Scott Baio; Scott McClellan

Last week I flew out to LA for Book Expo America, an annual convention for publishers and booksellers. While my former colleagues from Simon & Schuster were preparing to rub elbows with the likes of Diddy and Cameron Diaz at Prince’s book party (Held at his home! And he performed!) I was doing something nearly as glamorous: I was attending a subset of Book Expo–the Audio Publishers Association Conference.

Now, before you start thinking that I missed out on all of the celeb fun, you should check out this phenomenal spot that LL Cool J did for Get Caught Listening, an offshoot of the Get Caught Reading campaign. I never thought that LL would be a business/self-improvement fan, but clearly I was wrong. Amusing, no?

Even more importantly, I finally got to lay my eyes on Scott Brick, the prolific audiobook narrator. Someone described him as “the Scott Baio of the audiobook world,” and it’s easy to see why. With his velvet jacket, indoor sunglasses, and blond-tipped coif, he was decidedly more Hollywood than the rest of us mere audiobook mortals. He’s got stage presence, that’s for sure. (The Baio comparison is also fitting because I later saw Henry Winkler strolling through the LA Convention Center).

As for buzz books, the title that was on everyone’s lips at BEA was Scott McClellan’s What Happened, the Bush White House tell-all that should be available on eMusic by the end of the week. I, for one, am psyched to listen.