BEA: Tips for Your First Time

Okay, I know that BEA was awhile ago, but it's been so crazy that I'm just now getting around to posting this! 

This was my first time attending Book Expo America and I got some great advice beforehand from many different bloggers. As I went through the conference, I kept thinking of little nuggets that I'd like to share with any BEA newbies. So, while it's fresh on my mind (and to be linked to in later years), here are my BEA tips for first-timers:

1. Bloggers can register as press for FREE. This gets you into the exhibits! Also, new this year was Book Blogger Con and registration for BBC granted you access to the exhibits, as well. Definitely check into this, especially if you're funding your own way (as so many of us are!). I discovered this through Book Bites (and I wish I had discovered it before I paid my nonrefundable $95.00 to register for BEA...).

2. Bring business cards!! I really can't emphasize this enough. Bloggers, especially, should consider having business cards made. What better place to promote your site than at a book industry event like this? If a publisher agrees to send you an ARC they don't have with them, they'll expect you to have a card to give them. While you're waiting in line or going to a dinner or breakfast, have cards to hand out as you introduce yourself. I got mine at Vistraprint. They are very affordable, shipped very quickly, and have lots of cute designs to choose from.You can tuck them in your name badge holder to have at the ready.

3. Wear flip-flops if you want to. The main thing to understand is that you'll be on your feet for several hours at a time. Wear whatever is going to make you comfortable. I'll have you know that I was in thick-soled flip-flops both days and my feet were fine.

4. I heard several places that attendees would not be allowed to bring bags with them into the exhibits. This is not true (at least, it was not true this year). Yes, many booths have canvas bags to hand out, so you might just want to pick up one of those. But if you want to bring your own bags, you may. You may not bring rolling things (suitcases, carts, etc.). But you can bring a rolling suitcase and check it at the baggage check for $3.00 and then come back to visit it and drop off books. This is convenient if you're local and don't want to ship stuff or if you just want to fill up your carry-on bag for the plane!

5. Visit booths at several points during the day because they may be putting out different ARCs at different times. Every publisher is different - some bring only the galleys that will be signed by authors during the show, some bring a wider selection. It seemed like this year most publishers only brought ARCs from their fall catalogs (not from summer/spring). If you want to know if/when they'll be giving out a particular title, ASK! Publishers are happy to answer those questions and it gives you a good "in" to strike up a conversation if you want to.

6. If you're looking for a galley that you don't see sitting out anywhere, ask (politely!). For me, that conversation went something like this:

Me: Excuse me, will y'all have copies of The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, & June?
Pub: No, we don't have that with us today. I'm sorry.
Me: Oh, that's fine! Is there any chance you could send me one?
Pub: Sure!
Me: Thank you so much! [Hands business card.] I blog at Abby the Librarian.com and my mailing info is on this card. I really appreciate it!

I made a huge list of a hundred books I wanted to look for, but if I did it again, I'd trim that list down to maybe one or two galleys per publisher that I really, REALLY wanted. I felt shady asking a publisher for a whole huge list of books, so I'd ask for the one I was most looking forward to and I'd take copies of what they had to hand out (i.e. the books they intended to promote at the show!). I'm so looking forward to going through my boxes to look at the books that I hadn't heard about prior to the convention.

7. Talk to publishers! In the morning of the first day, there was a huge, mad crush of people and it seemed like it was going to be impossible to talk to anyone. That calmed down after awhile and then it was so nice to be able to talk to publishers, introduce myself, and share my blog with them. If you need a conversation starter, ask them what their favorite books in the fall line are. Ask if there are any books they think deserve more buzz than they're getting. Comment on a favorite cover that you see in the publisher's booth. And, bloggers, be prepared to answer the question, "What do you blog about?" Come up with one line that describes your blog. "I review YA and middle-grade fiction and non-fiction, and I post about library programs and other library things." Y'know, for example.

8. Yes, everyone is excited to visit the big booths with their stacks of ARCs, but don't forget the smaller booths! And don't be afraid to take books from and talk to publishers you haven't heard of! While the big houses might be busy fending questions from a hundred people and setting out stacks of galleys for the next giveaway, smaller houses might be a little more laid-back and have time to talk to you, answer questions, and promote their upcoming books.

