Being an extreme book lover I had always wanted to go to Book Expo America even though it’s more about selling and publishing. But let’s face it. It’s every book lovers dream. Tons of books in one place.
Since I’m not working for a bookstore or a library, I knew I couldn’t go normally, but this year BEA offered something called a Power Reader pass for the last day of the expo. I went back and forth on if I wanted to buy a pass because it was in the middle of the week, but New York Comic Con sent out a tweet for free power reader badges. I figured that by the time I had seen the tweet they would all be gone, but I wouldn’t know until I tried. So I clicked the link and entered my registration info and *poof* I had a free Power Reader badge.
Having been to the Javits Center before for New York Comic Con, I kind of assumed the layout of the floor area would be somewhat similar. I really wasn’t prepared for how massive it was. Whereas Comic Con is more about lots of booths in a space, lots of publishers have what would have been multiple booth areas at NYCC. Even for the last day, BEA was a little crowded but it was nowhere near NYCC crowds.
The big thing was there were books everywhere. I just wanted to go and touch them all. I also wanted them all. Think about it BEA is a fantastic way to try new genres. I really had no idea what to expect with BEA so I just did what I do best and wander around.
The only thing I didn’t like about being a Power Reader is that they didn’t really prep you on what to expect at BEA or even where to go to say socialize with other Power Readers. They didn’t even really tell us how to talk to publishers. I know the main goal of BEA, is sell, sell, sell, but a little guidance would have been nice. I felt like I was being tossed into a gauntlet with no help what so ever.
Though I will admit it is nice having Power Readers on the last day of BEA. A lot of publishers don’t want to ship their stuff back home. So it was awesome to be able to just get a lot of stuff, because they didn’t want to take it home. (OK, so I had to figure out how to haul my butt back to Penn Station and get on the train to Secaucus but that’s beside the point). I also got a nice calendar from Ellora’s Cave (shirtless guys, can’t complain). It also seemed to me that the most relaxed of all the people there were the ones in the romance/erotic publishing genres. So it was nice to talk to people at both Ellora’s Cave and Dreamspinner Press for a little while. It helped to make me not as nervous.
All in all I got to meet a couple authors, got some signed books, and a lot of arcs and a lot of the Dreamspinner Press booth. While I know what to expect now, the big question will be if I attend next year.
I’m torn. I want to but BEA has moved to the weekend, and it’s the same weekend at Philadelphia Comic Con. Though I have a feeling, I’ll be going to BEA because in the long run it’s cheaper to go there for the day then the weekend of the convention. Plus now that I’m getting more into blogging maybe I’ll go and blog about it a lot sooner than right now.
i’m sure you told me this was the same weekend as Philly Comic Con. Rachel REALLY wants to go to PCC again, so that’s where I’ll probably be, too!
Since I’ll most likely be jobless still, I can’t justify a weekend convention. Even though I don’t have to pay for hotel or anything. Though my initial plans were to go to Philly Comic Con, Thurs, Fri, and Sunday, and skip Philly Comic Con on the busiest day so I don’t get cranky at stupid people and go to BEA Power Reader last day. It’ll be less crowded since it’s the last day, and I would satisfy both my geeky loves.
But I’m not making any plans for anything in 2013.
i have a few questions because i’m planning to go as a power reader this year:
1. how much money should i bring (the thing is that i’m planning to go to the Boston Anime Convention the week before and i don’t know how much to save for the Book Expo)?
2. free book copies (i know i feel ashamed) how long do they last?
3. what kind of giveaways were there?
4. how much are the books?
Since I live an hour and a half away, I drove up to Seacaucus, New Jersey, and took the train into NYC (the train was $8 round trip and it was $19 to park at the parking lot). I don’t know if you are planning on staying in the city or what not. Also subway rides in NYC are around $2.10 I think. Taxi’s of course more expensive. Also what do you plan on eating? If you plan to eat in the Javit’s center food is ridiculously over priced. (A 20oz bottle of Coke was nearly $5). So maybe planning for food at a restaurant in the area of the Javits center might be good.
All of the books I received at BEA were physical books, no digital copies of anything. And they are still currently sitting in my apartment waiting patiently to be read 3/4 a year later.
Types of giveaways, lots of stuff. different booths had different things. Some were little tote bags filled with posters, stickers, pins, etc. Others were books, My advice would be check a list of publishers at BEA, decide which publishers you want to see and then when you get there, I think I had some kind of schedule book that listed giveaways, for that day. And if it didn’t, I would check out that publishers booth to see if they had anything listed.
Again, I got all the books last year for free. I’m sure there are a couple places there looking for sales, and I don’t know what they were, because that was one of the things, I wasn’t good at asking, hey is it free, what does it cost, what do I have to do. Just remember BEA PowerReader day is the last day of the expo and by the last day, towards the end of the day, lots of publishers are looking to off load their stuff so they don’t have to pay to ship it back home with them, so towards the end, they’ll just be like take it, we don’t want to ship it back. (That’s how I scored my Dreamspinner Press haul, they were tearing the stand down, and went you like m/m romance books, here take what you can carry. So I did.)
If you want you can email me at nlforst (at) gmail (dot) com if you would like to talk more about it.