Given the sheer number of YA books being published each year, it takes a lot of promotional effort to effectively market these titles.

At BEA last week, Albert Whitman & Company marketing director Michelle F. Bayuk moderated a panel called “Beyond The Hunger Games: Young Adult Book Marketing & Public Relations Strategies.”

The experts included ABA president Becky Anderson, Susannah Greenberg PR president Susannah Greenberg, Harlequin senior PR manager Michelle Renaud and Sourcebooks Fire and Sourcebooks Jabbawocky publicity manager Derry Wilkens. Below, we’ve collected some of their advice.

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Author John Green revealed that seventeen-year-old Sarah Turbin had won his An Abundance of Covers contest. Readers were invited to submit their cover designs for the new paperback edition of Green’s 2006 Printz Honor title, An Abundance of Katherines.

Above, you can see Turbin’s simple design. Green said the cover “embraced the nerdiness of the book,” and he shared this piece of advice on book design: “I think it has to look good in print; it has to look good blown-up; it has to look good on a screen and it has to look good one-inch tall.”

During the BookExpo America event, Penguin Young Readers Group gave away 150 signed copies of the new paperback edition. Several fans also asked Turbin for her autograph.

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Pinterest now counts 11.7 million unique users, and one BEA panel helped writers learn how to use the site for book promotion.

At a BEA, KMS Public Relations president Kathleen Schmidt moderated a “Pin it on Pinterest: Driving Traffic to Your Brand” panel. The experts included Wall Street Journal pop culture reporter Katherine Rosman, Book Riot executive editor Bethanne Patrick and Book Riot community manager Rebecca Schinsky.

During the presentation, Rosman recalled how she met the founders of Pinterest when they were working out of a small Palo Alto apartment last August. Since those humble beginnings, this photo-sharing site has risen the ranks and become the third most popular social media platform in America.

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BookExpo America (BEA) arrives New York City’s Jacob Javits Center in early June.

To prep for the conference, 50 Shames of Earl Grey author Andrew Shaffer (a.k.a. EvilWylie) has compiled the “Ultimate BEA Party Guide,” collecting all the parties planned for the week. You can email the author to add your party.

Follow this link to explore Shaffer’s comprehensive list. Which parties will you attend? Besides the parties, what BEA panels are you excited about?

Melissa de la Cruz began her career with the YA vampire series, Blue Bloods, but she will soon release her first adult title, Witches of East End. At BEA, she joined a panel of YA authors who have also finished their first adult projects.

De la Cruz explained: “I was really excited to write an adult book, so I was like, ‘Woo! I can write about sex.’ So I wrote all the sex scenes first. And then I had to figure out how to make it work in the story. I kind of went backwards that way. I think I struggled with it a little bit more because I thought, ‘Oh, it’s an adult book.’ I thought I had to put on some other brain. As I was writing it, I was like, ‘Oh no, this is just like Blue Bloods. This is just what I do.’”

De la Cruz wrote Witches of East End with her YA fans in mind, considering that many of them will soon be adults. She promised a few favorite characters will reappear in her adult title.

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If you’ve ever attended Book Expo America (BEA), you’ll know that the food cart choices parked outside the Javits Center typically feature hot dogs and kebabs.

Penguin Young Readers Group author Sarah Dessen (pictured, via) will shake things up with the Dessen Sweetery Truck.

Associate director of publicity Elyse Marshall explained in an email: “Sarah will head out to the truck to hand out free whoopee pies to fans and hungry BEAers. There will be three flavors available: red velvet, chocolate, and Sarah’s Strawberry Surprise (a custom whoopee pie). The truck will be entirely wrapped in Sarah Dessen branding, with all her book covers featured. There will be giveaways available for a few lucky attendees before the Dessen Sweetery Truck moves onto it’s second location of the day: Union Square.”

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The Independent Publishers Group (IPG) will celebrate their 40th anniversary in June and updated with a new logo “departing from a stylized image of a print book.”

What do you think of the new logo designed by SX2? Below, we’ve included a copy of the group’s old logo. In the coming weeks, IPG will also unveil the makeover of their corporate website.

Here’s more from the release: “Departing from a stylized image of a print book, which IPG has held since 2000, its new logo better reflects its forward-thinking attitude and success in distributing content in various forms and to various markets.”

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Michael Cader and Mike Shatzkin will partner up to produce Publishers Launch Conferences, a series of industry educational events. The Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) and Constellation from the Perseus Books Group have signed on as global sponsors.

The first event, “eBooks Go Global,” will be held in conjunction with this year’s Book Expo America in New York City. The event will focus on eBook business in the United States and how international publishers can compete with North American companies.

Shatzkin gave this quote in the release: “We both see major global opportunities for publishers and booksellers in all languages, regardless of the adoption of digital platforms so far in any particular country. One part of what we’re doing is to help English-language publishers capitalize on these growth markets, and another part is to help others get the greatest value they can from what US and U.K. publishers have already learned.”

Oscar-nominated actress Julianne Moore, Emmy-nominated comedian Mindy Kaling, and journalist Jim Lehrer will host breakfast events at this year’s Book Expo America.

Moore, author of picture book Freckleface Strawberry, will preside over the children’s writers’ breakfast. Kaling (a writer at The Office)  and Lehrer (author of both fiction and nonfiction) will host two adult writers’ breakfasts.

Here’s more from the press release: “The other speakers who will be joining the hosts for these popular events include Sarah Dessen, Roger Ebert, Anne Enright, Jefferey Eugenides, Charlaine Harris, Kevin Henkes, Diane Keaton, Erik Larson, and Brian Selznick.  In addition, Katherine Paterson, who is the current Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, will be saying a few words at the Children’s Breakfast on behalf of the Children’s Book Council.”

Book Expo America (BEA) and the annual American Library Association’s convention (ALA) will continue to be held as separate events. The two groups had been discussing creating a combined event in the future.

Publishers Weekly broke the news last week: “[A joint] statement called the discussions ‘a positive experience’ and that ‘doors have been opened for other possible collaborative activities between ALA and the American Booksellers Association, the American Association of Publishers and Reed Exhibitions.’”

BEA 2011 is scheduled for May 23-May 26, 2011 in New York City. The ALA’s annual Conference is scheduled for June 23-28, 2011 in New Orleans, LA.