This year was my first Bookexpo and while I do not plan on doing an official write up of everything (Clare should be covering the panels we attended), I wanted to make a few comments on the event.
- I was pleasantly surprised that there was a whole floor of the Javits center dedicated to children’s books, floor 1 was brimming with all sorts of children’s books.
- Quick story over at the Simon & Schuster booth. I was talking to Bess in publicity about the books I had recently reviewed and to my surprise Eric Wight of Frankie Pickle fame was right behind me. It was actually quite nice to talk about a very recent review I did with an author in person. Eric is a real cool guy and gave me some insight on where Frankie Pickle is going in the future. You will also see an interview here at BSCreview coming soon. It is nice to see an author outside of the autographing area where you have time to talk to them without feeling like you have a line of people behind you.
- I was a bit disappointed that certain companies did not even have publicity or marketing people available to talk to during the day.
- I attended the Alternate History – Scott Westerfield, Leviathin; Cassie Clare, Clockwork Princess, which also included Holly Black and Sci Fi – China Mieville, The City & The City; John Ringo, Eye of the Storm, which also included Kelly Link, not that Ringo let anyone speak that much. All joking aside, they were both very fun and Westerfield and Mieville stand out as some really intelligent dudes that are fun to listen to.
- Since this is more of an industry event, a few things seemed out of place to me. Why are the book signings not just contained to the autographing area? It made it a bit difficult to walk around with huge lines all over the place. Plus if a signing was at a specific publisher it made the whole booth shut down pretty much to focus on crowd control for the signing. Second, since some books are giveaways and some are not, it makes sense to have each both labeled with books that are available for purchase and ones that are giveaways. It did not happen to me, but I saw it happen to a bunch of people that kept asking the publishers if they were free or not.
- A special thanks to the following people, China Mieville, Brandon Sanderson, Simon & Schuster, Tor, Del Rey, Baen Books, MJ Rose, Eric Wight, and Kelly Link. I will not list publicists names directly to protect the innocent! Ok, well I have to break that rule real quick to send a special thanks to Dot Lin for setting up the Sanderson interview.
- I found some really interesting graphic novels, comics, and children’s books from some independents, small press and POD publishers that I want to check out in a bit more depth. Some highlights include Mo Smells Green from Pess 2 Smell I believe and Unshelved a comic strip by Bill Barnes &aGene Ambaum.
- What is always nice to see, are the companies that give back to charities based on book sale. As well as the companies that are making a valiant effort to go super green.
- I am glad the BEA will be in NYC for the next few years, I consider year one a learning experience. I think next year I would do a few things different. I would attend more than one day, I would talk to the publicists in the morning before all the book signings, and I would make sure to attend some of the after parties I was invited to.
- While I feel like I am a vet at NYCC (New York Comic Con) I feel like the same publishers attend NYCC each year and it was nice to meet some people that I have only spoken to via email or on the phone. Shout out to the new people I met at Simon & Schuster, Overlook, Rob from “Rob’s Blog o’ Stuff” and Sffworld, I am sure I forgot someone, sorry about that.
- China Mieville is like some sort of rock star, after the panel the amount of women lined up to talk to him was a big crazy. He was pretty much swarmed at the stage the minute he got off.
- If you are in publicity or marketing and come to BEA with a bad attitude, really you are not doing anyone any good, especially your company
- I really would have thought that e-readers would have been all over the place, but I only saw the COOL-ER “a light, small and elegant e-reader”. It could have been the company itself or the fact that they had booth babes.
- A BSCreview shirt and jeans was under-dressed for the BEA, I will keep that in mind for next year, button down shirt would have been more appropriate even if I kept the jeans. Also the Press Room was really nice, I was surprised based on the other events that I have attended. The whole event itself though exuded classy and sleekness especially in the booth setup. I was walking on real carpeting at one point during the day. I took a look at the booth prices and I think I can understand why BEA is such a professional event, you have to have some real coin to get a booth.
BEA was a very enjoyable day for me and the rest of the BSC crew and I really look forward to next year. BEA blew me away with how well run and organized it was; one of my favorite conventions, I just needed more time to see everyone that I wanted. I felt overall BSCreview did a good job on making contacts, greeting friends, and securing a video interview. Next year the sky is the limit and hopefully at minimum two days.
