The Clean and Green Club

Why Attend Book Expo America?

BEA is the largest book-industry gathering in the United States (though Europe has a far larger one, in Frankfort). Hundreds of exhibitors, thousands of authors, numerous educational events, chances to rub elbows with authors you admire (and perhaps make a contact that could lead to an endorsement).

By attending BEA and the events around it (this will be my 13th straight), and sometimes having a book at one of the co-op exhibits, I’ve been able to leapfrog my publishing career. Among other things:

• Initiated a book deal by having a conversation with a publisher in his booth! Yes, Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World was actually sold because I walked the floor of BEA (you can click here to get Grassroots Marketing at half-off right now with the purchase of any of my other marketing books, by the way)
• Sold rights to one of my books for India and Mexico
• Made direct contact with agents and editors who expressed interest in books by my wife, my clients, and/or myself
• Met people who later became clients or vendors (or both)
• Been offered speaking gigs
• Developed in-person friendships with industry gurus such as Dan Poynter, Fern Reiss, and John Kremer (who have all since endorsed at least one of my books)
• Gotten autographed copies of cool new books (Studs Terkel’s publicist actually traded me Studs’ latest for one of mine, when we were autographing in neighboring booths several years ago)–however, this alone would not be a reason to attend; it’s just a fringe benefit that you should not let dominate your precious time on the show floor
• Learned an awful lot about the publishing business

I’ve attended most years as a journalist, and all my reports are online here. The first six articles on that page are all from BEA 2007; older material is farther down the page.

Incidentally, I’ve never taken a booth. I walk the floor, and attend both educational events and parties.

Pre-BEA Seminars

If you’re planning to attend Book Expo American(an extremely good idea), you should definitely attend at least one of the seminars. I published my first book over 20 years ago, and I still get good stuff. This year, I’ll be at PMAU on Wednesday May 28 (in the Advanced Track) and Rick Frishman’s seminar with Mark Victor Hansen, Brendon Burchard, Barbara DeAngeles, David Hancock, Alex Carroll, and an editor panel on Thursday, May 29.

I believe that a good live seminar is especially helpful to people starting out, but still useful (in different ways) to those with experience. I live my whole life in learning mode: books, teleseminars, and a least a few live events every year. If you attend the Frishman seminar, definitely come up and introduce yourself. We might or might not cross paths at PMAU, which has a dozen or so tracks at once.