BEA 2013 Swag Post!

Okay, so you've read through my posts about my time at BEA 2013. Now it's time to succumb to the inevitable...

*~super amazing swag post woooo!~*

Behold My Book Expo Booty! 

Yes, these are the precious Advance Reviewer Copies I obtained through various means during Book Expo America 2013. This year, as you may recall, I was determined to be choosy, because I knew it would be Damn Hard to drag these books all the way home (and it was!). So I tried only to take the books I was excited about reading. Because of this, I decided to list my loot in descending order of "Excited About." 

1. Rose Under Fire, by Elizabeth Wein (Hyperion, September 2013): I stood in line for a long as time for this, and it was completely worth it! I adored Code Name Verity!

2. The Infinite Moment of Us, by Lauren Myracle (Amulet, August 2013): I picked this one up and got to gush over how much I loved Shine when I briefly ducked out of the enormous Fangirl line. Myracle was super-nice but she repeatedly warned me that this book wouldn't be the same type of thing. Don't care! Still excited!

3. Invisibility, by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan (Philomel, out now): I got this signed at the Autographing tables during Book Expo. I loved Levithan's Every Day, and the concept of this novel (a boy who's cursed to be invisible) sounded interesting.

4. Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell (St Martin's Griffin, September 2013): a.k.a. the book I waited The Absolute Longest In Line For. I haven't read her previous novel Eleanor and Park, but this was a novel  where the concept (a girl who's a part of a fandom and writes slashfiction) sounded so interesting I knew it couldn't pass it up.

5. Two Boys Kissing, David Levithan (Knopf, August 2013): This one I found my accident - I knew he would be signing this book, but it was at the same time as another signing. However, on my way out with Awesome Roommmate Emily, we saw he was still signing books and so we got ourselves copies! Two Levithan novels in one day!

6. Survival Lessons, Alice Hoffman (Algonquin, out now): I will read literally everything Alice Hoffman writes - even a rewrite of Wuthering Heights. Plus getting this book meant I got to meet her in person.

7. Cherry Money Baby, by John M. Cusick (Candlewick Press, September 2013): I picked this up at the YA Editor Insight Panel at BEA Blogger Con. The story sounded sudsy and fun - involving a smalltown girl who is happy to be a smalltown girl, until a famous celebrity arrives and throws her life upside down. I'm in!

8. The Universe Versus Alex Woods, by Gavin Extence (Redhook, June 2013): I picked this one up from a huge pile at the Hachette pavilion. Kirkus' BEA guide gave it a spectacular review and the story sounded weird and magical-realismy, which runs right up my alley.

9. The False Prince (Scholastic, out now): They were handing out free copies of this at the Scholastic booth and I remembered how much The Booksmugglers loved it.

10. These Broken Stars, by Amie Kaufman and Meagen Spooner (Hyperion, November 2013): I picked this one up at the YA Editor Insight Panel at BEA Blogger Con, where it was described as Titanic in Space - apparently because it involves a rich girl, a poor boy, and a big honking spaceship crash. That plus positive blogger buzz made me pick it up.

11. Fire With Fire, by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian (Simon and Schuster, September 2013): This was in the goodie bag I received from the SimonTEEN party. After hearing the awesome authors gush about it at that party, I was super excited to read it - of course, I'll have to read the first book, Burn for Burn first.

12. Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, by Kirstin Cronn-Mills (Flux, out): While I was touring the expo floor, I found the Flux booth and had a great talk with the publisher about unconventional YA stories, and afterwards he gave me a copy of this novel, which has been on my Wishlist for a while. Score!

13. All Our Yesterdays, by Cristin Terrill (Hyperion, September 2013): I also found this at the YA Editor Insight Panel at BEA Blogger Con. I wasn't kidding about the amount of swag at that panel. The story sounds a lot like the romantic YA version of Terminator - a heroine in the future visits her past self to stop a friend from inventing something that destroys the world.

14. Tumble and Fall, by Alexandra Coutts (Farrar Straus Giroux, September 2013): I picked up this book at the Autographing tables because the concept intrigued me - the world is going to end in a week, how would teens react to that?

15. The Rithmatist, by Brandon Sanderson (Tor, out now): They still had tickets for his signing by the time I arrived at the Javits, so I got him to autograph a copy. I wouldn't normally be interested in this book (I read one of his other fantasies, and it bored me), but The Book Smugglers' positive review of it changed my mind.

16. When I Was the Greatest, by Jason Reynolds, (Simon and Schuster, January 2014): This was in my goodie bag from the SimonTEEN party. Jason Reynolds was crazy-charismatic during his interview as he related his adventures in New York City with his artist roommate, so I'm pretty excited to read this novel about three boys growing up in Bed-Stuy.

17. Just Like Fate, by Cat Patrick and Suzanne Young (Simon and Schuster, August 2013): This also was in my SimonTeen party goodie bag! Again - the authors' fab interiew and the great concept grabbed me: the heroine has to choose between staying by her grandmother's deathbed or going out with friends, and the story shows us how each decision would have affected her life.

18. Counting by 7s, by Holly Goldberg Sloan (Dial, August 2013): I picked this up at the Penguin pavilion because it sounded like an adorable story about a girl who comforts herself and builds a new life after tragedy by counting by sevens. Plus, it came with good buzz from Kirkus.

19. Hero, by Alethea Kontis (Harcourt, October 2013): This was an impulse signing - the sequel to Enchanted, which I've been wanting to read for a while. Kontis was signing books at a satellite autographing table because her time had run out but her books had not - and that table was right next to the line for Rose Under Fire. But I'll still need to read the first book.

20. Dear Mr. Knightly, by Katherine Reay (Thomas Nelson, November 2013): I picked this up from a pile at the HarperCollins pavilion because it sounded absolutely charming. A graduate student and Jane Austen fan gets a free education in return for engaging in an epistolary relationship with a mysterious Mr. Knightley. How could I resist?

21. That Part Was True, Deborah McKinlay (Grand Central, February 2014): I snagged this from the Grand Central booth - another epistolary novel, this time between an older woman and her favourite author.

22. The Son, by Philipp Meyer (Ecco, Out now). My Fantastic Roommate Emily gave me a copy of this from the HarperCollins party she went to. A vast, sweeping historical family saga about Texas? There isn't a single thing about that sentence that I don't like.

23. Sorrow's Knot, by Erin Bow (Arthur A Levine Books, November 2013): Another free book from the YA Editor Insight Panel. I was initially turned off by the iffy cover art and lack of a blurb, but the Book Smugglers reminded me that Erin Bow wrote Plain Kate, which was apparently pretty good. Plus the concept of LadyMagic seemed interesting.

24. Someone Else's Love Story, by Joshilyn Jackson (William Morrow, December 2013): This was another bookgift from Emily from the HarperCollins party, about a single mother who falls in love with a geneticist.  It got a lovely review in Kirkus.

25. Who Asked You? by Terry McMillan (Viking, September 2013): I picked this up at the Penguin booth as a lark. Written by the author of Waiting to Exhale, this novel's about a hotel maid who has to look after her itinerant daughter's children. It sounded like an interesting family story from an author I'd never tried before.

