Rick Riordan was not ironing clothes yesterday. He was traveling home from Book Expo America.
You know, I don't even care about banquets. Or a booksigning for that matter. I want to wander around. I imagine BEA as being like going to the fair except that instead of booths full of farm equipment and sand candles, there are booths full of books. In the afternoon, there's a clear, sunny sky overhead. When it gets dark, the midway lights up. And there's carny music.
It just sounds so wonderful.
Today while I was painting my dining room, I heard a report on the BEA on the radio. Cruel, cruel, cruel.
Thanks to Book Moot for rubbing it in with that Rick Riordan link.
It's even more wonderful than that, because the books are all free. There are, of course, the ARCs, but for the booksigning? With the "real" books? That at ALA you have to pay for? At BEA, are, I repeat, FREE. (So for some books its not so much the signature as the autograph booths being the way to get the book. For free. But I mentioned that already, but I am so not used to that.)
ReplyDeleteNext year is in NYC, and I am already marking it on my calendar (and trying to figure out how to get all the stuff home).
And the swag is good; some awesome tote bags (real cloth tote bags!), the usual pens and magnets, but it's also cool because there are some interesting marketing ideas for books. Like Gail Carson Levine's ARC came in a sweet box that included a mirror (the book is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty).
What else? Oh, the ARCS weren't all available at the same time; meaning, to get all the available ARCs one needed to go back to the same place.
The cool people (that is, not me) also go to cool parties (check out Cecil Castelllucci's blog).
I didn't go to any of the seminars/ classes, but the exhibits alone were exhausting.
Thanks, a lot Liz. You don't have any stories about having to stand in long lines? Rude people? Traffic? Having to go for long periods of time without food?
ReplyDeleteI can't believe it's going to be in New York again so soon. I will definitely have to try to do something about this.