Hellooo there, fellow book nerds! I’m back from The Big Apple and hubbster and I had a wonderful time. New York is flat out amazing. A maze of mismatched concrete that somehow matched, and a city that never failed to impress with it’s awesome architecture and frankly suicidal cab drivers (That was a compliment, drivers. It is apparently the only way to drive around NYC. Hey, I couldn’t have done it.).
Our hotel room view during day.
View from our hotel main entrance at night. I think I prefer the beautiful night.
Or, what we saw of it. I confess we really got next to no sightseeing done as Book Expo America and Book Blogger Con took up all of my time. But that’s why I was there. We’ll definitely be going back to NYC one day. We just loved it. Why, by the last day it even seemed like the suicidal cab rides were feeling…well, normal!
And I’ve got to give a shout-out to the New Yorkers themselves. Yall are not at all mean like stereotypes would have us believing. I met the nicest Post Office worker there for one. Not that ours down South aren’t nice, but I swear there wasn’t a dour face in the entire branch Book Smuggler Thea and I went to. I mean, I’ve never had an Alabama postal worker give me free tape to do my packing. There was one instance of a cab driver telling a hopeful rider to go bleepity bleep themselves, but it wasn’t directed at me, so…
We dined at a great place called Aperitivo our 1st night.
Our hotel was great, the drinks were great (oh gawd were they), the food was great (we ate pizza, Italian, and other assorted Italian-esque things. And some Japanese noodles. Heh.) and deciding to stay in Midtown Manhattan to get the experiences offered there was perfecto. We didn’t manage to get to the Empire State Building, but hubby did get a picture of the top of it at night with his phone. A woo and a hoo. Next time for sure.
The books. Holy crap, the river of books, it doth floweth from the BEA in an unstoppable tide of words and covers and author autographs. Don’t be like me and somehow manage to ignore the people passing out free tote bags in your totally justified mad dash to whatever book you want. You’ll need more than the one I managed to bring. And you’ll fill them till you can’t carry it anymore and then you’ll find a way to carry it some more. And you’ll do the same the next day. Unless you’re Janicu, who said she had willpower (until she met up with Book Smugglers Thea and Ana on Thursday. Muaha!).
I probably got close to 40 books, but I’m not sure as I mailed them home and they’re obviously not here yet. I’ll have to give yall a complete list later, but these are a few I remember:
I had a tiny bit of willpower. I’d like to call it Feet Pain From Feet Hell. It actually convinced my not to wait on two or three books close to the end of the day and head back to the hotel instead. I know – the sacrifices that are made! I felt like Scarlet, except with books instead of food. I shall never be book-deprived again! Well, not that I was ever in danger of that, but you get the idea.
And, I mentioned food above, but just so you know how dedicated we all are to books, and in case you’ve ever been in doubt, most of the folks there that I met (including me) didn’t really eat the majority of the BEA days. Not during the day. We were too busy!
And speaking of people – holy river of people! I met some great people and I just know I’m going to forget to mention some of them. My memory’s for complete shite, yall. Going to give it a whirl anyway (and if I forgot you, please let me know in the comments and I’ll add you in). Some of these ladies I had the pleasure of getting together with at a small gathering on Thursday night, organized by The Book Smugglers:
Hilcia of Impressions of a Reader (who I got to meet for drinks and great conversation when we arrived in NYC)
Janicu of Janicu’s Book Blog
Thea and Ana of The Book Smugglers
Mandi of Smexy Books
The Lusty Reader
Heather of Age 30+Books
Natasha of Maw Books
Laura of Laura’s Review Bookshelf
Lenore of Presenting Lenore
Angie of Angieville
I Heart Book Gossip
Christine of The Happily Ever After
Heather of Darkly Reading
Kristen of Fantasy Café
Kristi of The Story Siren
Taschima of Bloody Bookaholic
Eleni of La Femme Readers
Sherry of Flipping Pages For All Ages
Chelsy of Big Honcho Media
Amy of My Friend Amy
I also met a few publishers:
Prometheus Books (parent publisher of the awesome Pyr Books)
Sourcebooks
Flux
Orbit
All of the major publishers were present but things were so busy it was hard to get a word in with some and still get to all the author signings, etc. Again, everyone was certainly busy enough! BEA was an amazing experience and I will definitely do it again one day.
