For those who might not know, Book Expo America (BEA) is the largest national trade show for the book industry. Every year in June publishers, authors, book sellers, distributors, wholesalers, foreign rights purchasers, and everyone else remotely connected with the book industry swarms to a major city for three days of scouting and schmoozing.
On Thursday, I head down to join them in Los Angeles.
Last year I went in on a shared booth with 7 other independently published authors from Colorado. My mission was to interview and land a new literary agent, generate interest in my book from major publishers, and explore getting my book in the hands of distributors. This last one was the least important as my overarching goal was to find an agent and sell my book to a major publisher.
It was a blast to be among more than 30,000 book-lovers in a hot NYC summer, to say the least. Feasting in Chinatown, strolling through Little Italy, and thrift-store-cruising aside, I achieved my BEA mission: I interviewed and signed with a fabulous agent, agreed to work with Broadway Books, a Random House imprint, to publish my book, and talked with many distributors.
This year, I am between books but I’ve been coordinating a group of 30 members of a group booth through the Colorado Independent Publishers Association (CIPA). So my mission at this BEA is a bit different: to promote my publicity coaching and to engage anyone in the entertainment industry who might be able to help me make a cooking show.
Follow along as I wander through this enormous event this weekend and let’s see if we can generate some publicity and buzz!
