Tuesday, May 25, 2004
BEA time
One week countdown to leaving for BEA. Hard to believe that yet another summer weekend will be spent going to McCormick in Chicago for the show. My first time was 1997, as a college student working at the Regional Association hospitality suite (this was before Book Sense started their lounge). I pulled three other English majors from our college and rented a hotel room for us to crash at. We took turns changing the coffee cups and snacks and spent the rest of the time wandering the publisher booths. I wish more college students, specifically English majors, could attend the show just to get familiar with all the publishing companies they could work for once they graduate.
I'm stationed at the Phaidon booth for the weekend. If you're going to be at the show, please drop by and ask for Jay. We're taking up two booth spaces, booth #2617 and, in a strange and amazing twist of numbering logic, #2817.
This week I'm setting up appointment times with key accounts. One of my peeps is attending for the first time, so I threw together a quick list of tips. Feel free to post your own BEA sage wisdom in the comments section. (I blatantly stole from Douglas Adams for mine, so feel free to appropriate when necessary.)
Top tips for a first BEA experience:
1. try to attend at least one Author breakfast or lunch. Pick the event that interests you the most. Last year Bill O'Reilly and Al Franken almost got into a fistfight. The media was talking about it for months. Maybe this year Bill Clinton will pick a fight with someone.
2. Don't try to get too many autographed books. The lines are ridiculous for the great authors and the authors will probably have signed copies available at the publisher's booth. Pick carefully.
3. Schedule your days so you know when an important event or talk is at, but relax if you miss it. The place is huge. Attending everything is impossible. It's like trying to ride everything at Disneyworld in under two hours.
4. We all dump catalogs before coming home. You get stuck with too much. Pick up everything that looks interesting and weed at night at the hotel. Pack empty canvas bags in your suitcase and plan on mailing a few boxes home from your hotel.
5. Use the weekend to pick up business cards and meet people. I'm amazed how I continue to run into people I met from my first BEA. As you know, publishing is a small world. A random person you meet on the floor could turn into your publicity contact for a great speaker next year.
6. Attend the evening cocktail hours. Usually good food to snack on, sometimes the programming is interesting.
7. Be aware of book greed. It's easy to spend the whole weekend picking up free advance copies from publishers, or worse, begging for display copies. Resist. Not to say that you would do this, but you'll see MANY MANY people afflicted during the weekend.
8. If you ever see me at an event, say hi. I'm usually internally frantic about not knowing anyone in a crowded room. Safety in numbers.
9. Don't Panic.
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I'm stationed at the Phaidon booth for the weekend. If you're going to be at the show, please drop by and ask for Jay. We're taking up two booth spaces, booth #2617 and, in a strange and amazing twist of numbering logic, #2817.
This week I'm setting up appointment times with key accounts. One of my peeps is attending for the first time, so I threw together a quick list of tips. Feel free to post your own BEA sage wisdom in the comments section. (I blatantly stole from Douglas Adams for mine, so feel free to appropriate when necessary.)
Top tips for a first BEA experience:
1. try to attend at least one Author breakfast or lunch. Pick the event that interests you the most. Last year Bill O'Reilly and Al Franken almost got into a fistfight. The media was talking about it for months. Maybe this year Bill Clinton will pick a fight with someone.
2. Don't try to get too many autographed books. The lines are ridiculous for the great authors and the authors will probably have signed copies available at the publisher's booth. Pick carefully.
3. Schedule your days so you know when an important event or talk is at, but relax if you miss it. The place is huge. Attending everything is impossible. It's like trying to ride everything at Disneyworld in under two hours.
4. We all dump catalogs before coming home. You get stuck with too much. Pick up everything that looks interesting and weed at night at the hotel. Pack empty canvas bags in your suitcase and plan on mailing a few boxes home from your hotel.
5. Use the weekend to pick up business cards and meet people. I'm amazed how I continue to run into people I met from my first BEA. As you know, publishing is a small world. A random person you meet on the floor could turn into your publicity contact for a great speaker next year.
6. Attend the evening cocktail hours. Usually good food to snack on, sometimes the programming is interesting.
7. Be aware of book greed. It's easy to spend the whole weekend picking up free advance copies from publishers, or worse, begging for display copies. Resist. Not to say that you would do this, but you'll see MANY MANY people afflicted during the weekend.
8. If you ever see me at an event, say hi. I'm usually internally frantic about not knowing anyone in a crowded room. Safety in numbers.
9. Don't Panic.