Book Blogger Con, the first one ever, was a welcome respite from the endless walking and carrying of those books we all love (Even though they gave us a great and generous Bag ‘o Swag!). I didn’t stay for the entire day as I started thinking like Book Smuggler Thea that I might need to go to the Post Office to mail more books home, and I also wanted to spend some more time out in the city with the hubbster.
But what I saw of the small convention was impressive. We had breakfast and lunch right there, which was great, and there were a few panels hitting on issues that have arisen in the blogging community in the last few years. The ones I saw were: Professionalism/Ethics, Writing/Building Content and Marketing.
Probably the best part of the entire experience though was keynote speaker and author Maureen Johnson. Oh my god I just cannot begin to tell you how insanely funny this woman was. I wondered if they were filming it because I’d pay to watch it again – she was that entertaining, fresh and engaging. What wouldn’t be about an author that described in detail her education at a creepy Catholic convent school and her determination to get as “stupid” a job in NYC as she could upon arrival? I’ll definitely be checking out her books now. Best hour and a half of my entire convention life the past week.
To top all of this off, I’ll show yall some of the authors I got to meet or just saw. I wish I’d taken more pictures (I’m horrible at remembering to and at times I was actually too shy to – yeah, ME! Shy!).
Simone Elkeles signing copies of Leaving Paradise.
Maria V. Snyder signing copies of Spy Glass.
Jeri Smith-Ready signing copies of Shade
The young adult segment of publishing seemed to have the strongest presence, both author and giveaway-wise, but this may have just seemed that way to me because it’s in my personal sphere of reading. The majority of what I managed to get was young adult though.
Gena Showalter sporting her signature gorgeous smile.
Wow, long post! To wrap it all up, all I can say is what a great week. I’d do it again and hopefully I will be doing so one day again. I loved meeting those that I got a chance to and New York was a great city to experience it all in. And that, I think, is a wrap.
How was your personal BEA experience?
ETA: I KNEW I forgot something important. I got an extra, cool Vlad Todd vampire smiley bag at BEA and I’m going to fill it with books to give away. As soon as I get my boxes of books in that is. So stay tuned for my BEA Giveaway. OK, KMont out once again!
February 21, 2012
May 1, 2012
May 1, 2012
February 28, 2012
April 3, 2012
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So jealous you got to go to BEA! Halo looks exceptional, and I think the strong YA presence is due to the market. It’s probably one of the biggest ones out there now. :) Have fun with the reading!
YA is definitely a HUGE market right now. The thing I’m not sure of is if it’s peaked yet or if it’s still on the rise to that peak. Definitely one of those as it doesn’t look to be slowing down lol.
Excellent breakdown! I’m going to start mine now. Is it sad that I had to take breaks in taking pictures of the books? Man, there are a lot of books! Anyway, it was a lot of fun actually meeting people I “talk” to online so often. So glad you could make it this year!
I figure the only other way we could’ve taken more pictures is if our cameras were installed in our dang foreheads lol. Our hands were too full carrying those bags of books! And I agree, it was definitely fun meeting our online peeps. :D
I’m so glad you enjoyed NYC, it was lovely meeting both you and Mr. KMont. :) I hope your feet survived the experience. The Con sounds awesome and I can’t wait to see what other books y’all got there. :D
Ahhhh! It was SO much fun meeting you! Those hours flew right by! Bryan and I had the best time with you. Mr. KMont – hahahha! You are awesome, my friend, so lovely online and that much more in person. ;) We’ll have to find a way to do it again some day.
This is great – thanks for sharing! I love seeing the pictures and hearing about everyone’s experiences.
Me too! I’ve been searching for some more since we’ve gotten back. It’s fun that I got to experience the event this time. :)
Wow, sounds like you had a great experience! As a native NYC gal I’m happy & proud that you met some nice folks and yes, we’re not all rude just sometimes crabby, lol.
LOL, just like any region anywhere, right? I can attest to many a day being crabby Southerner. :D
Yall have a very lovely city. I can’t wait to get back one day.
It was a fun week and it was great to meet you. I love your bookmarks – I just came across it when I was sorting through some of my BEA swag.
And I have to agree, New Yorkers were actually very friendly and helpful for the most part.
I’m glad you like them, Kristen and I enjoyed meeting you as well. :) Wasn’t NYC the best? I think hubby and I really fell in love with it.