26. Love and Lament, by John Milliken Thompson (Other Press, August 2013): This one I got signed in-booth - thanks to another great review in the Kirkus BEA Guide. For some reason, multigenerational Southern gothic stories sound so good to me right now.

27. OCD Love Story, by Corey Ann Haydu (Simon and Schuster, July 2013): Got it in the goodie bag from the SimonTEEN party, about two kids who meet at an OCD support group and fall in love. Intriguing concept.

28. Chantress, by Amy Butler Greenfield (Simon and Schuster, out now): Another pick up from the SimonTEEN party, about a girl whose singing voice has magical powers.

29. Perfect Ruin, by Lauren Destefano (Simon and Schuster, October 2013): Yet another treat in the SimonTEEN goodie bag! Sounded interesting - dystopian setting, murders, teen romance, the works.

30. Lily and Taylor (Groundwood, September 2013): When I was interviewing Canadian publishers, I had a nice chat at the booth for House of Anansi Press and got a copy of their newest YA title, about four kids struggling with the aftereffects of domestic abuse.

31. The Wolf Princess, by Cathryn Constable (Scholastic, October 2013): This was one of the free books given out at the start of BEA Blogger Con. I love the cover and the story has a distinct fairy tale vibe.

32. Heart Like Mine, by Amy Hatvany (Washington Square Press, out now): Picked it up as a lark. An uncertain stepmother has to help her new stepdaughter overcome the sudden death of her unstable mother.

33. The Twins, Saskia Sarginson (Redhook, August 2013): Picked this one up at random because the back cover blurb hinted at ssssssecrets. Plus - twins! Twin ssssssecrets!

And that's it for my swag! I picked up 44 books last year (and I still haven't read all of them!), so I consider this year's catch an improvement - in quality, if not in quantity. Which books are you excited to read?

BEA 2013, Day Four and Five

Day Four: Friday

I arrived at the Javits on Friday morning to read the news that Jim Carrey - yes, the Jim Carrey - would be dropping by the Book Expo on Friday and Saturday to sign copies of his self-published metaphysical children's book about a sentient ocean wave - unticketed. I could only imagine what sort of madness would result from that and I calmed myself with a cup of peppermint tea and a friendly chat with the awesome NYStacey, a bookseller I'd met back at my last RWA Conference in 2011.

After that, it was off to stand in line for Elizabeth Wein's Rose Under Fire. One thing the majority of previous BEA attendees forget to tell you is that for all the time we spend buzzing through the booths of the Big Six like a swarm of locusts in practical flats, we spend just as much time languishing in line for those one or two books we really want.

And I stood in a lot of lines on Friday. First for the Elizabeth Wein's companion novel to Code Name Verity, and then for the excruciatingly long queue for Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl at the Macmillan pavilion. The line for Wein was pretty extensive, but not as extensive as Rowell's. Babies were born in that line. Presidencies came and went. Organisms evolved. Thanks to a young, tall, put-together blogger I met in line, I had time to sneak out and gush over Lauren Myracle and pick up a copy of The Infinite Moment of Us at the Abrams/Amulet pavilion just next door.

This very put-together blogger (whose name, naturally, I forgot) threw me for a loop in that same line when I asked what courses she was taking in university.

"Oh, I'm thirteen," she said.

Jaw drop. Seriously, someone should have called Chris Hansen and had him set a security detail on her house because she did not look thirteen at all. She was taller than I was!

"But I've been blogging since I was eleven!" she added. Not better. The new generation of bloggers was definitely on the rise and they were starting way earlier than I was. Holy crap, she was born in the year 2000!

Finally, after crawling around the Macmillan booth about six times in line to receive my copy of Fangirl, I was too tired to do much of anything. A quick look at the queue for Curtis Sittenfeld's Sisterland convinced me it wasn't worth it and there was no way I was lining up two hours in advance to snag a copy of Jim Carrey's self-published masterwork (although I did swing by to catch a brief glimpse of him in profile and the back of his head).

So I slogged back to the hotel, dragging my loot of books through the humid, horse-shit-scented fug, praying that I wouldn't catch hoof and mouth disease from whatever I was wheeling my suitcase through when I passed the stables. After a half-hour of rest, reading the first of my BEA swag (Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg, generously gifted to me by a Scholastics rep during the Blogger Con Happy Hour), I packed up and left to do my one bit of sightseeing on this trip - the Intrepid Air, Sea and Space museum.

It was a quick walk from the hotel that felt longer thanks to the broiling heat. Once inside, the ship was pleasantly air-conditioned, and was full of excellent displays of shipboard conditions, maritime history, military history, airplanes, boats, space shuttles, as well as games and replicas for people to play with (including a flight simulator). I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I felt extremely weepy while aboard the Intrepid. My dad is a huge fan of military history. He has a shelf of his favourite war movies and can identify military aircraft on sight. The whole place really reminded me of him and I wished he'd been there to see it. He would have gone nuts in that place.

I should probably admit at this point that my father is not dead or anywhere near that condition. I just really missed him at the moment and wished we could have discovered that museum together.

After the museum, I freshened up a bit and went out to hail a cab to take me to the Farrar, Straus, and Giroux reception, forgetting in my Canadian ignorance that it was Friday afternoon at rush hour in Manhattan. I waved my cute little hand and did a little "Notice me! Notice me!" dance on the curb of 38th and 8th for close to an hour with no luck. I've noticed that other bloggers have made similar suggestions that publishers should organize their parties and get-togethers closer to the Javits because, well, getting a cab at five o'clock at night is a difficult task for everyone. SimonTeen had their party within walking distance and it was both convenient and a good time.

One hour later (!) I'd given up making it to that reception. I finally flagged down a cab after I wandered back down to the deserted Javits Center and decided to go to the Blogger Picnic at Central Park instead. I've never been able to resist visiting New York without seeing Central Park at least once, and it was lovely at dusk. The humidity soaked into the leaves and infused the whole place with that lovely crushed green scent that normally accompanies rain. It was a small gathering but one with a lot of discussion.

At around eight o'clock, the party broke up because their permit ran out, and while a bunch of them headed out to continue their party at a nearby pub, I decided to call it quits. I was tired. I was still hungry. And my check-out time was ten am the next day and I hadn't packed my bags yet.

Day Five: Saturday
Saturday was a day that Emily and I had to organize a little differently - mainly, because although this was our last day in New York and our hotel's check-out time was ten a.m., neither of us was actually leaving until much later in the afternoon. My flight home wasn't until six o'clock and Emily's ride wasn't until the afternoon.

While the hotel watched our bags, we headed back to the Javits for one last hurrah. One last glance to see if there were any ARCs worth snagging. One last opportunity to talk to and interview people in the publishing industry (I did have the chance to speak to Canadian publishers - people at House of Anansi Press, Coachhouse Press, Tunda/Random House Canada).

And one last morning to peoplewatch the publishing industry - the clusters of laughing, triumphant librarians in sensible shoes and floral print tops; the glassy-eyed Power Readers drooping beneath the weight of too many tote bags; and the publicists in gauzy, candy-coloured sleeveless dresses and chunky jewellery who picked their way across the inconsistently-carpeted expo floor in dainty high-heeled sandals as if they'd been beamed down from some interstellar nightclub.

