Imagine a world without Harry Potter.  Or think locally:  imagine a North America without Harry Potter.  Love it or hate it, what a different world (or North America) it would be.  But, thanks to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, we don’t have live that as reality.

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is the only international book fair entirely dedicated to the children’s literature.  With about 70 different countries in attendance, 1,300 exhibitors on the floor, and 5 thousand attendees, filling about 20 thousand square meters of space, the Bologna Book Fair is a great way to put your titles front and center for a large group of international professions specifically looking for children’s material.  And, after a long absence, The Combined Book Exhibit are making a grand return in 2009!

Attendees at the BCBF include publishers, authors, illustrators, literary agents, TV and film producers, licensors and licensees, packagers, distributors, printers, booksellers and librarians.  If you work with children’s material, it’s a must-attend (or at least a must-be-represented-possibly-within-the-Combined-Book-Exhibit!).  The 2009 edition of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair will take place from March 23-26.  You can find out more about the fair itself, including some of the programming, who exhibits, and more, here.  

A large part of Combined Book Exhibit’s mission is to give a voice to those small publishers that don’t always have one on the vast show floor of most of the book fairs we attend.  So when the New York Center for Independent Publishing came to us about their annual trade show, it was like a match made in heaven.

The NYCIP will be holding their Annual Independent and Small Press Book Fair on December 6^th and 7^th.  The NYCIP Small Press Book Fair is free to attend, and last year had over 3 thousand visitors.  The fair will also feature, as NYCIP’s website says, “live book craft events, readings, a whole range of literary and book-related programs, a literary cafe and much more.”

CBE is very excited to be a sponsor of this event, and are always hoping to be able to help small and independent presses any way we can.  You can learn more about the NYCIP’s Annual Independent and Small Press Book Fair here, and find our more about CBE at the show itself, in the library, where we’ll have our own table display.

The Book Checkout has been live for a month and has received tons of hits each day.  Be sure to Checkout your titles and make sure their info is up to date for the visitors of the site.  For changes, contact info@thebookcheckout.com. 

Additionally, The Book Checkout is accepting advertisements for the homepage, and for The Book Checkout Newsletter, which will be debuting next week to over 2,500 librarians nationwide.  For advertising inquiries, contact info@thebookcheckout.com.

Registration for 2009 shows is now live at CombinedBook.com!  Click here to see our complete 2009 schedule, then head over here to see updated prices and begin your 2009 registration!

Comblogged Book Exhibit was moved a few months ago to be hosted at CombinedBook.com, but this move unfortunately meant no Google Reader capabilities/RSS feeds, etc.  So, to accommodate everybody, Comblogged Book Exhibit will be updated both at CombinedBook.com/Blogs and at the original space at CBEBlog.Blogspot.com!