Finally, I have found the time to sit down and write my heartfelt BookExpo America (BEA) and Book Blogger Convention (BBC) recap that I’ve been dying to share with all of you. Between my fourteen pages of BEA notes and nine pages of BBC notes, I had a lot of information to process. I thought it would be easier to get my “fun” and “braggy” posts out of the way, and perhaps by doing so, I’ve now mislead some of my new readers into thinking I only went for the books and swag, which isn’t the case at all. I went to New York for the experience of learning about books as well as speaking with like-minded book people from all walks of life. If you lived in the midwest, and lived in a state where the closest independent bookstore was two hours away, and your book club fizzled out and died, you might have a grasp of what I’m feeling. Even my husband, an avid reader, reads different types of books than I do, and we can only seem to agree on Elizabeth Kostova, Nick Hornby, and Chuck Palahniuk. I was in desperate need of finding more books, and more book soul mates.
WHY I WENT:
Sure, I wanted to connect with other book lovers, and the idea of being handed new books was thrilling, but I really wanted to go to BEA because I was looking for specific new books to read and to connect with publishing houses and publicists that I hadn’t worked with before. I have now just saved myself HOURS of browsing time on the internet, and now I can just read or write in place of all that time I was wasting online. While quite a few publicists and authors already offer me their books via email, I knew there were plenty of other great books out there that I need to find for myself. I don’t have the luxury of driving four hours roundtrip to an indie book store to browse their shelves. (Shoot, I don’t even own my own car anymore.) Now, I have catalogs from nearly everyone, I love that I have old school catalogs to browse through, and I can look at them whenever it is convenient.
The best tip I read on the BBC website was to make up business cards, so I did, even though I felt dorky about the whole thing and had like four days to do it, so I didn’t have time to order fancy cards like I saw so many other bloggers had. But I used my logo and they worked for me. (Although I now realize I should have put my Twitter name on them, too. @NerdGirlBlogger, just in case you want to follow me!) I was lucky enough to exchange or pass out so many of my own business cards that I actually ran out, even though I had made over a hundred. Who knew that I’d find that many people to connect with? I was relieved that I had thought to make a few different kinds of cards, because sometimes you’d meet a cool person in line while waiting for a book, or on the shuttle bus, and they wanted to read your blog and would ask for a card. Now, as I’m terrified of stalkers, I didn’t want to just hand over my full name and mailing address, even though I had to a few times to a few librarians and other book people or bloggers who seemed “safe enough.”
My best business card moment came (I about died) when Rob Sheffield asked for my business card even though his publicist had just asked for one. I was telling myself in my head, no don’t come, my blog isn’t good enough for you! But it was still a fun moment. I wasn’t at BEA to try to super sell myself or my blog, or even make a book deal but I certainly saw a few others trying to do so, and I had to laugh about it.
The most painful business card moment came when I observed a blogger (not one who was at our BBC thankfully) give a lame pitch for a book deal to the agent I was speaking to in a random line at BEA. Now, I had just been talking to this blogger, and had actually heard of their blog, and had asked for their card so I could remember to check it out when I got home. Even gave this person some compliments. They not only told me not to bother giving them my card, and why would they need it, but then this person interrupted my conversation with an agent. Ouch, right? Thankfully, said agent told them to email them the pitch, as I could tell it was the last type of book this agent would ever want to publish. I broke the ice with cocky blogger and agent by making a joke Great, you scooped me from making my own book pitch now. Once the over-zealous cocky blogger split, the agent asked for my own pitch and I had to tell her I didn’t have one ready, that I knew this wasn’t the time and place to do so, but if she wanted to hear my lame one I’d give it to her, which I did. Then we discussed my thoughts on having to turn my memoir into a work of “fiction” and it was nice to hear her honest opinion, which is what I wanted to hear. She even asked for my own card and gave me hers, but like I told her, I am just not ready yet. I don’t have any regrets about being not ready, because cocky blogger looked like a complete a-hole, and I think I saw a smirk on the agent’s face once cocky blogger left. Oh, I almost forgot to mention this cocky blogger also bashed librarians, and made jokes about them such as why are they even here? They only buy one book each, right? To say I wanted to beat cocky blogger to a bloody pulp is an understatement. I reminded him that for some folks, like me, librarians were like mothers, and my own taught me how to do taxes when I was fifteen. I am ashamed to have someone like this even represent bloggers at the BEA as press.
Another painful moment at BEA came when I noticed more than one author who was too cheap to pass out their own books and do a signing or rent out booth space. Two men actually felt it was ok to pass out cheap half-sheet flyers with their website and info on them to folks like me trapped in long lines for other authors. One dude basically yelled in my ear for 30 minutes and I had to shout at him no thank you, and you’ve already asked us six times. Um, next year, maybe this guy needs to loosen his wallet. Because that is ghetto in my humble opinion, and deserved a ghetto response from me.