I stepped into the ouroborosesque line for Harlequin's gigantic Teen Reads signing (which included Katie McGarry with Dare You To and Elizabeth Scott with Heart Beat) and just as quickly stepped out of it again - which turned out to have been a wise choice - I found out later they'd run out of books before they ran out of line.

I did indulge one bit of foolishness - on my way out of the Javits, I noticed Jim Carrey's line was swiftly coming to an end. Seeing an opportunity, I latched on to the end of the line and after ten minutes, I scored the chance to meet him face to face, take an extremely blurry picture with him, and score a poster of his book with my name spelled "Elizebeth" on it in black sharpie above his autograph. Not bad, and I didn't have to wait two hours for it!

After that, I bid farewell to Book Expo and all of its crazy madness and returned to the Javitz. Emily's awesome friend Mario turned up to drive them both to Long Island but he found a way to wedge both my suitcases into his Jeep and drop me off at Penn Station. I bid a very fond farewell to Emily with the promise to keep in touch.

The return trip to my hometown was a significantly trickier deal than the trip out to NYC - especially now that I was lugging two suitcases, one of which was stuffed entirely with ARCs. The ordeal began at Penn Station, where I took a two-minute masterclass in Loading Two Wheeled Suitcases Onto a Narrow Escalator By Myself that I promptly failed.

I dragged those precious suitcases through several elevators and onto an underground platform that felt as hot and humid as the inside of a mouth, to the NJ Transit Train, then onto the Newark Airport Airtrain, then through US security and - once I reached Calgary - through Customs before boarding yet another airplane.

Remember how in my BEA Guide  I mentioned that you should be choosy about taking ARCs since they aren't really free in the long run? This is what I meant. I may not have paid for them with money, but I did pay for them in the sheer physical effort and inconvenience involved in hauling them across international borders. My shoulder muscles alone are still paying interest. That being said, my decision to bring them back in my luggage proved to be the wiser choice - one blogger paid USPS to ship her swag home and received a series of late, dented, and half-empty packages instead!

But that was my trip to Book Expo America 2013! I had some amazing experiences, learned some new things, took home some great books, met a celebrity and made at least one Super Amazing Awesome Friend! There really is a lot to be had from going to Book Expo America, and the swag is the least of it. While I may not be going next year, if you are a book blogger or a librarian or a bookseller, I recommend going at least once. It offers a fascinating window into how our gorgeous literary sausages get made.

BEA 2013, Day Three: Mission at the Exposition

The Book Blogger Convention was fun and interesting, but that was only the appetizer for the Big Show.

And Book Expo America is definitely a Big Show.

Thursday was the first official day of Book Expo America. The doors to the exposition floor opened at nine but excited people lined up in front of it long before then.

Inside, the exposition resembled an emergency shantytown built by creative but wildly impractical rich people. Walls of cardboard and plastic and wood and fabric divided the space into a complicated maze of stalls, booths, and pavilions. Believe me, no matter how tired you were, you could lean on nothing. No surface was trustworthy except for the ground - and even that was iffy. Depending on the financial solvency of the publisher operating on that particular square, the floor varied between concrete, astroturf, red carpet and deep shag.

Enormous signs, floating placards and even balloons (!) marked out the pavilions for the larger publishers, while the smaller ones had to make do with booths the approximate size and quality of a junior high science fair display.

Now, the first hour of the first day of Book Expo America can be fairly intense. The mental superiority that separates humans from animals wears especially thin at the prospect of Free Books - while most publishers spread giveaways and galley drops throughout the day, the highest concentration of Free Stuff is in the morning. I'm talking about literal piles of books, three to four feet high, with glossy covers and the future publication date printed in a bright ribbon on the spine.

When nine o'clock rolled around and the doors opened, you might have told yourself you'd be choosy. You might have planned to stroll casually into the area with your colour-coordinated Excel spreadsheet schedule and your printed map of the floor. You might have told yourself you weren't there for the books, but to calmly absorb the buzz and the information and the atmosphere.

But, let's face it, you didn't. At least I didn't. The glare of the florescent lights reflected in the posters for The Hottest Celebrity's Newest Vegan Cookbook combined with the smell of overpriced vending-machine coffee and the slap of my BEA badge against my chest triggered the predatory instinct in my brain and flooded it with adrenaline - for the thrill of the hunt, the spice of competition against my fellow bloggers, booksellers, and librarians. When those doors opened, I raced ahead with everyone else.

Sales reps handed out tote bags like cups of water to successful marathoners - while nervous assistants offered ARCs with outstretched fingers that retracted quickly, as if feeding starving predators who would just as gladly eat them instead. Flyers printed with the dates and times of galley drops flew off the shelves only to disappear and turn up wadded at the bottom of your fifth complimentary tote bag while you repacked your luggage back at the hotel. Business cards fluttered between hands. Publisher catalogues were snatched from displays in a frenzy of greed only to be covertly replaced once the attendees realized they weren't actually books.

The Hachette Pavilion served doughnuts. Several booths offered coffee. Pens. Candy. Lanyards. Bookmarks. Spencer Hill released a flock of Swag Fairies (for reals) wearing sparkly wings who distributed chocolates to the faithful. The pyramid-headed mascot of the For Dummies books wandered the aisles trying and failing to be Not Terrifying.

Yes, that first hour of Book Expo America is pretty much a real-life version of the Hunger Games - only everyone's a volunteer, nobody dies, and we're all going crazy over free stuff that has no actual market value yet.

Okay, so maybe we were more like the people who watched the Hunger Games and wore day-glow eyeshadow and threw up all the time so that we could eat more.

After that first hour, the feeding frenzy instinct died down and I resumed my intended schedule. This year, I intended to be a little more choosy about which books I grabbed and which lines were worth waiting in. Waiting in an enormous line for a book I was vaguely interested in by an author I'd never tried (Kendare Blake's Antigoddess)? Not worth it. Waiting in line for Alice Hoffman, one of my favourite authors of all time? Totally worth it. She has seriously written so many novels that I've loved - including two I would smuggle onto a desert island (The Ice Queen and The Probable Future), so it was such an honour to be able to meet her and abandon all motor function that didn't involve saying the most cliched of fan phrases, "I love your books."

For the rest of the day, I attended some more signings (Brandon Sanderson's Rithmatist, David Levithan and Andrea Cremer for Invisibility) and explored the different booths and publishers. Book Expo is exceptionally good at reminding you of all you take for granted about the publishing industry. Most people tend to think about it in regards to fiction or narrative non-fiction - but there are religious publishers, educational publishers, cookbook publishers, travel guide publishers, art book publishers, comedy publishers. The Bathroom Reader guys had a booth. Reader's Digest had a booth. There are so many types of books that we just forget about - but they all have publishers and editors and sales people.

The crowning moment of Thursday - aside from meeting the Utterly Awesome Alice Hoffman, that is - was meeting Mary Higgins Clark after waiting an ungodly amount of time in line. I've never actually read Mary Higgins Clark, but my Granny is a huge fan. She's as voracious a reader as I am and loves thrillers and suspense novels, so I decided to get her something really special.

