BookExpo America 2010 in review – Lexie’s Experience

I’m a serious book fiend. In fact, the term “bookaholic” describes me perfectly (though, according to Tim from Orbit, over in the UK there was a controversy over using that word…).  If I can impress upon people only one thing after talking to me for the first time, I always hope it’s this:  my absolute obsession with reading.  So when I say that BEA is a dream come true for me, please understand that is not an exaggeration.

This wasn’t my first BEA; it was actually my third.  Previously I had attended as an “educator,” however, and this year I attended as “press.”  The vast difference in how publishers and industry folk treat you is rather staggering.  Maybe I was more vocal and approachable this year, but as soon as they saw the word “PRESS” on my BEA badge (the very first thing everyone does is stare at your badge, which in my case was affixed to my chest, so it was a little embarrassing), I was greeted with happier smiles.

“We love bloggers!” seemed to be the theme this year, which was a mighty good thing. One BEA attendee remarked that this year the bloggers seemed to outnumber the librarians.  And I can attest to this; I easily spoke with thirty different bloggers.

For me BEA consisted of three things: securing industry contacts with my favorite publishers and imprints, chatting with authors, and gaining an inside look at upcoming titles.  What surprised me the most was that when I tried to approach the booths, specifically to meet with the company’s marketing/publicity representative, I never seemed to be there at the right time.  Either a major signing was happening (Little, Brown’s signing with Cornelia Funke for her upcoming novel Reckless, limited to only 300, was certainly a crazy moment), or the representative was “out” at the moment.  It was when I would approach the booth as a crazy book fangirl (cough Quirk cough) that I seemed to make the best contacts.

Wednesday, the day the rest of the BSC crew was out and about, and I got to have a lengthy chat with Alex from Orbit books about their upcoming titles.  I was particularly interested in their First Look at Brent Weeks’ forthcoming The Black Prism, and the ARC for the new ZomCom (zombie comedy) Married with Zombies by Jesse Petersen.  Their catalog also held information for Kate Elliott’s new fantasy Cold Magic, Rachel Aaron’s back-to-back three-book release of The Legend of Eli Monpress, the new Jaz Parks book from Jennifer Rardin (Bitten in Two), N.K. Jemisin’s second book The Broken Kingdoms, and Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s The Fallen Blade. All books that I am eager to have my hands on.

I was also stalking their booth in hopes of talking to Kurt Hassler, the man in charge of Yen Press, a beloved imprint after my own heart.  The news from a month ago that Yen Press would be ceasing production of their print manga anthology magazine Yen+ was foremost on my mind, and I was hoping Kurt had some answers as to the future.  Unfortunately, there is nothing definite as of yet; the titles currently running in Yen+ will be digitally available, but the specifics are still being hammered out.  I forgave him pretty quickly once I saw that the third Kieli novel, Prisoners Bound for Another Planet, had an awesomely pretty cover, and their new light novel series Bookgirl by Mizuki Nomura definitely has my interest peaked.

At the Penguin booth I spoke with author Ally Condie for a while, along with Jodi (her literary agent) and a fellow blogging friend.  Ally’s book, Matched, is due out in the last fall of this year and is already generating buzz all over the blog-o-sphere.

I stumbled upon the Quirk Books Booth by accident–I was looking for Chronicle books but got drawn in by Quirk’s poster of Night of the Living Trekkies.  After I managed to stop drooling over the book itself (Star Trek + Zombies =made of awesome, in my world), I spoke with their booth attendant briefly (mostly I was babbling excitement over the book) about some of their other forthcoming titles.  I’ll have more on that later on.

At both Macmillan and the Simon & Schuster booths, it was hard to grab a representative to talk with for more than five seconds.  No matter what time of day I came, not a single rep seemed to (a) have any idea who was in charge of the YA titles and (b) their titles coming out.  At both booths I was redirected to their catalog.  This was a little aggravating, as I seem to have the same problem via e-mail as well (though I am still sent review copies of their books…but that’s not the point on a day like this).

The Harlequin booth was much the same as the last two times I was at BEA:  mostly filled with signings.  The Young Adult Paranormal hour on Wednesday was a complete disaster to be at–there was no organization, no direction, and absolutely no instructions.  Everyone just slammed the table where the authors were signing.  On Thursday, during the Paranormal Hour (with their adult titles), it was much better all around.  I was disappointed that there didn’t seem to be more about their historical line, but romance’s presence at BEA was lacking quite a bit.  In fact, other than Young Adult, every other genre seemed to take a backseat.

This may have been because many of the publishers had smaller booths then in past years, opting instead for meeting rooms.  Unfortunately, even with a map, I wasn’t able to navigate my way around Javits well enough to find the meeting rooms until the last couple of hours on Thursday.  Since BEA was markedly smaller in scale this year, everything seemed much more crammed together, making getting around tough and bruising (literally, my back and torso are riddled with elbow-sized bruises from people knocking me around).

As for the books I got?  It’s safe to say that I won’t be needing to buy new ones for a while, at least….