ThingsAsian Press booth at Book Expo America.

Book Expo America is the place for publishers to showcase their books to booksellers, librarians, and other industry professionals. ThingsAsian Press attended the show at the Javitz Center in New York for the first time this year, with a prominent corner booth in the Ingram Publisher Services section.

The booth featured ThingsAsian’s newest titles, Tone Deaf in Bangkok … and Other Places and To Myanmar With Love: A Travel Guide for the Connoisseur, as well as a selection of backlist titles. The books’ vibrant covers and beautiful designs drew a great deal of attention, keeping the ThingsAsian team busy all weekend. By day three, we were all exhausted, having shared information about the books with hundreds of people.

Tone Deaf was a particularly exciting title to share. Although it was just released, many booksellers had already heard the buzz surrounding it (truly one of the best travel books written in ages), and those who had already read it raved. Happily, To Myanmar With Love received a warm reception, despite the controversy that surrounds the country. We hope this book leads the public to a greater understanding of the people of Myanmar—toward an understanding that there is a rich culture beyond the damning political curtain that has been drawn over the country.

Weekend highlights included all of the people who sought out the booth for our popular giveaways—we gave away 500 ThingsAsian book bags; thousands of lovely notebooks featuring ThingsAsian Press book covers; and hundreds of posters … not to mention copies of our new titles. It was an exciting weekend for To Vietnam With Love: A Travel Guide for the Connoisseur, which received second place in the travel guidebook category at the Indepedent Publisher Book Awards.

Many thanks to my ThingsAsian partners-in-crime for a wonderful, successful weekend: Janet Brown, ThingsAsian editor and author of Tone Deaf; Nabanita Dutt, ThingsAsian writer and volume editor for To North India With Love: A Travel Guide for the Connoisseur; Nana Chen, photographer for Tone Deaf, To North India With Love, and numerous other ThingsAsian projects; and Connie Brooks, friend of ThingsAsian Press and box-maker extraordinaire.

Receiving an Independent Publisher Book Award … we’re not sure how the models fit in!