As it turns out, the reason Mary Higgins Clark's line was so slow was because she took the time to speak to Every. Single. Person. Mary Higgins Clark was absolutely the sweetest woman and she took the time to tell me how much she loved Canada (especially when she visited Quebec while dealing with her French language publisher) while she signed a copy of Daddy's Gone A-Hunting to my grandmother. I really appreciated that someone who's been writing for such a long time, with a such an enormous fan base, took the time to speak to her fans instead of just handing them a free book and sending them on their way.

At the end of the day, I had two potential parties to attend - the Tumblr Party at Housing Works, or the Penguin Evening with YA Writers at the Barnes and Noble on Union Square. Instead, I wound up having a much more pleasant evening with my Magically Amazing Roommate Emily. We hit up a nearby deli for some quick eats and just chilled out in our hotel room, talking. I seriously cannot believe how well I lucked out with my roommate. Definitely a bosom friend of the Anne Shirley-Diana Barry persuasion!

BEA 2013, Day Two: BEA Blogger Convention

On Day Two Emily and I woke up early to get to the Javits in time to register for the blogger convention. Thanks to the location of our hotel, we didn't have to wake up that early.

Rolling up to Registration, I collected my lanyard, my BEA program, and my food and drink tickets. As the conference started, attendees were offered pretty spectacular totebags (complete with zippers and beverage holders) and some slightly-less-than-spectacular books - including an aggressively-marketed novel called Catena: Journey to Virginland that my fellow attendees and I were having absolutely none of.

The conference started out well - even though I was starving because the BEA Blogger "complimentary breakfast" turned out to be stale bagels and coffee. Thank God I'd smuggled a nut-free granola bar in my purse. A suggestion for next year, conference organizers: fruit is cheap.

Our keynote speaker was Will Schwalbe, who wrote The End of Your Life Bookclub and worked as editor in chief for Hyperion Books. I'd met him previously at last year's convention during the author roundtable, and his befuddlement at the time as to What Bloggers Actually Did left me less than enthused about what he would present as keynote speaker.

An affable man with rounded edges, he started out with some interesting questions - like, how do bloggers define success? And how does our definition of success differ from the definitions of people elsewhere in the publishing industry? He asked a number of bloggers about this and came up with the answer that bloggers define success by their influence, which made a lot of sense. For a lot of bloggers, it's not all about the numbers or the stats or the pageviews, but by how far one's opinion can travel over the internet.

Because we don't only blog - we grouse on Twitter and Tumblr and Pinterest and message boards about our thoughts and feelings about books as well.

He also talked about engagement - how a few really invested, engaged users is better than a lot of apathetic, uninvolved users. Again, I agreed - I have a pretty small readership and social circle, comparatiely speaking (although it's getting bigger), but we're all really passionate about books and express our feelings about it all the time. It seemed like Schwalbe had done his homework about the blogging community - a refreshing change from Jennifer Weiner, who pulled a Gilderoy Lockhart during her keynote last year and made it all about her (and delayed the following panel to sign copies of her own books).

....but then Schwalbe started to backslide. First, he started by making catty comments about Amazon reviews and Amazon reviewers. Which was when I thought, oh no. Then he started encouraging bloggers  to demonstrate forgiveness and cut people some slack about policing web behaviour. How do you define forgiveness, Mr. Schwalbe? If an author acts like an ass on the internet, am I somehow not allowed to let that influence my decision to not purchase or review their work? Excuse me?

And then his speech quickly dissolved into a paternal shaking of the finger at "snarky, savage" reviews, because "kindness rocks!" It sounded like the clueless teacher trying to sound relevant to a room full of reluctant students - only we're not students and we're not children and it struck a painfully wrong chord to be treated as such. It was an irritating echo of Jennifer Weiner's "Fairy Dust" comment from last year.

The thing is, reviews can and do benefit the publishing industry but they are not for the publishing industry. Reviews are not written for authors, so authors complaining about the style of a review is akin to a person walking into a party they weren't invited to and complaining about the food.

Schwalbe then proceeded to recite, tonelessly and apparently without a shred of irony, the chorus to Natasha Bedingfield's pop song "Unwritten." Really, seriously.

Next up, I decided to go to the YA Editor Insight Panel - because, well, I'm interested in editing for YA, and I'm also interested in the sort of decisions and trends that YA editors have been noticing lately.      On the panel was Cheryl Klein from Scholastic, Deb Noyes from Candlewick Press, Jen Doll from The Atlantic, and Emily Meehan from Disney-Hyperion. Attendees were greeted by a mountain of truly excellent free books coming in (something the Adult Editor Insight Panel apparently did not have) and I also got to meet The Booksmugglers themselves, Ana and Thea!

While the editors did speak of trends, mostly they just sold their books (including one where Marie Antoinette is a murderous ghost). They did mention that subgenres are no longer as strict now - YA's definitely getting into cross-genre books that don't have any strict definition. The editors on the panel unanimously agreed that they were looking for and preferred flawed protagonists. No Mary Sues or Gary Stus. I asked them about romance in YA, and they replied it was a bit of a chicken-and-egg deal now - publishers initially acquired a lot of romance, and as a result a romantic plot line is now a reader expectation for a lot of stories.

While there were a few interesting points discussed, it did seem (as a lot of others have mentioned before me) that it was more of a Buzz Panel, and it didn't really have anything aimed specifically at bloggers or blogging. At least the swag was nice.

After that, I attended the Adult Book Blogging Pros panel, mainly so that I could meet the fabulous Jim Hines and Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches in person. A lot of this panel was stuff I'd already learned - but then, I've been blogging for nine years (yes, nine). Basically, get your voice out there and establish your own style and that will bring in the type of readers you want. My favourite piece of advice from Sarah was let people not like you. Because there will always be people who don't and you can't build a platform around avoiding other people's dislikes.

Mandi Schreiner of Smexy Books (who was also on the panel) advised bloggers to keep it cool when it came to Internet Drama - by all means defend yourself, your close friends and major issues (like Plagiarism), but otherwise, don't get involved in other people's fights if they don't concern you. Internet mobs can turn really nasty, really quickly and misinformation is contagious.

It was at this panel that I realized there were a couple of romance authors who had signed up for the Blogger Con in order to pick the brains of bloggers and find out how to get us to review their books. Honestly, that made me a little uncomfortable, as did a conversation we had about how bloggers shouldn't make their critical reviews funny because it hurts authors' feelings. Sorry, but as I've mentioned before, reviews aren't for authors. You have a critique group and an editor to respectfully analyze your work. Reviews are for readers.

After that came the Ethics Luncheon, hosted by Jane Litte of Dear Author with Richard Newman of Hinch Newman LLP and Professor Geanne Rosenberg of Baruch College. It was a little dry, but thankfully a couple of people from what I like to call the "Tinfoil Hat Table" made it a little more interesting.