9. Make friends in line! The 30-60 minutes you're standing in line for a signing or a breakfast or to enter the exhibits will go much more quickly if you have someone to talk to while you wait. Everyone's got a name badge that has their location and their affiliation (be it librarian, bookseller, blogger, etc.), so that gives you an immediate conversation starter. And who knows who you might meet? For bloggers, this is a great time to gently promote your blog to people who will be interested in your subject matter - after all, you're hunting the same book, right? So you have at least some similar tastes.

10. Make use of the shipping area. To be honest, this was my favorite place in the whole exhibit hall. :) They have a huge room with lots of tables. Get a box or two or three (for free), put your name on it, and find a place on the tables. As you go through the exhibits and your bag gets heavy with books, visit the shipping area to unload them into your box. When the box is full, there are kind people who will take your box over to the weighing area. You'll fill out a shipping form and pay for the shipping and you won't have to lug home a million pounds of books! This is especially helpful for out-of-towners (like myself). The shipping is not cheap, but it didn't seem exorbitant either. This year, there was a $35.00 flat fee per box, plus shipping costs based on the weight. A full box cost $55-$65 (depending on the weight). For me, the shipping room was a little oasis when I needed a break from the madness of the hall. I found that as my bag got heavier, I'd get crankier. I'd get to a point where I needed to stop snapping at my friends and go unload my bags. Then I'd feel like a whole new person (and ready to go grab some more galleys)!

I had a great time overall at BEA and I'm already thinking about what I would do differently the next time I go. Anyone else have BEA tips to share? Leave 'em in the comments!

BEA 2010: The Loot!

I shipped the vast majority of my Book Expo "loot" and my boxes arrived on Wednesday! Since 1) I thought those of you that didn't get to go might want to live vicariously and 2) I like seeing pictures of other people's loot, I thought I'd record video of the box-opening festivities and share it with y'all.

Just a note: I only really talk about a handful of the titles I collected. There were many, MANY other great books in the boxes. However, if I had talked about every book about which I was excited, the video would have been about 3 hours long. :)





Books mentioned in this video:

Waiter Rant by Steve Dublanica
The American Painter Emma Dial by Samantha Peale
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach
Zombies Vs. Unicorns, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
Splendor by Anna Godbersen
Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen
Halo by Alexandra Adorentto
Matched by Allie Condie
Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin

PS: This is my first (and only) vlog! (If I get a decent webcam someday, I will make more. I kinda liked it!)

BEA Recap #4

(Hey, don't miss the first, second, and third installments of my Book Expo recap!)

Just a few more thoughts about BEA 2010.

All the publisher reps I spoke with were extremely nice (and very brave to put up with the mad crowds). A couple get special mention. Bloomsbury/Walker was the first booth I got to that had a really nice selection of ARCs and very enthusiastic people there to talk them up. While all the booths were nice, Bloomsbury/Walker gets the Niceness Award.

Runner up for the Niceness Award was Disney/Hyperion. I stopped to ask about a summer galley and they didn't have a copy. I should have nicely asked if they'd send me one, but I was overwhelmed at that point and just thanked them and left the booth. Well, one of the reps chased after me down the aisle to offer to send it to me.

Also, I have to give honorable mention to both Egmont USA and Llwellyn/Flux for their extremely enthusiastic reps. I so enjoyed talking to them and hearing about the books they were excited about.

The Crazy-Ridiculousness Award goes to Little, Brown. For some reason, both mornings this was where ALL the people were. People were literally shoulder-to-shoulder, pushing against each other, trying to go both ways and grab all the books they could. On Wednesday, I couldn't take it and had to escape the crowd, but on Thursday I braved the madness and just pushed on through. Brava to the brave reps from Little, Brown who did not run screaming from the mob.

Honorable mention for the Crazy-Ridiculousness Award goes to HarperCollins and Disney/Hyperion. Their aisle was front-and-center when people walked in the main entrance and it was a mob scene, too.

Winner of the Best Thing at the Conference is the shipping area. Like I've said before, it was my oasis and helped me lighten my load and become less cranky. A VERY close runner-up for Best Thing at the Conference was Library Journal's Librarians' Lounge. Not only was their sign properly punctuated, but they had FREE FOOD. They had bagels and muffins and coffee and water... All for free! Rather than chalk up $12+ for lunch, we just grabbed free bagels on Thursday. And we didn't even have to leave the conference center.

And Candlewick gets the On The Ball Award because on I received my first requested-at-BEA book from them on Tuesday, June 1!  Way to be on the ball, Candlewick (and thank you)! (Incidentally, the book in question is Stork by Wendy Delsol, a debut author. I am very excited!)

