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What You Would Have Learned at BEA

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photo-62The publishing world was a curious mix of hyperactivity and near-total silence last week, which can mean only one thing: Book Expo America, known as BEA. It’s an absolutely immense industry-only tradeshow and the largest publishing event in the U.S. by far, with roughly 20,000 publishing industry professionals in attendance.

If you didn’t go, you might feel left out. But never fear! Here’s everything you would have learned if you’d gone.

If you’re an aspiring author, there’s pretty much no reason to go. Here I can’t say it any better than power agent and tell-it-like-it-is internet presence Janet Reid in a recent post on her blog:

BEA is NOT a place for writers to meet agents or try to get info on getting published.  Yes, I’ll be there. So will everyone from my office. I’m not there to meet you. I’m there to see what publishers are doing. I’m there to meet with my co-agents from far flung lands.  I’m there to get a sense of the sea changes in the industry… You want to go to WRITER’S CONFERENCES, not trade shows.  Go where agents ARE actively looking to talk to you.

Boom! Aren’t you glad you didn’t go? Cross it off your list.

There are so many books. Possibly too many. Anyone who’s been to BEA, even for a part of a day, will tell you there’s one word that first springs to mind: overwhelming. If you’ve ever needed a physical representation of what it’s like to be a reader, this is it — rows and rows, tables and tables, yards and yards (that feel like miles) of books. Smiling people behind those tables, eager to have you show interest in the books they’re offering. Publishers, self-publishers, associations, sites, etc. Every long aisle gives way to another one, just as long, over and over. Hundreds of galleys being given away, hundreds of authors signing. And it’s precisely because of the overwhelmingness of publishing that you’ll recognize the third lesson of BEA:

Publishers place their bets. You can preview half of next year’s bestseller lists by looking at the BEA posters and displays. It’s no secret that not every published book gets equal treatment, in part because that’s impossible, and in part because the blockbuster model (one Gone Girl subsidizes hundreds of debuts that never make back their advance) still seems to be the Holy Grail of publisher marketing. Coverage begets coverage, so the books that are heavily touted by the publishers or a “Buzz Panel” are books that stand a way better than average chance of doing well in the marketplace. That doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed success, but it sure helps. (If you haven’t heard of Garth Risk Halberg’s City on Fire yet, believe me, you will.)

So you might have missed out on some free galleys, and you certainly missed out on the aching feet and general fatigue that comes with attending, but all in all, you don’t need to see BEA for yourself to understand what it says about publishing. That much, we can see from here.

Q: if you did go to BEA this year or have gone in previous years, are there other things you learned? Reasons to go or not go?

About Jael McHenry

Jael McHenry is the debut author of The Kitchen Daughter (Simon & Schuster/Gallery Books, April 12, 2011). Her work has appeared in publications such as the North American Review, Indiana Review, and the Graduate Review at American University, where she earned her MFA in Creative Writing. You can read more about Jael and her book at jaelmchenry.com or follow her on Twitter at @jaelmchenry.

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Comments

  1. Hi Jael. I’m so glad to hear your thoughts on BEA. I’ve often wondered if it’s worth it for authors to attend and have toyed with the idea of attending some time. I did attend the Miami International Book Fair last year and found it aimed more at the retail bookseller than anything else. I did like meeting other book lovers like myself and chatting with publishing professionals. So, socially it was a fun experience. May I ask, do you recommend it for authors who want to connect to indie publishers with the intention of submitting manuscripts? Were there a good number of indie pubs there?

  2. Jael-

    I was at BEA this year. For me as agent it’s a professional must.

    Me and my staff have meetings in the IRC (International Rights Center), a vast airy box with a Hudson River view. Removed from the convention floor, we meet with audio publishers, foreign scouts and publishers, L.A. agents and producers.

    I also walk the convention floor for impromptu meetings, greeting and bumping into publishing buddies. I snag catalogs of interest and the occasional galley giveaway. I stop at booth signings by our clients.

    It’s all about face-to-face connections. Nothing will ever completely replace that.

    One of the pleasures this year was an hour of drinks at a nearby hotel with WU-ers Therese Walsh, Catherine McKenzie, Jane Friedman and the ever-entertaining Porter Anderson. Don’t you wish you were there?

    My point. For authors BEA may not have a dollar-for-dollar return without a new release to promote, but conventions aren’t wholly about profit. They’re about education, connection and getting out of one’s own screwy head.

