After years of wanting to go, this year I finally made it to BEA. It is as overwhelming as everyone makes it out to be. The Ginormous Javitz Center was filled up with book-lovers and book-enthusiasts. It was awesome and weird to be surrounded by all the literary population in the country. So many connections and conversations were priceless. I met publicists, editors, authors and bloggers. I made new friends and saw many of my Texas bloggers too. And most of all, I got to see New York city.
Browsing through the booths at BEA I realized immediately that it was quite different from the several ALA and TLA conferences I had been to in the past. Booths are much more elaborated and the main focus is conversation. Galleys are mostly given out under schedules and lines are longer and numerous. To an amateur like me, with little to no schedule made beforehand, many opportunities passed without me knowing. Often you must pick and choose wisely where to go next since many YA signings or galley drops are scheduled at the same time.
The BEA app was moderately helpful, and I could always count on other bloggers letting me know where they were headed so I could make my on-the-spot schedule. And yes, even though I strongly recommend bringing your schedule from home, I still had a great time wandering around like a lost puppy and finding the most awesome people and books by mere chance.
Some of the huge lines I did were for top buzz titles like Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell at MacMillan or Crown of Midnight by Sarah Maas. Probably the longest line I stuck out was for The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey. The lines pass by quickly when you're enjoying yourself talking to awesome bloggers aka Susan from Waste Paper Prose or Emily from Emily's Reading Room. Which brings me to how I finally met Emily-- in the line for our beloved Cinda Williams Chima! We were fangirling over the Seven Realms series for a long while before I realized who she was! So many times we've gushed about that series on Twitter that it was only fitting that we met that way. I also got to meet the lovely Romily Bernard, debut author of HarperTeen's Find Me. We've been twitter friends for a while so that was pretty exciting too.
Another experience I fully enjoyed was the Harlequin Blogger Breakfast which I was lucky enough to get invited to. They were super duper welcoming, their top YA authors were there! (such as Julie Kagawa and Katie McGarry). There was more than enough food for everyone and we got to talk to the Harlequin staff and authors about the industry and the books.
I was also witness to some terrible author behavior in one of the longest lines. A well-known YA author cut the line right in front of me, in a line where copies were counted. The publisher's person-in-charge almost didn't let her but she made a big fuzz... and they ended up letting her!! I was struggling to keep my calm and play it cool but I had to mention it here because it really bothered me. Everyone's time is equally valuable and it is very unfair that a person who stood there for probably an hour longer than this author did, will not get a copy of said book. And this behavior from an author? You can be sure I wont ever be reading her books.
First book I read after BEA? David Levithan's Two Boys Kissing of course! And I obviously took yet another picture with him for the collection. Can't wait to read all the rest of my books and cant wait for next year's BEA! Hopefully, I will see you there next year :)
It was so LOVELY getting to see you in person! I must confess I was very relieved to have you there b/c I was firmly convinced no one was going to show up :)
ReplyDeleteAnd you got to meet David Levithan?! How amazing is that? I adore his stuff.
BEA definitely lived up (and exceeded) all the hype. It was like nothing I've ever attended before. And all the excitement? Wow. It was beyond awesome to be surrounded with people who all love the same stuff. It was a reader's dream come true.
Looking forward to your upcoming reviews. You scored a fantastic haul!
Actually, it's funny, I've met David countless times and I'm always stalking him to get a picture. So I have a collection of pictures with him and now as soon as he sees me he's like "picture?" lol
DeleteAnd it was super duper fun meeting you and I'm looking forward to reading Find Me pretty soon! :)
It was so much fun to meet you Sabrina! And to stand in line through that Rick Yancey craziness. I'm so glad that your cupcake made it safely back to your daughter. My daughter flipped out over that pigeon foam finger. She takes it everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you missed the DOON signing on Thursday. I'm a fan of the blog - especially the weekly spotlight - and would've loved to meet you. Maybe next year...
ReplyDeleteBTW - it was my first BEA too. Wasn't it incredible?
DeleteTotally incredible! Yes, next year we'll meet :)
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ReplyDeleteBEA, was awesome! It was also my first BEA. I was exhausted for a solid week.
ReplyDeleteIt was so nice to meet you on Saturday while waiting in the long Never Fade line =) Hope you had a good trip home!
ReplyDeleteSeems like you had a great time! I really want to go one day:) PS: New follower here!
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