Countdown to BEA

The days are ticking down until me and the Slushpile.net posse rock da hizouse at Book Expo America. The nation’s largest publishing event, BEA attracts over 2,000 exhibits and publishers. I’ll be at the convention on Friday, so it might be a quiet day for my humble book blog. Hopefully, I’ll be able to catch up during some breaks over the course of the weekend. 

For all of our aspiring author readers out there, it’s debatable whether you should shell out the cash to attend the conference. The always wonderful Miss Snark says “No. Don’t go. Don’t even think about it.” She makes a valid point. This is a sales convention. While editors may be in attendance, they’re not there to discover a great new manuscript dropped on the bathroom floor. They’re usually there to promote their current authors and book projects. It’s not necessarily the best environment to walk around pitching your novel.

However, if I see a sign proclaiming “Half-a-mil Advances for Four Chapters of Your Teen Novel,” then I’ll lie about my age, post a shout here on Slushpile.net, and hold everyone a spot in line. I’ll keep an eye out for you and I promise to save you a place.

I’m looking forward to covering the event. It will be a chance to catch up with some old friends and finally meet some folks I’ve corresponded with but never met in person. And the convention is in my old stomping grounds of Washington, DC so it will be good to run around the city again.

If you are at BEA, then by all means, come up and say hello. I’d love to meet you. For those of you not in attendance, keep an eye out for a bevy of BEA posts. I’m not sure I’ll be able to do much live-blogging, but I’ll definitely give you a recap of all the weekend’s great events.