And that about wraps up my BEA experience. WHEW! Check out my travelmates' BEA recaps: Jen (BEA Highs and Lows and BEA Pictures) and Kelly (part 1, part 2, and part 3).

BEA Recap #3

(Hey, this is the third installment of my Book Expo recap. Don't miss the first and second installments!)

Thursday dawned cloudy and cooler (thank goodness!) than Wednesday. Jen was up early to get ready for the Adult Author Breakfast, emceed by Jon Stewart. The rest of us followed suit and we arrived at the Javits around 8:00. We were even farther back in the line on Thursday than we were on Wednesday! But I had mellowed out after a better night's sleep. I brought my suitcase and checked it so that we could make a speedy departure* to the airport to make our flights.

Thursday was better for me. I think it was mostly because I knew what to expect. I knew it was going to be absolutely crazy and I told myself that I was just going to pick up any books that looked interesting. On Wednesday, I had been very concerned with "getting my money's worth" and scoring enough titles on my list to make up for the $600+ that I spent to be at the conference. This is destructive thinking (and so shouldn't be the point of the event). On Thursday, I was able to let that go and just pick up books that looked interesting. It was a much better day for me (and probably for my companions, as well). It helps that Thursday was a smidgen less crazy. I actually met some of my publisher contacts while I was standing in line (NOT "on line") for things. And that was super cool. :)

I got separated from my companions almost immediately as we headed for HarperCollins and Disney/Hyperion first and then swung through Little, Brown. For some reason**, Little, Brown was an absolutely madhouse. I mean, wall-to-wall people. The people working the booth looked a little scared of us. Everyone was going every which way and it was crazy. But we got some good books. :)

I lost Kelly and Kim after that and I headed down to set up my box for the day (I love that shipping room!).I drew Batty on my box so that I could easily recognize it:

I wandered a bit, heading over to Candlewick, and then Jen was done with the breakfast and I met up with her. The two of us wandered. The only can't-miss thing on my agenda for Thursday was to get to Simon & Schuster and pick up an ARC of Forge, which Laurie Halse Anderson was signing. And I did it! I got in line about half an hour before her signing time and I was about 6th or 7th from the front.

Ms. Anderson was extremely nice and, when she saw I'm a blogger, she asked if I had reviewed any of her books and she asked me to email her a link if I review Forge. Of course, I happily agreed! I loved, loved, loved Chains and it ends on something of a cliffhanger, so I'm overjoyed to have Forge!***

After that, my day was made! Jen and I wandered over to the autographing areas and stood in a few short lines before we had to RUN to get everything done before our shuttle to the airport arrived. We divided and conquered to get our boxes packed up and shipped, get our suitcases out of the baggage check, and meet the shuttle...

...which turned out to be really funny when, after arriving at the airport by 3:00 or so and waiting for our respective 5:00 flights, they were both canceled due to weather and we ended up spending another night in New York. Argh. As stressful as that was, I'm glad that Jen was stuck with me and we could split a hotel room and spend one last night together!! We even ordered New York style pizza****! Yum!

I got up at 5am on Friday to catch my 8am flight back to Louisville. The lines were insane and they oversold my flight, but luckily I made it home, a mere 24 hours after we left the convention center and started our trek.

The most annoying thing? I passed on Book Blogger Con because it was going to be so much money to switch my flight and because I didn't want to spend the money on another night in a hotel. If I had known I'd have to stay anyway, I could have finished out my day at BEA and then stayed for Book Blogger Con! Oh, well.

So, BEA. It was a complete whirlwind. Absolute madness. But I'm so glad I went. It was great to meet up with so many cool people - bloggers and publicists. I can finally put faces to some of those names I see in my email! Will I go again? I think I will if I can trim the cost down a bit. I can't afford to spend this much money (and be away from work right when our Summer Reading Club is starting) every year. But, who knows... maybe I'll find some cheap plane tickets and coerce a NY friend into letting my stay with him... It could happen. :)

Coming soon: pics of the loot! Here's a little preview of the swag and a few of the books that I stuck in my carry-on luggage (Forge and four of the books we were given at the librarian dinner):

And tomorrow, I'll have a few more tidbits to round out the recap.

*Hah. HAHAHA. 

