If you're not familiar, BEA is the largest publishing trade show in North America, attracting industry peeps from around the globe, not to mention authors, agents, editors, a slew of celebrities, and most importantly - librarians, educators, and booksellers. No matter how fancy the booth, those are the true stars of an event like BEA, the people who actually buy the books and promote them / use them in the real world.
Luckily, I attended BEA wearing several different hats and was able to get the most out of the show, from multiple angles. I was there as author Judith Tewes who had a wonderful time meeting my Bloomsbury Spark editor, Meredith Rich, as well as fellow publishing house sisters, Pippa Lancaster, Christine Duval, and Ashley Poston for a tour of the Bloomsbury offices and a super lunch off Broadway.
Judith Graves, the other me, did a signing of a book launching in October, EXPOSED is one volume in the Retribution Trilogy being released by Orca Book Publishers.
But I was also at the show as co-publisher of Leap Books and managed to work in meetings with one of our authors and Leap's founder. The shows many sessions on marketing, publishing trends, etc came in handy, as did the multitude of networking opportunities. Like the Blogger / Author Meet-Up I organized. Such fun to meet new author/blogger friends as well as connect with people I've known through social media, but finally got to see face-to-face.
Plus, my husband and I managed to work in a full day of touring NY and I scooped up a bunch of great new titles, swag, and resources to bring home and share with my school library.
Would I go back? Hell, yeah!
Sounds awesome! :D