My favorite ghetto moment of BEA came when I was walking in the thick of the crowds on what I like to call Wacky Wednesday. An entire group of men blocked the main aisle near a major publishing house booth. You couldn’t get pass them. Sure, they were working it, but they had plenty of tables and chairs they could have used rather than block the main hallway. People carrying heavy loads were beyond pissy, including me. It was near the end of the day, my body was hurting, and I was suffering from a bad case of over-stimulation. When I waited over two minutes to pass by, and then actually got body checked on purpose by some middle-aged-business-suit man, I lost it. I may have shouted Don’t make me use my bag before I heaved it with all I had and slammed it into his own body. Don’t mess with women carrying heavy bags, because we will use them.
There were times when I had the best little chats with random people, like when four little lady librarians joined me and we all ate cake and bonded after meeting Katheryn Stockett. (I adore librarians, and wish that I was one myself, darn it. I settled for being a volunteer librarian this year instead.) I met book sellers, teachers, guests of industry people, bookstore employees, even authors in line trying to get other authors books. I met another blogger’s husband (but, never her) when we both found solace in comfy chairs at a seemingly abandoned book booth with the best chairs ever, and I got great advice from everything from how to find writing groups in though I live in Michigan, to what website are out there that are useful to “wanna-be” writers like myself. I met many publicists, but not once did I find the ones I already “knew” before coming to BEA on the floor, even though I did multiple drivebys and asked for them by name. Thankfully Penguin and Harper both had invited me to their own blogger events, so I was able at least to say a much-needed thank you in person to those I had been working with.
My special memories from BEA and BBC keep popping into my head, such as when I stumbled upon an author whose book I had just read, loved, and reviewed for my blog. I had no idea he was going to be there, and was in his line without realizing he wrote another book I wanted. He recognized my name, told me he loved my review, and that everyone from the office loved reading my blog. My totally what! moment, and I was so embarrassed I tried to say I wrote a crappy review. That’s me for you, trying to wreck my own happy moments because I don’t feel I deserve them. Thankfully, we kept bumping into one another, and had the best time chatting and not meeting other people. He even loves Detroit, and no one loves Detroit, since no one even comes to Detroit, let alone loves it.
I lucked out meeting several very cool authors, publicists, and other types of book industry people outside of the conference floor. I can’t even remember every single thing we talked about, but I’ll say here what my husband summed it up as - I was having my Belle of the Ball moments. Between the meet and greet thrown at The Algonquin Hotel by Harper staffers (I just loved meeting all of you, and wish I could have talked to you the entire night!) and the one thrown by the Book Blogger Convention organizers, I had the best time talking to these people other than the standard I love you, or yes, I write book reviews on all sorts of books. I was just having fun fun fun, high off of a single glass of wine or two cans of coke. (I’m so not supposed to drink either.) Between chatter about my fetish for Little House on the Prairie, to chats about Europe, to sharing the frustration of having a cute husband that I can never write about (or, let’s be honest, brag about) to my readers, and the fear of raising a way-too-pretty teenaged step-daughter who is of all things, a cheerleader, (Target for perverts!) or my worries about my step-son who has Apergers, or the time I got the book Superfudge for free from RIF, or what life is like in Michigan, especially if you are unemployed and aren’t an auto worker like everyone assumes you are, to even admitting to things like having low writing self-esteem issues since my degree isn’t in English or Journalism. I love talking, period, but talking freely with people who love to read was just super cool for me. Sure, we managed to talk about books sometimes, but it was nice not always having too, especially since books were all most people were trying to talk about nonstop. The fact that I’m a chatty nerd didn’t seem to faze people either, or at least I didn’t notice that they minded, thankfully. Oh, how I laughed when I got this email from someone I met – “It was hilarious to hear your story about how people thought you were black because of the name of the blog.” Yep, I can clearly remember telling her that story. I told a lot of people a lot of things, because I am such an open and brutally honest nerd. Here are my favorites - “My god, I’ve been stuck in my house for eight months, wearing pjs and only having my cat to talk to. Of course I was coming to this event tonight.” and “Go ahead, ask me anything. I’ve probably experienced it, or I know someone who has experienced it.” Of course, the guy stumped me with – wait for it – Lice. For once in my life I wished I had Lice for a brief moment. My god, did that crack me up, the way he shut down me down with a simple Lice?
BUT, WAS IT WORTH THE $115 BOOK BLOGGING CONVENTION FEE?