** Maybe it's because they have good books there? Or maybe because LB was giving out middle-grade grab bags (they had given out YA grab bags the day before). The grab bags were kinda like chum in the water. In a good way

*** And I sat down and read the entire thing on Saturday. It was wonderful! Review to come...


**** I guess in NY they just call it "pizza".

BEA Recap #2

(Hey, this is my second recap of Book Expo America. Don't miss the first installment.) 

On Wednesday, Kelly, Kim, Jen, and I all woke up early and, though the exhibits didn't open until 9:00, we headed down there, arriving at the convention center at 8:15. Yeah, this is how far back we were in line:

You see that area right in the middle of the picture? Where you can kinda see the tiny, far-away lights of the convention hall? That's where the exhibits were. So we parked ourselves and came up with a game plan. We decided to hit up Penguin first and then the other big houses that were almost sure to have big giveaways at the start.

We counted down...

Jen demonstrated her excited, about-to-get-free-books dance:



And then it was 9:00 and they let us in to the hall.Yeah, I don't have any pictures of this part. You know why? Because it was mad crazy. It was throngs of people, all pushing against each other, all frantic for books. I don't even remember which books we picked up that first morning because it was so ridiculously crazy that I just took whatever was in a pile or thrust into my hands, stuffed it in my bag, and moved on.

It was about then that I realized that BEA was NOT going to be like the ALA Exhibits. It was a whole lot crazier than I expected. And on Wednesday it was pretty much crowded the entire day. The lines for autographs were insane (and the lines at the autographing area were extremely hard to manage - in places you had to push through four layers of people to even get to the line you wanted to be in). The in-booth autograph lines stretched way down the aisles, making navigating the main aisles somewhat difficult.

We quickly learned to cut down lesser-used aisles to avoid the crush*.

I was disappointed in the morning because the big booths were so crazy with people that it was impossible to talk to anyone. Many of the big publishers did not have a lot of different titles to give out (even if you asked), but only had hundreds of copies of the few galleys that were being signed at the show. This is absolutely fine, but it wasn't what I was expecting, so I was a little thrown.

After the mad rush of the morning, things calmed down a little bit. Also, we set up our boxes in the shipping room and lightened our loads a little. THE SHIPPING ROOM! This sounds ridiculous, but it was my favorite thing about BEA. It was calm down there. Quiet. You could go in and rest your ears for a little bit, unload your books, and go back to the hall with a bounce in your step. Also, everyone working there was very nice and helpful. I love the shipping room! Here's what it looked like:

Ahhh, the shipping room.

At some point in the morning, Jen and I met up with Sarah from The Reading Zone and we all traversed the booths together. Sarah is super awesome and I am so glad to have met her after all this time of reading her blog (and, last year, working on the Cybils with her!). We perused and scooped up ARCs and checked out the autographing lines until we were hungry and then we stopped for $8.00 crepes at a stand in the hall. We sat on the floor and ate them. :) The lovely Sarah Darer Littman (author of Confessions of a Closet Catholic and the upcoming Life, After**) joined us for a bit and it was nice to chat with her.

The afternoon was more of the same - scoping out books, requesting a few titles, and then my three original traveling companions and myself staked out the autograph lines. We stood in line for Zombies Vs. Unicorns, being signed by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier*** and then we stood in another long line for Anna Godbersen who, as it turns out, was signing Splendor and a sample chapter of her upcoming Bright Young Things. I remain hopeful that there will be ARCs of BYT to be had, but it wasn't available at this conference****.

After that, we were all pretty much beat and we headed back to the hotel. Jen and I ventured back out for KidLit Drink Night, but we were so hot and tired that we only stayed until about 8:30. There were a TON of people there (of whom I only recognized about three...). I did chat with Sheila of Wands and Worlds and Betsy of A Fuse #8 Production*****. If I had been braver, I would have chatted with a lot more people, but having dealt with the masses at BEA all day, I wasn't up to the task. I'm sorry to any of you that I missed! I promise that I will be more social at the next KidLit Drink Night I have the good fortune to attend. (Whenever that may be...)

I did have the pleasure of seeing Bobby, a friend of mine from library school, who works at the Brooklyn Public Library. By the way, please help him keep his job!! I hadn't seen him in several years, so it was lovely to get together with him.  

We all collapsed into bed at about 9:00pm, half excited about and half dreading the next day...

*Although the crush was kind of useful in some cases: "There's a bunch of people over there! They must be giving out something good! Let's go get it!"

