My Day at BEA (Book Expo America)

This was my first year at Book Expo America, an event I recommend highly to all teachers, librarians, writers, and publishing people. Thanks to my friend Jody, I had the opportunity to attend in a unique way. This is what BEA looked like when I arrived:




Notice the lack of people. BEA opened at 9:00. My day started at 7:00am.

As a volunteer in the autographing area, I was in charge of signs. At 7:30 I placed the hanging signs on the poles. Then, starting at 10:30, each half hour I switched them to make sure the right book hung from all 30 autograph lines. It was a tough job (only because the signs hung at about 5'9" and I am 5'2"), but someone had to do it.

Other than the sign turning, I spent the day visiting booths, meeting friends, talking to authors, editors, agents, and librarians. I also spent a lot of time in the Green Room, welcoming authors and their entourage, as they prepared for their signing time.

Here are some highlights of my day:


1. Being fifth online for Kate DiCamillo as she signed hard copy editions of the Tales of Despereaux at the First Book booth. My only disappointment of the day was missing the chance to get the ARC of her new book, The Magicians Elephant.



2. Meeting the Tiffanys in the real world. Here are twitter friends Tiffany Schmidt (in purple) and Tiffany E (in pink).

3. Talking with editors/publishers Joni Sussman of Kar-Ben, Andrea Spooner and Jennifer Hunt from Little, Brown, Evelyn Fazio from WestSide Books, Andrea Davis Pinkney from Scholastic, and literary agent Michael Bourret.

4. Being surrounded by writers, publishing companies, and LOTS of books.

5. Taking home 20!!! free books/ARCs, 5 of them signed. Here is Tiffany Schmidt getting a book signed by Sara Zarr.











In the end, I left BEA tired and worn with lots to read and remember. (BEA at 6:15 pm).

What I Am Reading: Purge

Purge by Sarah Littman

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Sarah Darer Littman's new book Purge is the story of Janie, a girl who is in a hospital for people with eating disorders. Using a combination of group sessions, diary entries, and relationships with other people in the hospital, Sarah opens a window into the all to real world of people with eating issues. A definite "must read" for adults and teens.


View all my reviews.

The Twitch

Nice Mommy/Evil Editor, Anglea James, has a great post this week called, "What can Twitter do for your pitch?"

In a nutshell, she recommends practicing your pitch (or twitch) on twitter to take advantage of the 140 character limit. By limiting the number of characters you can use, you have to get rid of the garbage and get down to what really matters.

She says, "But what I’m getting at is that it’s important to be able for authors to refine your book to its purest hook. The conflict, the angst, the info that’s going to make a reader, editor or agent want to pick it up to read, go find an excerpt, request a full or keep reading your query letter."

(One side note: She clearly states that one should never actually send this twitch TO an agent of editor directly. Too tacky.)

So, my twitch: 10yo Zoey would do ANYTHING to save her parent's marriage. But can a carsick mosquito-phobe survive a cross country camping trip?

How'd I do? Would you read it?