The panel members tried to make the session about how bloggers can protect themselves from inadvertently violating American FTC regulations (which consider positive blog reviews of ARCs to be endorsements). So while they were trying to explain that the origins of your review copies should be clearly and conspicuously indicated - the two women seated at the Tinfoil Hat Table muddied the waters with questions like "Why doesn't the FTC go after Fake Mean Reviews?" Um, because negative reviews are not endorsements. This person also started babbling about how she had been asked to join a Cabal of publishers and reviewers who were dedicated to ruining authors they didn't like with negative reviews. Okaaaaay...

The other lady at the Tinfoil Hat Table table who'd claimed to have worked in journalism for many years stated that large newsgroups dodged copyright issues when showing cover art for books by using photographs taken of the books instead of the cover images themselves - which is completely and utterly incorrect. Newspapers don't do that. Entertainment Weekly doesn't do that. It was hilarious but also frustrating because the actual, educated people at the panel were trying to discuss whether displaying a book cover in your review was violating copyright (it isn't - it falls under fair use).

After the Ethics Luncheon, I went to the Blogging Platforms panel, which was an extremely informative and successful panel given by Rachel Rivera of Parajunkee, Stephanie Leary of Wordpress,  Evie Seo of Bookish, and April Conant from Good Books and Good Wine (whose voice, as she'd predicted, was just about shot). There, they explained the differences between blogging platforms such as Blogger, Wordpress, and Tumblr. I came away from that panel with a lot of new information about the different platforms.

Blogger, apparently, is a good starting point for bloggers because it's extremely easy to use and has a lot of options - however, once you have experience and want to branch out with more coding, Blogger's interface can be limited. Oh, and Google also owns everything you write on it. Eep. Wordpress, on the other hand, can be more complicated, but it has greater design options and can easily shift from being hosted by Wordpress to being selfhosted, so a lot of bloggers wind up exporting their Blogger blogs to Wordpress eventually. For now, I think I'll stick with Blogger since it is easier, but I may have to consider Wordpress later.

Next up, I went to Extending the Reach of Your Blog Online, hosted by Mandy Boles of The Well-Read Wife, Malle Vallik of Harlequin, Eric Smith of Quirk Books and Geekadelphia, and Robert Mooney of Blogads. This panel, I thought, was a nice companion to the Blogger Platforms panel because it also spoke of different social media platforms through which to talk about books and promote your blog - like Vine (Twitter but with Video), Rafflecopter, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Spinterest, Triberr, Distillry (how to make sure which of your Twitter followers are "influential" - i.e. have the most followers), and Twiangulate.

After that came the Closing Keynote with Randi Zuckerberg - whose speech was half an hour late because she hadn't brought a working laptop. Not a promising sign when your entire presentation is more about Cool Things On the Internet That Are Tangentially Related to Blogging than Actual Blogging. I took some notes but I don't think I picked up anything I could really use for my own blog.

Finally came the Blogger Happy Hour, where the remaining attendees took their single drink tickets (whoo! Big spenders!) to the bar, around which more swag and free books and book promotions were arranged. Most of the books being given away weren't my thing so I avoided them - and carefully stepped around the piles of (still) unclaimed copies of Catena to speak with other bloggers.

This year's Blogger Convention, barring a few missteps, was a vast improvement over the previous years. There was a greater awareness of what bloggers actually do and a variety of different topics to discuss and learn from - most of which were (or at least tried to be) aimed at how bloggers operate on their own, rather than how bloggers can serve publishers. I liked how most panels had at least one well-known blogger on them, as well as people from other areas of the publishing industry, so we received multiple perspectives on what we do and our impact on publishing.

Mostly, though, I was just glad I survived it enough to speak in coherent sentences with the blogger friends I reconnected with.

BEA 2013 Day One: Party Animals

Yes, I know, I'm late to the Book Expo-recounting party, but I was so twitchy and exhausted and wired when I got home that I wouldn't have been a very good party guest. Instead, I've spent a couple of days resting and getting my bearings instead of taking a swing at the enormous Book Swag Post pinatas like the rest of my peers.

But it's time to get my party hat on!

I flew into Newark on Tuesday - despite my delight at having a direct flight to Newark instead of a host of transfers and connections, my nerves got the better of me and by the time I landed in New Jersey and boarded the train to Manhattan I was gulping and praying and wondering if this whole trip was a huge mistake. A conversation bloomed behind me between two strangers, stemming from a mutual complaint about a nearby sleeping passenger who was taking up two seats, and it led to a contest of oral autobiographies as each stranger catelogued the development of their lives. One was an employee of New Jersey Transit, an immigrant from Kenya and former NYC police officer. The other was a devout Christian, who had travelled the world and survived cancer, to boot.

It was pretty amazing how freely people were willing to share their lives on public transit to someone they would likely never see again, and listening to them calmed me down immensely and brought me back to reality.

I arrived at Penn Station and met my crazy-amazing roommate from Red House Books - Emily! Emily was seriously the best roommate. Every time my anxiety made me fizz and shiver and threaten to spiral around the room like a wildly deflating balloon, she was there to prod me into trying new experiences, or share a joke, or talk about how much we both love YA novels. I'm overjoyed that our meeting on the internet resulted in real-world friendship instead of murder.

After meeting at Penn Station, we cabbed back to our hotel - the Best Western Convention Center Hotel. This Best Western was good in itself - compact, spotlessly clean - and good in regards to its location to the Javits (a three-minute walk away) but rather disgusting in regards to its location in general. The hotel stuck out like a freshly-washed thumb on a particularly filthy hand whose other fingers comprised some greasy auto body shops, a strip club, the type of abandoned-looking brick warehouses that superheroes use as their secret lairs, and a mews for carriage horses. Because who doesn't want to watch some naked ladies while waiting for their car and/or horse to be fixed?

And I haven't even mentioned the train (the choo-choo kind, not the subway kind) that passed beneath the hotel at regular intervals during the day and night.

First on the schedule after unpacking everything was the SimonTeen Blogger Party. It was the first such publisher party I had ever been invited to at Book Expo, and I was excited. We walked to our destination, which turned out to be a lounge outfitted in My Little Pony shades of purple, red, and pink, where raspberry-coloured light refracted off of a giant crystal chandelier. The bartenders served pink cocktails freshened with chunks of watermelon, and over-enthusiastic waiters wandered freely, jabbing platters of sliders and chicken kebabs at guests as if trying to rob people with them. Your money or your juice cleanse! 

Shyer guests could always retreat to the fancy bathroom, staffed by an attendant whose primary tasks were to to hand you a paper towel and pretend you hadn't already dried your hands on the toilet paper in confusion after finding no dispenser in the stall, and gesture obliquely towards a table laid with the traditional American post-bowel-movement delicacies - mint Lifesavers, chocolates, and Tootsie Pops.

I spent the first half hour of the evening chatting with authors and SimonTeen staff - most of them gorgeous, bird-boned 24-year-old publicists and marketing reps with chunky earrings and horn-rimmed glasses who might as well have walked straight out of a Wednesday night CW drama about the New York publishing industry. I also ran into a hugely pregnant and awesome Siobhan Vivian and exchanged some complimentary words on her deft use of unlikeable and difficult female protagonists (I quite enjoyed Not That Kind of Girl).