** Which I have on my TBR shelf - I will make sure I get to it. It has a beautiful cover and Sarah gave me a poster of it!! 


*** Who asked if we were Team Unicorn or Team Zombie. TEAM UNICORN, ALL THE WAY!! In fact, at my last library I was *captain* of Team Unicorn!


**** Which was really disappointing at the time, especially as it had been listed in PW's Kids' Galleys to Grab list, BUT now that I am not exhausted and overwhelmed, I realize that I was being a brat and should not look free sample chapters in the mouth!! 


***** She is much taller than I thought she would be. And she had been to a Mockingjay party earlier in the evening - color me jealous!

BEA Recap #1

BEA! (That's Book Expo America, by the way.)

I'm so glad I went - for the people, for the books, for the experience. And since I'm a little unwilling to admit that the whole crazy affair is already over, here's the first part of my BEA recap. And as I go through these recaps, you are going to notice that I was almost completely overwhelmed and hardly took any photographs worth posting. I will do better at the next event I attend. I promise.

I flew into NYC on Tuesday, May 25, and met Kelly of Stacked and Jen of NerdGirlBlogging at the airport*. We high-tailed it to our lovely hotel (the Wyndham Garden Hotel**) where Kim of Stacked was blithely napping (lucky girl). After a little refreshment and getting to know each other, we zipped off to the AAP/LJ Librarians' Dinner.

The Dinner was wonderful. First of all, free food in New York is nothing to scoff at. Second of all, there were great people there. The four of us ended up sitting with three New York librarians*** and a book club lady. Thirdly, they had five fabulous authors speaking: Cory Doctorow, Rachel Vincent, Jane Green****, Anne Fortier, and Ann Brashares. Fourthly, we got our first free books of the conference (copies of each of the speaking authors' latest books)*****!

And yes, the food was terrible. My favorite thing was how the "vegetarian" meal was literally the same thing as the regular meal but without any chicken on the plate. Oy. But there was wine! And cake! And it was free, so I am not going to complain!

Librarians, this dinner is definitely something to be aware of if you're planning on attending BEA. This year was (I believe) the fourth year they held it and I hope they continue! Something that struck me is how nearly all the authors shared stories of beloved libraries/librarians from when they were kids. Children's librarians, what we do is IMPORTANT. If done correctly, it'll be something kids remember when they're all grown up and writing books of their own. 

We made it an early evening on Tuesday since we were all freakin' exhausted and we planned to be up early the next morning for the opening of the BEA Exhibits...

Continue reading about my BEA shenanigans in the second installment!

*Can I just say: LaGuardia? Not my favorite. I will navigate O'Hare with the best of 'em, but please spare me LaGuardia...

** Our stay was fabulous! It's three blocks from Javits, a reasonable price (I believe it was $180/night, split between four of us), and very nice. I super recommend them!

*** We realized that at our table were librarians from NY, IA, TX, WI, and KY.  

**** Who Tweeted me after! I feel so special!!
***** It was the *squee* heard 'round the world. :)

Real Quick Thoughts About BEA

Okay, I've hijacked J's computer so I could post a few real quick thoughts about BEA. My traveling companions have been lovely and I also had a great time today with Sarah from The Reading Zone. Sarah Darer Littman, author of the upcoming novel Life, After joined us for a mini lunch (8$ crepes eaten on the floor in the back of the exhibit hall!).

- BEA is crowded. OMG. I guess everything is a little more squashed together because it's all on one floor this year, but the signing lines were ridiculous. I still managed to get my hands on Zombies vs. Unicorns (signed by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier, among others!) and a couple other choice picks.

- I am somewhat disappointed by the number of galleys that are not here. I know that makes me sound like a complete brat (and I'm trying not to be, I swear!), but there are many publishers who only have a handful of different galleys that they're doing signings for. I mean, of course I'm grateful for free books and I am very grateful for the wonderful publicists who have offered to send me things (a few have done that!).

- Bloomsbury/Walker is the winner (thus far) for niceness. Very enthusiastic publicists, many ARCs available, no qualms about handing them out and talking them up. Nicely played, Bloomsbury/Walker.

- Runner up is Disney/Hyperion for the rep who chased after me to offer to send me the book I had asked about that they didn't have there.

- They're not the only ones who have been very nice. Actually, pretty much everyone has been extremely nice (especially after things settled down a little bit - the mad rush at the beginning was ridonkulous...).

