At BookExpo America, conservative publishers worry about future. If you think speed-dating is tough, try selling your book to an editor in three minutes. Scholarly presses offered catalogs and the occasional bowl of tiny candy bars. None of the publicists were dressed as life-sized cartoon characters. Imagine, if you will, walking into a hall with displays of thousands upon thousands of books...

Waxing philosophical, booksellers face the digital: John Updike would not be pleased. Bound miniature books were common in medieval and Renaissance times as illuminated manuscripts, and in the 18th and 19th centuries as everything from alphabet primers to novels. Literary festivals used to be humble gatherings of authors and fans. But now they are undergoing a boom, with new events opening and everyone from politicians to

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