I had a great time meeting you and the hubbster! It was just amazing HOW we met in line too. Talk about a small world inside an insane Javits Center! I was so happy that I found you and we got to talk about things, like our kidlets! :)
It was so fun meeting you! And funny as hell lol! I giggled when I saw your bookmark and handed you mine. :D Best first time meeting ever lol!
it goes without saying that it was absolutely lovely to meet you! great breakdown post. so glad you enjoyed your trip to NYC, although i don’t live there i visit once every month or two and am always happy to hear other people love their time there too!
im interested to hear your reaction when your books do arrive in the mail…like if its more than you expected or if it’s exciting in a christmas way even though you already knew what you got ;) happy reading!
It was great meeting you too! I admit I was prepared to be intimidated by NYC, and it was a slight bit, but the people really were all so nice. That was a big relief because it made a huge city seem much more personable.
I cannot wait to see those boxes on the porch at home lol. I think I’ll do a gallery post on all the covers, or a collage of them.
I am also jealous that you had a chance to get an ARC of Matched! It got bought for a HUGE amount of money, and people are predicting it will be rather big. :) I agree with it nearly peaking or being at a peak right now. I think a lot of genres flux when they first come out, and then they kind of level off. I think the influence of teens on the market makes it a genre that will likely be big for a long time.
Actually, I didn’t get one of MAtched! I was so disappointed! There were so many great books to get, and most of them all scheduled for signings and giveaways at the same time. It was pretty hard to get to all of them. But it was fun, oh yes! :)
Awesome post! How did I miss meeting you??? Oh, that’s right, there was a gajillion people there *laughs* I agree about the New Yorkers being very friendly (we also ran into a wonderful postal worker when I was mailing my enormous box of books). Like you, I spent too much time in lines…I think next time I would do better making a list of all the upcoming titles I want and simply visit the publisher booths to snag them (although I am really happy to have gotten some of my favorite authors’ autographs). Glad you had a great time – so did we (me and my hubby)…and the soreness in my feet and legs are finally going away after two days at home!
Yes, all the many people! I was SO turned around when I got to BEA on Wednesday. I literally was mind boggled for about half the day. It was so noisy and crowded and wonderfully awesome at the same time. :D I will definitely do it again one day lol.
“Feet Pain From Feet Hell”
Bwahahahahaha! It’s. SO. TRUE.
My feet are still recovering from their fiery trip to Feet Hell too :) It was so great to meet up with you (and Mr. KMont!), and the adventures from Javits to the Post Office, trying to hail a cab in the rain, etc, etc, etc… You rock dude. Thanks for putting up with Ana and I. It was a total freaking blast!
I think my feet are still bruised! And what’s this business of “putting up” with yall? LOL, perish the thought! I loved meeting you guys! Ahhh, had SUCH a great time with you both. You just know we’re going to have to do it again. Hubby and I will definitely be getting back to NYC one day. ;)
I was wearing Dansko clogs, and the evening after I left NYC, my feet were still hurting on and off. I could feel it in my calves, too. And It’s not like I don’t normally do a lot of walking (citydweller, no car).
Mm, yes, and Dansko shoes are so great! Had a pair myself once and they were like clouds. I think even clouds would cry at BEA lol.
I really was so happy to meet you and hang out in line and chat, etc. You are just as lovely as I knew you would be. And your hubby really was a good sport with all those cameras. :)
Aww, I loved meeting you too, Angie! I felt like you were one of the bloggers that would be so genuine in person too. :) I was right lol.
Hubby was pretty great, I agree. I could tell he would’ve been more at ease with some guys to talk to, but he knows I’m often in the same sitch with him, except him and all HIS guy friends. :D
It was great to meet you on Thursday! And I’m now following your blog. :)
Heather, I had a lot of fun meeting and talking to you! Thanks so much for following. :) I need to play catch up on my blog roll and add you and some other folks.
K! It was soooo awesome to have finally met you in person. You are even more lovely and sweet in person than you are on your blog, email, twitter, etc. and that says a lot, cuz I lurve you in all those online places already! :D
This is my favorite line from your post:
Next time for sure.
Because it means I’ll get more “in-person” time with you when that time comes along! I know a great place you can get a great meal for free when you do… it’s called Chez Christine! Ha! Of course, Mr.KMont and Miss Kidlet must come too. ;o)
Till next time! xoxo
man , this place is great indeed. in your next break I will advice you to check some art museums as well. and if you are in shopping – try New Jersey – it is tax free