Book Expo America (BEA) is coming up this spring and a lot of book bloggers will be in attendance, as well as publishers and book sellers. With that in mind, I would like to give a little advice to those of you attending about approaching publishers.
1. Have business cards. Or post cards. Or some way that we can remember that we met you. Publishers meet so many people over the course of a few days. As much as we try, we can’t remember everything. Having a business card makes sure that we have a way to contact you after the show.
On that note—we’d love to hear from you after the show too. We try to keep track of everyone we meet, but it’s always helpful to get an email reminding us of what you are interested in.
2. Are you a blogger? Talk to us about your blog. How many visitors do you get? What types of books do you enjoy? Are you interested in participating in blog tours or doing reviews and author interviews? Let us know. I can’t speak for other publishers, but Peachtree has a database just of bloggers to contact with catalogs and other information. We want to work with you, just let us know what you are interested in.
3. On a similar note, de-lurk! Introduce yourself to us. Have you done reviews of our books? Talked to us on twitter? Fans of ours on Facebook? We love knowing that you’re real people that read our books and we want to interact with you.
4. Please, for the love of god, do not bring us your manuscript. If you are interested in getting your book published, we are happy to give you information about how to submit a manuscript, who to send it to, etc. Keep in mind, that staff attending a show are not necessarily a part of the editorial staff.
5. Same deal for wannabe illustrators. If you have a postcard or some kind of flyer you’d like us to take back to the art department, we gladly will, but again the people attending the show aren’t necessarily the right people to pitch ideas to. This is not the time to whip out your portfolio.
6. When you are visiting smaller publishers, please ask before you take. We definitely bring a quantity of galleys and other goodies to give away, but not everything that is on display is for you to take home. On the other hand, if you see something you must have, let us know—we may have an extra copy in the back or we can always send you something after the show.
7. The Children’s Breakfast is always spectacular—even we get a little star struck. No need to buy a seat at a table. The breakfast is very light, so you are just as good stopping at Starbucks and buying a ticket for the cheap seats in the back!
8. Everyone has said it, but wear comfortable shoes—the Javitz Center is huge and places to sit are few and far between.
9. Have a great show!