After that, we all sat in front of a stage while Suzanne Young interviewed fellow SimonTeen authors Cat Patrick, Jason Reynolds, Jenny Han, Siobhan Vivian, Corey Ann Haydu, and Amy Butler Greenfield about their upcoming books. Suzanne Young was a lively and effective interviewer - allowing the authors to answer probing questions about the underlying themes of their works while also keeping the tone light and the pacing quick. The authors themselves were all hilarious, charming and well-prepared - I found myself envying Siobhan Vivian and Jenny Han's easy friendship as they discussed the collaborative process of writing Burn for Burn, the sequel Fire with Fire, and the final novel Ashes to Ashes (currently being written). Jason Reynolds was also ridiculously charismatic as he recounted his various financially-challenged adventures trying to become a successful writer in New York.

After the interviews - it was back to scintillating conversation! I met up with some truly awesome bloggers, including Amy from Good Books and Good Wine - she was worried that her voice was giving out and she wouldn't be able to speak at her panel at the Book Blogger Con the next day. But she still summoned enough energy to commiserate with me about bad author behaviour!

All in all, I would call the event a success - I left the party with Emily fully interested in nearly all the books discussed, which made it all the lovelier when our complimentary goody bags came stuffed with those very books! We got swag before the conference even started! How's that for thinking ahead?

Next up: Day two - BEA Blogger Con!

So You're Going to BEA (A Handy Guide)

Book Expo America is only a few (three!) weeks away. All the authors! All the exhibitors! All the events and parties and friends! 

Now that you've registered, half of you may be feeling:

But the other half of you is probably going:

Because BEA is BIG. It is monstrously huge and overwhelming and crowded with lots of people.

Plus, with the cost of registration, flights/transportation, hotels, and walking around money, your budget at the end of the trip is pretty much:

But do you need to worry?

And why not?

ANIMEJUNE'S BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO BEA!

Getting There

At BEA, the dress code is business casual. In layman's terms: slacks instead of jeans, comfy shoes instead of neon-coloured sneakers, nothing with holes or tears (artistically-intended or otherwise), all your relevant creases and crevices should be covered, and you're good to go. You won't be turned away at the door if you do otherwise, but remember, Book Expo is a trade show and publishing is a business. People are working as well as playing and dressing appropriately is a sign of respect. 

As for packing tips:

Some things to bring with you that will help on your trip:

1) Comfortable Shoes. Your feet are going to hurt after Book Expo. This isn't a spoiler, but an established fact.

They will hurt whether you wear stiletto heels or sandals woven from the floppy curls of a thousand boyishly shy YA love interests. But the more comfortable shoes you wear, the longer you'll last on the exhibition floor before you inevitably break down and drag your bloody ankle stumps and prodigious Expo swag onto the shuttle back to your hotel. Keep this in mind.

2) A smaller, empty suitcase (I'll explain in a moment).

3) Business Cards - the very best way to keep in touch with your new friends and associates!

4) A data roaming plan from your cellphone provider. Why?

Paying for Wi-Fi at the Javits Center:

It suuuuuuuuucks.

The reception is notoriously bad as well, but it's still better than the WiFi. And believe me, you'll want to keep in touch with your friends via Twitter/Facebook/texting because the Javits centre is a huge place.

5) Handy, portable snacks. Why? Well, with all the wonderful stuff that goes on at BEA, there's really little to no time to leave the Javits and sit down for a decent lunch. Unfortunately:

Food at/near the Javits Center:

Although it doesn't exactly suck, you shouldn't have to pay $8.00 for one slice of pizza unless it's topped with ostrich meat and Terry Deary's delicious, delicious tears. This, Terry, is what's really taking money out of authors' pockets. 

6) A Priority List. You may not want to plan everything, but in order to keep from being overwhelmed, it's always good to make a list of things you really, especially want to see at BEA. Your favourite books. Your favourite authors. The publishers of your favourite books. Where are they? When will they be there? Will you need tickets? The BEA website has very detailed schedules, as will the publisher websites - and publishers will often hand out flyers with giveaway times while you're there. 

Being There

Yay! You made it to the Javits! Now what?

Here's where the previously mentioned Empty Suitcase comes in handy. The Empty Suitcase has two purposes:

1) It stores your swag! Yup - there are places at the Javits where, for a few dollars, you can check your bag for the entire day. Large bags and rolling suitcases aren't allowed on the exhibition floor (and for good reason), but your accumulating ARCs can get heavy. But it's the matter of a few minutes to pop out, empty your goody bags into your checked suitcase, and float back onto the exhibition floor without ever having to leave the center!

2) It ships your swag! If you're like me, and you live outside the U.S. or A Hella Long Way From NYC, shipping your BEA books back to your place of residence can be pricey. Last year, I packed my smaller, empty suitcase inside my regular one and when the time came to return to the Great White North, I put all my swag into both my suitcases and simply checked an extra bag onto my flight. It costs anywhere from $25-$50 to check an extra suitcase - which is still way cheaper than the $100 or more it would have cost to post them. Plus, I didn't have to wait three weeks to glom onto my hard-won ARCs.

Like a boss.

Another thing about being at the Javits Center - you likely won't be there all day for each day.

It's true. Most of the action happens in the morning, although publishers will schedule the occasional galley drops throughout the day. There's a million things to see and do - but eventually you may find yourself at 2:00 in the afternoon with nothing new to see and no interesting galleys or authors scheduled for the afternoon. It's okay to take a break. Rest your feet. Take a nap. Or better yet - go out and sightsee New York!

Behaving There

It goes without saying, but Book Expo can get extremely crowded. That's not necessarily a bad thing, so long as people respect each other and the publishers, authors, business people who are putting this exposition together for them. On that note - my handy list of Do's and Don'ts:

DO Take ARCs -- provided they are being offered. Lots of books in the booths are for display so it never hurts to ask. 

DON'T Take Every ARC - sure, they're free - until you factor in the physical cost of carrying them everywhere and the financial cost of shipping them home and the temporal cost of having to actually read them. What I mean is: don't take ARCs just because they're free. If the cover blurb is only so-so or you hated the author's previous book or the genre is one you tend not to like, don't take it. The people working the booth won't be offended - supplies are limited and this could very well be someone's Holy Grail of BEA Swag. 

I know, it's hard to resist the idea of Free! Books! - but that little greedy voice in your ear isn't doing you any favours.

DON'T Be a Little Bitch About ARCs.

Let's get this out of the way: you are not entitled to ANYTHING at Book Expo America. These galleys, ARCs, free finished copies, and goodies are gifts, separate from the cost of your registration. They are produced for marketing purposes, and supplies are not infinite. 

This means, no, you can't take five copies of a particular ARC in order to host a giveaway on your blog. 

This means, no, you have no right to bitch or moan or complain if the galley drop is late or cancelled or they run out while you're still in line. 

This means, no, ARC-hunting is not a competitive sport and getting more ARCs than anyone else doesn't make you a Better Blogger - it makes you a Braggart, and a wasteful one at that if you're not personally excited about or interested in every single one you snagged. 

DO Be Polite

You'd think this goes without saying.

You'd be wrong.

Remember how BEA's dress code is Business Casual? Let's go ahead and assume that BEA's behaviour code is also Business Casual - as in, people want you to have fun, relax, meet great people and have great conversations, but if you wouldn't be able to get away with certain behaviours at your workplace, you shouldn't try to do so here. 

