-publishing becomes more ubiquitous, adding an artisanal do-it-yourself flavor to the experience.
Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Opening night: The lead up week of the series “Evening With....” started out strong with the charming and no nonsense Tina Brown, her resume of accomplishments longer than your holiday chores. The woman actually does everything on her to-do lists. An accomplishment I can only admire from afar.
An award-winning writer and editor, Brown is founder of Women in the World Summit; credits include editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker.
Her book “The Diana Chronicles” naturally found it’s way to the New York Timesbestseller list. She founded the award-winning site The Daily Beast along with Barry Diller.
“The Vanity Fair Diaries: Power, Wealth, Celebrity, and Dreams: My Years at the Magazine That Defined a Decade” is Brown’s latest as she opens her copious notes to the world, reflecting on the trek from London to New York to take over the helm for Vanity Fair at 29. There is nothing and no one that did not cross Brown’s path. When she first walked into the offices at Vanity Fair (1984), the new young editor stared at a room entirely populated with men. “Kind of like the United States Senate” she quipped. A knowing titter meandered through MDC’s Chapman Hall.
Brown remarked that “Trump runs through the diaries like a recurring virus.” They got along well early on because “he was funny and outrageous.."
She shared that “the big ‘get’ (interview) right now is Robert Mueller....without a shirt on.” Lots of laughter ensued. Tina Brown can be quite amusing. CBS4’s Lisa Petrillo capably led the easy flowing discussion.
Miami Dade College Book Fair.
In an attempt to sample a wide selection of offerings, I hauled myself to the Calle Ocho music-centric “Bar Nancy” on Wednesday night to attend an off piste Book Fair endorsed event titled “The Sob Sisters,” a Brooklyn-based reading series founded by authors Ada Calhoun, Susannah Cahalan, and Karen Abbot. It was a delightfully low key event for journalists or nonfiction writers of any caliber to celebrate female reporters and non fiction writers. Several of the main members of the Sob Sisters read excerpts aloud from their latest books, all amusing and/or insightful.
Q and A followed. If you’re a Gen X’er and mired in a mid life crisis, let me recommend the very personable Ada Calhoun’s “Why We Can’t Sleep” coming out in 2019. You may have to remain bleary eyed until then, I fear.
In case you’re curious, Merriam-Webster defines Sob Sister as a journalist who specializes in writing or editing sob stories or other material of a sentimental type. It is the “old-timey name for female tabloid reporters,” sez the Book Fair site.
Thursday evening at Chapman Hall, Doris Kearns Goodwin spoke in an eloquently casual manner, making the packed audience in MDC’s main venue feel intimate in nature. Kearns Goodwin has written copious books on leadership and presidential biographies ever since LBJ coerced her into helping with his memoirs. She moved on to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt to underline how people recognize leadership qualities within themselves that translate to others. I noted waves of barely stifled guffawing rippling through the audience each time words such as “humility” or “character” were mentioned as a prerequisite for successful leadership.
Children's Alley.
"I spend my days and nights with dead presidents.” Goodwin quipped. She found LBJ an excellent storyteller, later learning half of them weren’t true.
Take a peek at her latest book: “Leadership in Turbulent Times.” She is an even voice in an uneven world, well versed from a lifetime of studying powerful men up close.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor held court on Saturday discussing her latest children’s book, “Turning Pages: My Life Story and the Beloved World of Sonia Sotomayor.” There was a lot of energy and buzz in the air of a packed-to-the-rafters event. Poet Laureate Juan Filipe Herrera was on hand to guide the discussion. It was an enjoyable hour concentrating on her early years that nicely sidestepped any of those pesky supreme court issues of late. Particularly since audience Q & A was only allowed from those under twelve years old. (Add unicorns and candy hearts here)
Her big “share”for success: “Always ask for help when you feel overwhelmed.”
A group of young women had even younger women leaning in at the Live Arts Lab for a talk titled “Against All Odds: Powerful Women Persevere”, with Olympic fencer Ibithaj Muhammad and her book “Proud: Living My American Dream”. As “Time’s 100 Most Influential People,” Muhammad spoke of being the first female muslim American to medal at the Olympics. Kate Shatz discussed her book series on “Rad Girls Can” to mesmerized young listeners. It was uplifting to watch audience members glow with possibilities after a raft of gruesome talks elsewhere, regarding our future.
Saturday and Sunday were chock-a-block with over 500 authors giving lectures, readings and panel discussions going on concurrently in 21 different venues within Miami Dade’s downtown campus. It was a buffet that you could not possibly consume in it’s entirety. The street fair was abustle all at the same time, offering everything from the latest punditry to YA books to graphic novels under crayon colored booths adding a festive flair to the streets around MDC on the picture perfect weekend.
May I suggest that you join the Miami Book Fair mailing list to receive information on what goes on all 12 months of the year. Or better yet, join Friends of the Fair.
FYI: Photographer Annie Leibowitz on Wednesday, Nov. 28, or President Bill Clinton and the world’s bestselling author James Patterson discussing their novel, "The President is Missing" on Saturday, Dec. 1.
“Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.” – P.J. O’Rourke
