I haven’t done a lot of actual blogging this week, but I have been partaking in blog related things all week and I am just now feeling recuperated enough to start sharing it all with you. As many of you know, I went to NYC this week for BEA. I navigated my way by car, train and finally foot to reach the Javits Center on Thursday – and was totally unprepared for what I found! I checked in and picked up my name tag – it was so exciting to see my blog name and “press” beneath it. Then we set off.
The place was HUGE and I was so visually over stimulated that I didn’t know where to start. My boyfriend, Nick (from Lions and Men), and I walked in circles around the place just to try to figure out the lay of the land and where the different publishers were that we had pre-planned to stop at. We met up with Allie (from Hist-Fic Chick) around 1:30ish and from there set off on a great adventure. Each booth handled themselves differently: some just threw books at you indiscriminately, others hoarded them in cabinets and you had to be very direct to get a copy of anything. Allie and I found that if we went and talked to someone together, we usually got a more favorable response than we had previously on our own.
It was a little difficult to find historical fiction books. As I said previously, the layout of the floor was by publisher. So you had to figure out which publishers carried our type of books and then find them. Another difficulty was that many of them hadn’t really brought their hist-fic with them, Sourcebooks being one. But, I did talk to many of the publisher reps and was given people to get in contact with for review copies if they didn’t have any with them.
I was also able to hit up 2 author signings, both happened to be at Random House. Allie had wanted to go to Jennifer Donnelly, with her new book, Revolution, which started at 1:30. Nick and I got in line, because it started forming early, to hold places. I got a book signed for myself and Nick got Allie’s signed for her – as traffic near the Javits was pretty bad and Allie got there a little late. Then later Allie and I stood in a MASSIVE line that wrapped around on itself several times, for Sara Gruen’s new book Ape House. Allie and I also got our pictures taken with Nigel Barker from Project Runway (I don’t have the picture yet) and I got a picture of Tony Hawk.A few of the books that I picked up at BEA:
Cleopatra: A Biography by Stacy Schiff (Thanks to Little, Brown and Company at Hachette) Release date: November 1, 2010.
The Wolves of Andover by Kathleen Kent (Also thanks to Little, Brown and Company at Hachette) Release date: November 8, 2010.
Prisoners in the Palace by Michaela MacColl (Thanks to Chronicle Books) Release date: August 18, 2010.
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly (Thanks to Random House) Release date: October 12, 2010.
Ape House by Sara Gruen (Thanks to Random House) Release date: September 7, 2010.
After we got our fill of books on the BEA floor (and our feet were killing us) we went down to the Author’s Reception for the Book Blogger Convention. There were so many authors and bloggers there. I did have a couple of those great moments where other bloggers came up and said “I love you blog!”. That really felt so awesome! I had the opportunity to meet Stephanie Cowell, author of Claude & Camille and our April HFBRT event, as well as Susan Holloway Scott, author of many books including the upcoming Countess and the King and our September HFBRT event. I also met Kris Waldherr, author of Doomed Queens (I also found an awesome set of playing cards based on this book and will definitely be checking them out).
Friday was all about bloggers and blogging at Book Blogger Convention. There were sessions all day about “Creating Content”, “Author/Blogger Relations”, “Ethics” etc. Many of these were very informative and I will have a post upcoming this week about the things that I learned during this trip. It was so good to have bloggers and industry people in the same room. We were able to learn from each other what some of the frustrations are and how we can work better together. I think this was such an important event for book bloggers. It was also awesome to be together with a group of people who are doing the same thing that I do. Normally blogging is such an individual endeavor – but this experience was AWESOME! We also got a huge bag of swag on the way out. There were two great historical type books included:
Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart (a memoir, thanks to Harper Collins). I am so excited to read this one!
The Great Lover by Jill Dawson (thanks to Harper Collins) Release date: June 1, 2010
Right after the Convention ended, Nick and I had to run right out to catch the train back home, so we didn’t have the opportunity to hang out with people after the event. But I met so many great bloggers and made some valuable connections. It is definitely a worthwhile event to attend!
Copyright © 2010 by The Maiden’s Court
Sounds like a whole heap of fun! Jennifer Donnelly would have been on my must meet list! Disappointing that there wasn't a lot of HF there, but I still would have been in book heaven!
ReplyDeleteI was able to get to BEA on thursday and I have to agree that those first few steps inside were overwhelming! I also wanted to make sure I was able to get a copy of Jennifer Donnelly's Revolution AND Ape House by Sara Gruen (I was #79 in line). I love historical fiction and didn't see too much of that myself, but sounds like you had a great time anyway! Wish I could have stayed for BBC, but had to get going! Next year though! Wow, a great bag of SWAG!
ReplyDeleteIt was great to meet you this past week! BTW, did you get a copy of M.L. Malcolm's book? I can't remember the name but it was a WWI-era hist-fic and it looks really good to me. :)
ReplyDeleteMarg- it was absolutely book heaven - there were books or book people EVERYWHERE you turned!
ReplyDeleteSuzanne- I hadn't heard of Jennifer Donnelly until Allie told me she wanted to go - I was number 8 in that line. For Sara Gruen I am pretty sure they stopped numbering at that point, haha.
Heather J- It was great to meet you too! I didn't get M. L. Malcolm's book, Heart of Lies, but I actually have an email from the publicist for a review of it, so I am definately going to go for it! Thanks for reminding me!
I am glad you both had such a good time. It is such a huge facility, it would be hard to find where you wanted to be and then to get there.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a great time! I wish I could have went and got to meet some of my favorite hist. fic. bloggers! And I didn't know that Nick was your boyfriend. I follow his blog too!
ReplyDeleteLibraryPat - It was so overwhelming. At least they had numbered rows to at least give you an idea of where you were going. But then the trick was to remember what was where!
ReplyDeleteMichelle - Yup, Nick is my boyfriend of almost 4 years. So glad you follow his blog too! It would have been awesome to meet you!
I'm jealous since I didn't get a copy of the Donnelly - I wanted one, but by the time I noticed the signing, the line was crazy long and waiting would've made me late for something else! I did get the Cleopatra bio and Wolves of Andover, though.
ReplyDeleteIt was great meeting you... I can't wait to see your review of Prisoners in the Palace. That was one I missed.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you enjoyed the day at BBC. The best part (for me) was being able to hang out with other bloggers for awhile and talk "shop". Hope you join us again next year!
ReplyDeleteBooksexyreview.com - I had such a good time getting to chat with you!
ReplyDeleteMichelle - I loved getting to chat with people who do the same thing as me. I hope to come back again!
It sounds like you had an awesome time. I am hoping by reading a lot of the posts about BEA that I will be ready for it next year. It sounds like I can schedule all I want but in the end I have to be very flexible.
ReplyDeleteThe books you got look awesome!