DO Meet Your Favourite Authors!

You know who fans love running into at BEA? Their favourite authors! You know who authors love running into at BEA? Their fans! It's a match made in heaven!

There are many opportunities to meet your favourite authors - at panels, at their publisher booths, at their breakfasts, at their autographing tables - even sometimes on the exhibition floor, just chillin' (how I met John Green!). It's a great way to introduce yourself and tell them how much you loved their book, and even ask them questions (if there's time - if you're in a long line, please use your discretion).

DON'T Stalk Your Favourite Authors

Keep in mind, though, that authors go to BEA to network and have fun, too. Don't follow them around the exhibition floor unless they've stolen your totebag with your Rose Under Fire ARC inside. If you meet them on the floor but they're deep in conversation with someone else, don't barge in and interrupt. Keep it all in the Javits - if you have to follow them to the bathroom, in a cab, to their hotel room for a chance to talk to them, you've gone too far. 

Last but not least,

DON'T TREAT BOOK EXPO AMERICA LIKE A WRITER'S CONFERENCE

Do. Not. Pitch. Your. Book. To. Anyone.

Book Expo America is about Publishing, not Writing. It'd be like trying to sell eggs at a fried chicken expo - BEA is more focused on the finished product. Actual books, and getting them in the reader's hands. I mean, if an editor asks you for a pitch or to submit something, you're a Special Snowflake. But this is neither the time nor the place to pimp your manuscript on your own. You will not make a good first impression. You will only annoy very powerful people in publishing.

And that leaves:

Leaving There

Upon returning home from Book Expo America, take care to perform the following two steps:

Step One

Step Two

And that's about it! Any other questions or tips? Leave them in the comments!

And Now, the Obligatory BEA Swag Post!

Soooo.... I got a lot of books at Book Expo America. I really did try to only pick up books that I actually wanted or sounded interesting, and I think I was mostly successful. Mostly. Either way, I managed to successfully pack everything into my two pieces of luggage without incurring overweight fees so I'm good on that score. Here's the list:

• The Vicious Deep, by Zoraida Cordova. YA. Swag bag at Book Bloggers Con. I've wanted this one for a while, so I was excited to find a copy of this at the convention!
• Origin, by Jessica Khoury. YA. Penguin Booth. The bioengineered-girl-escapes-into-the-Amazon plot intrigued me.
• The Darkest Minds, by Alexandra Bracken. YA. Hyperion/Disney Booth. Honestly, this was one of those "well it sounds vaguely interesting and it's free" picks. The back cover blurb is super-vague, yo.
• The Killing Moon, by N.K. Jemisin. Fantasy. Signed at the Orbit Booth. It was super lovely to meet N.K. Jemisin, and I'm over the top excited for The Killing Moon. I also got to tell her that I think she writes the best immortal characters.
• Kiss the Morning Star, by Elissa Hoole. YA. Picked up at the Amazon Children's Publishing booth. This story, about a teenage girl who discovers her sexuality while on a Kerouac-inspired roadtrick, has been at the edge of my radar for a while so it was lovely to find this copy!
• Moo, by Matthew Van Fleet. Baby Book. Book Blogger Con Swag Bag. A lovely baby book with fuzzy things to pet and pop up pictures - and guess whose BFF's little boy is having a birthday in a week!
• Kiss and Make Up, by Katie D. Anderson. YA. Picked up at the Amazon Children's Publishing Booth. Another interesting story - a girl discovers she can read the minds of any boy she kisses. So naturally she uses it to cheat on tests.
• Wake, by Amanda Hocking. YA. Honestly, I've forgotten. It has a lovely cover, plus I've always been interested in stories about sirens.
• Every Day, by David Levithan. YA. Signed at the Random House Booth. David Levithan is one of those writers I've heard hyped to the skies so much that I'll suggest him even though I haven't read any of his books yet. This one (about a nameless being who's a different person every day who falls in love with a girl) sounds like a good place to start actually reading him!
• Eve and Adam, by Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant. YA. Signed at the MacMillan Booth. This sounded interesting but also hella confusing (girl gets sent to lab, girl starts making boy in same lab, girl falls in love with another boy in the lab?). But it was fun to chat with Jessica in the line to get it! 
• The Wrap-Up List, by Steven Arntson. YA. Amazon Children's Publishing Booth (seriously, a lot of good stuff there). Sounded good - a girl gets a magical notification that she's going to die soon, so she works to get her affairs in order.
• Me Before You, by JoJo Moyes. Literary Fiction. Picked up at the Penguin Booth. Sounded like a legitimately sweet romantic story.
• Fathomless, by Jackson Pierce. YA. Signed at the author's Autographing Table. The idea of a darker, nastier Little Mermaid retelling definitely caught my eye, and the excerpt I read in Little, Brown's catalog looked amazing.
• An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green. YA. Signed copy given out at the Penguin Booth. It's John Green - and I'd like to try and enjoy more of his work.
• Son, by Lois Lowry. YA. In the Children's Book and Author Breakfast Swag Bag. I was only faintly aware that The Giver had continued as a series, but this book makes me want to read the other books in between.
• Cracked, by K.M. Walton. YA. Won in the Meet the Apocalypsies event. This novel, about a bully and his tormenter in the same psych ward, sounds a little dark and bleak for my tastes, but I decided to give it a try.
• Crewel, by Gennifer Albin. YA. Received last copy at the MacMillan Booth. This book was hyped UP AND DOWN Book Expo, y'all, but I have to say - the story (about a girl who can weave time and fate) sounded legitimately cool.
• The Miseducation of Cameron Post, by Emily Danforth. YA. Won in the Meet the Apocalypsies event. I've wanted to read this since forever, so I was super psyched to win a free copy!
• Starting from Here, by Lisa Jenn Bigelow. YA. Picked up at the Amazon Children's Booth. Sounded like an interesting romantic YA with a lesbian protagonist.
• Summer and Bird, by Katherine Catmull. YA (I think). Picked up at the Penguin Booth. Two sisters go on a mystical journey - it sounds freakin' weird, but in the best possible way.
• The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, by Cathrynne M. Valente. Middle Grade (sort of). Signed copy from the author's Autographing Table. Loved the first book - so of course I lusted after the second and waited in line for 45 minutes to meet the author.
• Mistress of My Fate, by Hallie Rubenhold. Literary Fiction. Picked up from the Grand Central Publishing Booth. A lush period piece about a possible courtesan? Sign me up!
• The Blessed, by Tonya Hurley. YA. Picked up from the Simon and Schuster Booth. I'm Catholic, born and raised, so the idea of three girls embodying three martyred saints? Kick ass! Had to have it!
• The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman. Literary Fiction. Picked up at a booth - forgot where! Firstly - pretty pretty cover. Secondly, intriguing story about a couple on an isolated Australian island who adopt an infant. Thirdly, upon opening it to a random page, the writing sounded great.
• Carnival of Souls, by Melissa Marr. YA. Picked up at the HarperCollins Booth. Another much-hyped book - I picked it up because the story sounded interesting, and also because my sister is a huge Melissa Marr fan.
• Colin Fischer, by Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stenz. YA. Signed at the Penguin Booth. I'd heard both authors speak on one of the YA Buzz Panels, and I liked the idea of a kid with Asperger's who has to clear the name of his biggest high school tormenter when a gun goes off at school, resulting in said bully becoming a friend.
• Time Between Us, by Tamara Ireland Stone. YA. Won at the Apocalypsies event. It sounds like a YA take on The Lake House. Plus, pretty cover!
• The Sweet Dead Life, by Joy Preble. YA. Picked up at the Soho Booth. A publisher I'd never heard of, but an interesting YA story about a girl who has to pre-emptively solve her own murder with the help of her dead-brother-turned-angel!
• What We Saw At Night, by Jacqueline Mitchard. YA. Picked up at the Soho Booth. Another interesting title about three kids who are allergic to sunlight and also common sense who practice nighttime parkour and witness a murder while doing it.
• More Than One Night, by Sarah Mayberry. Romance. Picked up at the Harlequin Booth. Everyone in Romancelandia has gushed about Mayberry at one point or another, and I felt it was time to see what all the fuss was about. 
• Darker Still, by Leanna Renee Hieber. YA. Won at the Apocalypsies event. I love LRH to pieces, yo, plus this book has a hot dude in an enchanted painting in it!
• Level 2, by Lenore Appelhans. YA. Won at the Apocalypsies event. Her book was much spoken of at the Expo for being the literary work of a former blogger.
• The Diviners, by Libba Bray. YA. Picked up at the Little, Brown Booth. Magical kids in the roaring twenties!
• She Only Wore White, by Dorthe Blinkert and Mel Foster. Translated literary fiction. Picked up at the Amazon Booth. Not sure why I picked this up - I think because it's a period piece that takes place on a boat. No way that can go wrong!
• Beta, by Rachel Cohn. YA. Picked up at the Disney/Hyperion Booth. Sexy clones as servants - could it be like The Island meets Downton Abbey? Or is that the book that I should write?
• What's Left of Me, by Kat Zhang. YA. Picked up at the HarperCollins Booth. I liked the idea of a body being born with two souls - most especially if they are played by Lily Tomlin and Steve Martin.
• Iron-Hearted Violet, by Kelly Barnhill and Iacupo Bruno. Middle Grade. Picked up at the Little, Brown Booth. You had me at the title! Yowza!
• The Land of Stories, by Chris Colfer. Middle Grade. Found in the Children's Book and Author Breakfast Swag bag, later signed. It sounds amazing - I'm a huge fan of fractured fairy tales and this sounds like a real labour of love for the Glee star.
• The Dirty Streets of Heaven, by Tad Williams. Fantasy. Found at the Penguin Booth. TAD WILLIAMS WROTE ANOTHER URBAN FANTASY! I had absolutely NO IDEA his book would be at Book Expo! He hasn't written anything contemporary since The War of the Flowers. Grabbed it!
• Hemingway's Girl, by Ericka Robuck. Historical Fiction. Found in the Book Blogger Con Swag Bag. Historical period, cocktail parties? Scandally scandal? Sounded vaguely good.
• Throne of Glass, by Sarah Maas. YA. Picked up one of the last copies at the Bloomsbury Booth on the last day of BEA. Sounded like a Cinderella-story mixed with The Hunger Games. Could be awesome, or awesomely bad.
• Then Came You, by Jennifer Weiner. Literary Fiction. In my Book Blogger Con Swag Bag. Sue me - I want to see if she writes better than she gives blogger speeches.
• Motherland, by Amy Sohn. Fiction. I got this in my Swag Bag from the Book Bloggers Convention, and even though the author ranted about "damn reviewers," she sold me on her pitch about frustrated wealthy New York moms and their exploits. I just finished reading it, and boy, let me tell you, it's going to make for an interesting review.
• Altered, by Jennifer Rush. YA. Picked up at the Little, Brown Booth. Girl's dad raises hot genetically-altered boys in her barn. Who WOULDN'T want to read this?