- The shipping area!!! It's my favorite place at the convention! Free boxes, nice people to help you carry them to the table to be mailed, everyone respects everyone else's boxes... It is awesome. I have shipped one box home and I am hoping to have another big box to ship tomorrow.

- KidLit Drink Night was sooo much fun. There were about a million people there. I chatted with the lovely Sheila Ruth of Wands and Worlds and the indomitable Betsy Bird of A Fuse #8 Production, among others. We didn't stay terribly long because we were BEAT, but I'm so glad to have made an appearance.

And that's all I have time for right now. I'm going back to the exhibits tomorrow and hoping to scoop up a few more ARCs before we leave for the airport at 1 (and I begin the almost-12-hour journey home.... oy.....).

More later (including pictures!!!!) when I get home.

And I'm off!

Earlyearly this morning, I'm off to NYC for BEA!
I will try to update from the convention, but it depends on if I can steal someone's laptop for a minute.
I am bringing my camera and hope to have lots of awesome pictures and tales with which to regale you!

I've got a review or two scheduled to post this week, so just in case I can't update from the road, you'll know I'm thinking of you. ;)

Super Duper Waiting On Wednesday

Yes, I am one of the lucky ones going to Book Expo America next week*, so I thought that for Waiting on Wednesday today I'd share my Go Home Happy list. I have a fairly long list of books I'll be checking out, but there are the ones I'm particularly looking forward to. I don't know that all of them will be available at BEA, but I'll have my eyes out for them!

Going to BEA? You'll also want to check out Publisher's Weekly's Kids' Galleys to Grab!

Alvin Ho: Allergic to Birthday Parties, Science Projects, and Other Man-Made Catastrophes by Lenore Look (Schwartz & Wade, September 2010).
Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse, October 2010).
Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen (HarperCollins, October 2010).
The Candymakers by Wendy Mass (Little, Brown, October 2010). 
Clementine, Friend of the Week by Sara Pennypacker (Hyperion, July 2010).
Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn (Knopf Books for Young Readers, October 2010). 
Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin (Dial, September 2010).
The Extraordinary Secrets of April, June, and May by Robin Benway (Razorbill, August 2010).
Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson (Simon & Schuster's Children's Publishing, October 2010).
The Half-Life of Planets by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin (Hyperion, June 2010).
HALO by Alexandra Adornetto (Feiwel & Friends, September 2010).
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan (Hyperion, October 2010).
A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner (Dial, June 2010).
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, September 2010).
The Secret of Ka by Christopher Pike (Harcourt Children's Books, September 2010).
The Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt (Wendy Lamb Books, September 2010).
Zombies Vs. Unicorns, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (Margaret K. McElderry, September 2010).

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Breaking the Spine! Head on over there and check it out.

*And by "one of the lucky ones" I actually mean one of the ones using vacation days and shelling out $$ for a plane ticket, hotel room, etc. because I decided I wanted to go.

BEA Bound

I apologize to those readers not going to BEA (because I know how much that twinges - I went through it last year, which is why I made plans to attend BEA this year), but I'm going to take a minute here and send a shout-out to bloggers who are going to BEA next week. (If you're not able to come to BEA this year, do check out Armchair BEA!)

I will be there. Who else will be there? Can we arrange to get together?

ETA: I guess another good question to ask is how can we get in touch at the conference? I'm not going to post my phone number to the entire interwebs, but if you want my cell# so you can shoot me a text or something at the conference, just let me know! 

I now know that I was ridiculous when I attended the ALA Exhibits last year and I was all like "Hey, come find me! I'll be at the exhibits!". It was huge! And there's no way you could just FIND someone. (Although I did run into GreenBean TeenQueen and Wendy of Six Boxes of Books and I spotted Susan of Booklights from afar.) I'm still trying to work out some kind of feathered tiara or something so that I will be instantly recognizable.

I can tell you that I get into NYC Tuesday afternoon and I leave Thursday afternoon, so it'll be a whirlwind trip for me. (I'm so bummed to miss Book Blogger Con, I can't even tell you... but I bought  plane tickets before it was announced. Next year I will plan for it!) I am planning on attending Wednesday night's KidLit Drink Night and I believe my traveling companions and I will be hitting up Books of Wonder at some point.

(By the way, my traveling companions are Jen of NerdGirlBlogging and Kelly and Kimberly of Stacked.)

This is my first time attending BEA and I'm super excited. Drop me a comment if you're going to be there and let's figure out when/where we can meet up!