Here is where I’d like to quote Mr. Big and tell you “abso-f——lutely.” Of course it was worth it, even if you take away the books and swag. First and foremost, we got in as press to BEA. We got to mingle with the book industry, and meet authors we admired. For me, it was more about the experience than the education I received, but I have been blogging for over two years and have a background in business. But I still learned things, and for those of you who wonder what the heck did I actually learn, let me tell you.
After breakfast Friday, we attendees got to listen to our Keynote Speaker, author and blogger Maureen Johnson for 90 minutes. At first I was a little worried, since she looked 20 years old and I had never heard of her, and she writes Young Adult books, and I haven’t really read many since being a young adult. But after hearing her speak for about a minute, I realized the organizers could not have picked a better speaker. Ms. Johnson was not only hilarious, but refreshing and honest. She not only talked about why book bloggers rock, but she admitted how she hates book tours, even though one of the organizers of the BBC runs a book tour company. That had balls, and I love people with balls. Maureen pointed out the function of a book blogger to those book industry folks who were kind enough to join us - that all we book bloggers are trying to do is be activists for books. She spoke about so many things, and while I’d love to share them all, this post has become dangerously long and I must stop here. I will say this - after hearing her speak, I must read everything she’s written. She’s just that darn smart and funny, and it has to spill over into her work.
Next up was Professionalism and Ethics in Blogging. I had met the speaker the night before, and found him to be an interesting guy and enjoyed chatting with him. But, I had a very confused reaction to his “Do whatever feels right” take on ethical blogging. (I know not everyone will agree with me here.) I wasn’t looking for a strict guideline on how to run my own blog, or how to have blog ethics or professionalism, because I already know that stuff. I did want to hear what people in the industry were thinking about blog ethics, and I was disappointed to hear just one bloggers point of view. I am not trying to be mean or catty here, but the presentation I heard was a little unbalanced and opinionated. Basically, what he was saying is that he doesn’t think we should have to disclose where we get our books from, and since the FCC now says we do, I tend to side with the folks who can fine you. Plus, anyone who makes money from their blog via ads or by getting a cut from sending traffic to book sellers (I don’t do either, and I believe he does both) I feel should mention that fact in each post they write. He pointed out that the FCC admitted they only meant a certain type of blogger, but, “the certain type of blogger” hasn’t been well-defined, and in my opinion, that means simply anyone can still get into trouble. Shoot, I watched a special last night on tv about blogging and good old Dooce was on there, spouting off on how she wasn’t worried. Well, I am, and I’m just a little unknown blogger who doesn’t make a dime off blogging. I don’t want people to think just because I blog about books and I didn’t pay for them means that I am giving the book a good review only because someone sent it to me. Trust me, I work hard to avoid accepting ARCs I think I won’t like. When I don’t care for a book, it is painful to have to point out the books faults, but I still do it. Maybe a panel with a publicist or another blogger of a different opinion would have suited my tastes more on this very sensitive topic. I just don’t see anything wrong with people putting up ethical badges on their blogs, and I could tell he totally did, and it bothered me. Many of those bloggers who have them may truly be ethical and proud of it. Then again, if a person didn’t want to sign a pledge and post one on their blog, I’m cool with that as well. No one can tell you what to do on the web (yet(!) as we really are all cowboys and cowgirls out there. But when he joked about those of us who also blogged about LOST, I couldn’t help but wonder, why did he go there? It was the end of a fantastic show that many people enjoyed talking about, and since when are we not entitled to write about what we want on our own blogs?
We broke for lunch, and returned to hear about Writing and Building Content. This is where things started to get interesting. Five panelists each spoke about their own unique blogs, and it was very entertaining to hear one of the bloggers admit that she once got online bitch-slapped (my words, not hers) by an author whose book she gave a horrible review to. I like it when people admit the truth, even when it stings. Everyone on this panel had their very own unique style of blogging, and while it was splendid hearing them share what their blogs were about, and how much work they put into writing them, all I could help but be distracted by two things – one, it was freezing cold in there, and two, they were all white women in the same age demographic, 25 – 45. (My best guess, not cold hard facts.) I wished for heat as much as I wished for more diversity, because I like learning from people from all walks of life.
Next up was Marketing. I was thrilled to hear someone say “Be yourself, let your passion shine through.” My thoughts exactly! Everyone has their own style of blogging, and there is no right way a person should go about doing it. There were plenty of bloggers who were relatively new to blogging, or even young teenage bloggers there, and the entire time up until this point I was worried that the new and the younger bloggers were getting the message to not be themselves. When you hear about the success some bloggers have had, or the cool branding they do, or even hear about the multiple tricks up their sleeves, it is hard even for even a person like me to stay true to who I am as a blogger. I can’t imagine what it would be like if you were new to the whole thing.