BEA Day Three: And Now We Say Goodbye

For the last day of Book Expo, I started it out with breakfast with my blogger friends Ana and Katiebabs. The place Katiebabs had suggested wasn't open yet, so we stopped in at a bakery instead, where Ana enjoyed her first soft boiled egg! Poor Katiebabs was so excited about the cover reveal for the next J.R. Ward book, but she didn't have internet access!

After that, we all cabbed to the Javits Center and parted ways. I, myself, was unsure of what to do at the Javits. If things were quieter on Wednesday than on Tuesday, things were downright silent on Thursday, and there was really only one book I was interested in, so I contemplated just skipping out and going sightseeing.

But as you can tell - I'm so weak.

I stayed until about 1:00 so that I could get David Levithan's Every Day, but also managed a few other finds - a Sarah Mayberry romance, Carnival of Souls, and Fathomless (which sounds like a really interesting and dark retelling of The Little Mermaid).

EDIT EDIT EDIT*** Ah! Mea culpa! There is more - I wrote this rather late at night and totally forgot - but there was a little more to my BEA tale. Due to pure luck and not actually knowing what was planned, I ran into a line of people at the Penguin booth in the afternoon who said they were waiting for John Green, so I got in line. As it turns out, John Green showed up to unveil the newest cover for An Abundance of Katherines, whose new design was chosen from a contest. The winner was there (she was from New Jersey, and it was also the day of her prom) and John Green handed out copies of the new edition, signed by himself. I proceeded to record the whole thing only to realize after he'd disappeared behind a curtain that I'd neglected to press the "Record" button. Ah well! END OF EDIT.

After that I went sightseeing - I decided to walk from my hotel all the way down Fifth Avenue and windowshop like no tomorrow. Didn't buy anything - not only because everything was astronomically expensive, but also because with all the books I'd grabbed I knew I had no room left in my luggage. But I took lots of pictures!

And after hoofin' it all the way down Fifth, I explored the glorious main branch of the New York Public Library.

I limped back to the hotel after that, but not before getting rained on and finding out that one should never take the availability of a New York cab for granted. I flew out the next day, but not before exploring Central Park and discovering that Children's Day is the absolute worst day to visit Central Park's tiny, rather sad zoo. 

And that was basically my Book Expo New York adventure! Would I go again? Um ... I'm not sure. Probably not, actually.

I mean, it was fun to get lots of free books - but I live near a library. I can get free books anytime I want. Honestly, I was looking for more of a social experience, the kind I got from going to writers' conventions like RWA National. I got a little of that from the BEA Book Blogger Con, but I was sick for half of that. BEA itself wasn't very social, in fact. It was a little isolating, particularly for a blogger. I think if I went as a publisher or a librarian or an author, I would be able to take something other than books away from the event, but as a blogger, I felt like a spectator.

But maybe I'll go looking for other conventions to go to. Ones that are closer to what I'm doing now (writing and blogging YA, romance, and fantasy), that aren't quite as expensive as RWA National, that have a great social element and opportunities for meeting new people. 

For now, I'll go back to my regular job (vacation's over, sob!) and start E-mailing the people whose business cards I received!

How were your experiences at BEA?