Conferences – The Cozy Reader

BEA 2010 | Book Blogger Convention

Posted on February 6, 2010 by Jess (The Cozy Reader)

I attended BEA last year as a Book Blogger representative. That was my first year attending as such. However, I’ve attended one previous BEA with a previous employer, in which I was responsible for managing and creating the booth layout of 28 booths. Yes, a massive job, but one that had to be done nonetheless. So, I have two angles of BEA that I can come from when giving advice.

What is Book Expo America (BEA)?

If you’re a book blogger then you’ve probably heard of it or even attended in years past. If you did, let me know!

Essentially BEA is a huge convention for the publishing industry and anyone remotely associated to it i.e. distributors, self publishing authors, small and large publishing houses, bookmark retailers, print on demand services, and even reading glasses jewelry. You name it, it’s probably there.

Why would a book blogger want to attend?

Easy. Books! And so much more too. It’s pretty common to only know your favorite author, blogger or publishing group by name or contact them via email but BEA is the time to step out from behind the computer and meet these awesome people in person. Present yourself, make new friends and contacts.

Helpful Tips

There are numerous things to take into consideration if you decide to attend BEA. I’ll touch on a few briefly, as a lot of these have been wonderfully covered by other Book Blogger Convention Tour bloggers and I highly suggest visiting each and getting more tips!

Present yourself nicely. Wear comfortable, yet presentable clothing. Jeans, sneakers and t-shirts are great but just pick the best of your wardrobe to wear. Nothing with holes and dirt are recommended. The people running the booths dress business like so don’t disrespect them with a crude t-shirt or holey jeans. Last year I made a custom t-shirt and wore that.

The most valuable piece of information is COMFORTABLE SHOES! The Javits is nothing of a big slab of concrete. Author of Soulless, Gail Carriger, recently did a wonderful blog post about dressing for a convention.

Plan Ahead. Use the web to figure out what, when, and where you want to do things while at BEA. The BEA site is a very useful tool. I love looking at the layout to figure out where the publishers will be, the bathrooms, etc and plan a route. I used a spreadsheet last year and put in the date and time a specific event was happening and then sorted it by the date/time. It worked perfectly for me. Some author signings require tickets. Be sure to get all the information because those tickets do go fast.

Books. There will be a ton of ARCs there for the taking. Make sure to grab a tote bag as soon as possible. If you’re loaded up think about shipping your books to your home via FedEx or UPS available in the center.

Get Connected. Plan to meet up with bloggers, publisher contacts and even authors. Many industry professionals schedule meetings way in advance. I was lucky to participate in the NetGalley/Firebrand booth last year. That was an awesome experience.

Business Cards. Bring something with you that has all your contact information on. Some booths will have scanners to swipe your BEA badge but not all have this.

Be polite! The people running their booths are there working. Don’t be rude and always, always ask before taking something. Unless there’s a sign stating to “take one” never grab and run. Some booths get packed. Be patient.

Have fun! It’s such an eye stimulating experience. You’ll see a ton of people, a ton of books, and tons of things you’d thought you’d never see!

BEA 2009

Here are my blog posts from BEA 2009!

Book Blogger Convention

Want to get in on the Book Blogger Convention? Register to attend this event. It includes a badge to the BEA convention. Topics that will be covered:

Professionalism/Ethics
Marketing
Author/Blogger Relationships
Social Responsibility
Writing/Building Content

Registration

Last year I registered as “Press” because that’s what we are. Press badge registration is FREE so if the cost of registering was stopping you from attending, now it’s not!

Questions? Feel free to ask them here or shoot me an email at bookreviewsbyjess (@) gmail.com

I hope to be attending BEA this year, but I’m not 100% sure yet if I will (most likely will, but for only one day).

If you’re going and know what day or days you’ll be there let me know!

Books To Read, Conferences

BEA 2009 Wrap Up

Posted on June 7, 2009 by Jess (The Cozy Reader)

Yeah, I’ve been hording my BEA wrap-up from you!

Lets start at the beginning:

Friday my car was in the shop getting some repairs. I got a call mid-day Friday letting me know it would NOT be ready to pick up until Monday. I’m supposed to leave for NYC Saturday morning at 4:00 AM! I rushed to find a rental car. It wasn’t a big issue but it did increase my BEA budget significantly ($108). Not too crazy but I wasn’t expecting to spend more than $100 on the entire trip.

Friday night was crazy. I wanted to go to bed no later than 9:00 pm. I went to bed at 12:00 am! I then got up at 3:30 am, showered and started on my 4 hour trip to NYC. It took me 5 hours to get to NYC! My stomach was a mess. I’m assuming lack of sleep, nerves, and just plain excitement had everything to do with it. I made several stops along the way, only ran into one accident on the interstate and only made one wrong turn in the city.