The best and most diverse panel came on next – Blogging with Social Responsibility. Sure, as book pushers, we are entitled to push whatever we want or like, but it was great to hear from a diverse group of people who opened up eyes and minds about what we really are blogging about. Should our blogs just be about books, or can we kill two birds with one stone and do more by blogging? (I think we all can if we challenge ourselves!) We were reminded about how ethnic characters are white-washed, and how some publishing houses don’t like to ”out” gay characters, and how one of the bloggers runs a blog dedicated to raising awareness about reading and a disease, and manages to get each group to support the other. That is exactly what I wanted to hear, and it made me realize that while I blog about more than just books, in my own small way I’m also trying to get people to learn about other things here on my blog, not just about me, or my views on dumb tv shows, or travel, etc. I like it when my Kate Gosselin haters stick around and comment for book posts, or when my photography people learn and share my views on the importance of volunteerism. I try to raise awareness on everything. I was excited that I had “outed” a gay character in one of my last reviews. I wasn’t willing to share that with the whole conference, but that was mainly because I got sick of a “few bloggers” who kept standing up and asking questions possibly because they wanted to say the name of their blog again and again. I managed to speak to one of the panelists after this presentation, and we had a nice laugh about that very thing.
Lastly, we listened to the Impact of the Relationship Between Author and Blogger. At this point I was solid frozen, and it was after 4 pm. Once I heard someone say “Twitter is there for you” I admit freely that I lost interest. There are only two things on my notepad on this section, and the only other thing I wrote was a huge “ugh.” I left about 15 minutes early before the conference ended, but did so mainly because I could not handle the artic blast anymore. Plus, I felt it was ok to split since half the room was missing at that point. Had I not been over-stimulated and extremely tired, hoarse and with numb toes, I know that I would have gotten more out of this panel.
My thought is that the BBC should be moved up next year so it is before the BEA, and we will all have more time (and energy) to bond a bit more. If there was a way we could have a simple “bloggers only” moment, that would be great, too, because I didn’t get to meet as many bloggers as I hoped to. Hey, I know that this was the first year of the conference, so try to understand that I’m not complaining about anything here other than the cold, which wasn’t their fault. I feel it is my duty to share my thoughts about everything I experienced honestly.
A SPECIAL THANKS:
The extra special part of my trip to New York was that I got to experience extreme kindness from people I never met before. I was able to meet and connect with one of my favorite non-book bloggers, Pam. Even though she doesn’t blog about books, she loves to read, and has hundreds of books in her home. Pam even has a tat about her love of one of the best authors in the world, Augusten Burroughs, who we both simply adore. Plus, Pam was generous enough to let me stay with her and her family so I could afford to go on my trip. She went over and above, driving me back and forth to the city, spending up to four and a half hours of traffic a day. She fed me, and she even got us a hotel for our late night in the city. Who does that for a person they just met in real life these days? Seriously? I feel as if Karma sent her to me because I have been feeling so stressed out for the past year. (I went to Mayo Clinic and got diagnosed with a connective tissue disease that causes my plentiful crappy diseases, had a hysterectomy, lost my job, and had a bunch of terrible things happen to my family and friends that I can’t even share on my blog.) I needed Pam’s kindness in the most desperate way.
Then, before I knew it, others wanted to help me out. Author William R. Eleazer emailed me and asked me if I wanted to attend the Indie Book Awards in his place, since he was unable to attend. This coming from a man who weeks before emailed me to ask if I would review his book, and I had him turned down. I had said no only because I was burnt out on the genre. (Trust me, I had wanted to say yes, as I adore a book based in the south.) I had written him a very nice no, explaining at length my reason, and he appreciated it so much that he was still reading my blog, found out I was able to go to BEA, and then offered me his tickets (I got to bring Pam) to a really cool event. Who does that? Of course, I was so guilty I decided to review his book.
A few others wanted to help me out with some spending money, and my longtime hair stylist Micky and two other readers, Donna and Rob sent me some $ before I went. Micky loves to read, and is my kindred spirit here in Michigan. Donna is a reader of my blog, and knows how much being unemployed sucks, so she wanted to help me out. Rob is also a blogger, and just wanted to help another book blogger out. I had planned on taking fun photos of what I spend their money on, but since I didn’t get to go to a play and steak dinner Friday night like I had planned, here is what their money bought.
Not only did their money pay for my emergency comfy shoes I had to buy while walking in sweltering 100 degree weather to The Algonquin Hotel, but they also paid for the gas money I slipped Pam’s husband when he was dropping me off at the airport. So, while these aren’t the most exciting things I could have spent my money on, they were the ones I felt to be most important. Pam, William, Mick, Donna and Rob, thanks again for helping me out. Your kindness and generosity helped save my soul, as well as my poor aching feet!
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