I paid $50 for parking right across the street from the Javits, which was awesome cause I unloaded my heavy ass bag full of books mid-day into the car! 🙂 The parking was scary though. The lot was sooo small! The guy sardined the cars onto the lot and I about had a heart attack because it was a rental car he was parking so close together with the other cars! Geesh! All was well though. The guy was a sweetheart.

When I first arrived I picked up my badge and the lovely BEA Bible. I ventured into the exhibit hall and sighed in relief. I made it. I was here on personal/blog business and I was going to have fun and grab some amazing books! I referred to my “to-do” list and set out to conquer my conquests.

My first stop was the Penguin booth to grab a signed copy of Fire by Kristin Cashore. The signing was being held in the “traditional” area, which was downstairs in the children’s section. I got in line and left with a signed copy of Fire! 🙂 (NOTICE: It’s not in my picture because I’ve lent it to my good friend Kevin, who lent me Graceling.)

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After that I browsed the children’s exhibits and then headed upstairs until it was time to go to the Harlequin booth to pick up two amazing books by two of my most favorite authors! Rachel Vincent and Gena Showalter! They were both signing at the same time at the Harlequin booth. So I had to pick who’s line to get in first! Such a dilemma because I hated to pick! But it really was easy because, I’m like, obsessed with Rachel Vincent and all of her books are just amazing, Gena’s are too but Gena’s books have never hit me as hard as Rachel’s. When an author brings me to tears they are forever going to be at the top of my favorites list and the first author I’m going to read when it comes down to picking. So, there I was in line to get a signed copy of My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent. I knew she would recognize me once I showed her my badge. And I was right. It was such a pleasure to meet her in person. I only wish I could have “talked” with her or had my picture taken with her. I also picked up a very cool white MSTT t-shirt. I wore it while I read it. 🙂 I finished MSTT in one day and will be posting my review one week before it’s release day in coordination with Rachel and a giveaway. So stay tuned! 🙂

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After I grabbed my copy of MSTT I jumped in Gena’s line. She too knew who I was. I only stalk my favorite authors. 😉 It was great to grab a copy of Intertwined by Gena Showalter. I really want to read it and will probably make it my next couple of books to read. (I really need to read Witch Fury by Anya Bast! She was so kind to send me a copy before it’s release date but I put it aside. Sorry Anya! :() Anyhow, I’m super excited about Intertwined.

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Those two books were my must haves of BEA. I spent the next hour or so browsing the booths. I grabbed a few other books before my scheduled “blogger signing” at the NetGalley-Firebrand booth.

The signing was great. I meet a few fellow bloggers and publishers as well as some authors. My time was scheduled with Smart Bitches, Trashy Books Sarah Wendell, who got a ton of people to come see her, which only benefited me! 🙂 Thanks Sarah! A few pictures were taken during that time. One shows the amazing “trading cards” that were created, printed and available for us to “sign” for our visitors by Glatfelter Paper, Melissa Klug @PermanentPaper.

And here’s a picture of Sarah and I (I didn’t know it was being taken, obviously).

The signing was fun and I thank Mr. Fran Toolan @ftoolan for the opportunity to have a presence at BEA! Connect with Follow the Reader #followreader on their blog.

After the signing I continued to browse the booths. I soon meet up with an online friend and aspiring author, Lacey. Lacey and I meet years ago on, strangely, an online multi-player shoot’em up game Counter-Strike, which I still play. She was a blast to send a few hours with. We walked the children’s section mostly, because that’s her specialty. She’s currently working on a young adult novel. Check out her website, which I just LOVE! Thanks Lacey for meeting up with me. It was a pleasure to meet you in person! 🙂

I ventured over to the Blogger Panel. I didn’t stay very long because it was 2:00 and I hadn’t eaten yet. It was cool to see the panel of bloggers representin’ us bloggers. I’m proud that we are being recognized as a legitimate and very influential marketing tool. We do deserve some recognition and praise for our hard work to get the word out about the books and authors. I ended up spending $13 for a very crappy Chinese lunch. 🙁

The very last thing I wanted to accomplish before leaving BEA was obtaining a copy of Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. I did and I was sooo excited! I read Shiver right after My Soul to Take and I’ve already posted my review of it too.

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I left shortly after obtaining Shiver.

Overall, BEA was a blast. I got everything BUT Another Faust while at BEA. I requested a copy of Another Faust from Dina, one of the authors, via email when I got back home. I ended up with two copies some how. So, I’m going to have a contest for my extra copy this week.