    • Just want to ratify this good note, Don — and the pleasure of our drinks on Friday with Jane and Therese and Catherine was exactly what I needed to help me crawl across the tarmac to my plane at LaGuardia on Saturday after BookCon.

      If I was even a Xerox of my “ever-entertaining” self at that point, then I owe it to the Aperol.

      Viva, Gruppo Campari!

      Sorry, I don’t know what came over me. :)

      I agree with you and might try a bit of a provocation on this one, since Jael has done an excellent job of setting the tone for us.

      And that IS a swell view of the Hudson. Every year when I walk up on “the bridge’ at the Javits, I envy you agents in the rights center. We’ll need our binoculars to spot the Hudson next year from Chicago.

      -p.

      On Twitter: @Porter Anderson

    • If not for the traffic, we would’ve been there a lot sooner, too. I really enjoyed the meet-up — and being face-to-face with Jane for the first time! And I agree: networking really is everything at events like this.

  3. I’ve been to four BEAs, as a writer. I learned a great deal at each one, DC, Chicago, and two in New York City. Did it make me a better writer? Maybe not but I got a clear snapshot of the competition, and arrived home with even more enthusiasm to become that better writer. I met agents, publishers, and other writers wherever I could find them. Did the connections help in the end? No. But I educated myself in the industry, and the business end of writing. As a result, my novel, Televenge, landed as the Library Journal Editor’s Pick BookExpo America 2012. It’s true that it is not necessary for a writer to attend but I would not let that stop you from going. For a writer, it’s a valuable education. Don’t go to stalk agents and publishers, but if you’re lucky you’ll run into a kind one who is willing to give you a few minutes of their time. You never know what you might learn.

  4. I just saw that BEA will be in Chicago next year, in McCormick Place, which is about an hour’s drive for me. And although I take your meaning about it not being necessary for those who still aspire, Chi-town will be a much greater lure, particularly if any WU folks would be interested in gathering.

    Thanks for the inside scoop, Jael! (Btw, I’m wondering which name was on your name-tag this year. If it was the penname, was that weird?)

    • Hey, Vaughn,

      I’m having some trouble with our Beloved Writer Unboxed Comment Technology here tonight — Merc is so retro, and as a 6-planet Gemini this means I can barely walk — but if I can get my comment to Jael up, you’ll see me saying that if you decide you want to see BEA next year in Chicago, I’ll give you a Personal Porter Tour of the floor and introduce you to the many doings and whatnot going on in that amazing event.

      Jael has done us the service of giving me what I think will be my Provocation for this month on the 19th. And maybe by next year we’ll have a bit of a delegation from WU that would like to see the big show and get a sense for what it is.

      Note that it’s not only in Chicago but earlier than this year — 11 to 13 May 2016.

      And I didn’t see Jael there this year.

      So she must have been using the pen name, right?

      :)

      -p.

      On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson

  5. Yo, Jael,

    Thanks for this piece. You do a very good job of laying out the understanding that many if not most authors have about BEA and about trade shows in general. And while your comments aren’t “wrong,” I also have a few thoughts I should put together along the lines of what Don Maass is saying. (I’ll blame them all on you, Don, lol.)

    I believe you’ve handed me a good topic for a Provocations in Publishing piece this month, in fact, so I’ll try to get back to this on 19th June.

    Briefly — warming up, as it were, lol:

    I think there is a perspective issue here to be considered, one that many of us have overlooked at times but which hits me more forcefully each year, not just at BEA but also at London Book Fair and at Frankfurt Book Fair, our other two great Western trade shows of the year.

    Let me give you just one number from this year’s BookExpo (maybe the only one I can remember, still not 48 hours off the plane here):

    More than 600 authors signed books at BEA this year. And that’s *before* BookCon brought its roughly 20,000 readers into the building on Saturday and Sunday after BEA. Those 600+ authors were signing books mostly at their publishers’ request. They were signing them for booksellers who then took their signed copies back home to read (the poor luggage guys at LGA) — and maybe will now order and sell those books in their stores because they met those authors at BEA.

    Among the 600+ there were some authors who put themselves there, as well, independents like Holly Ward (H.M. Ward) who contacted me because she wanted to buy a table in the Author Marketplace — you can do that, you know, as I have madly tweeted for six months, lol. Buy one of those tables and you get a signing of your own right alongside the publishers’ authors. What value is that to an indie? Well it depends on whether you’ve built enough awareness of your work that trade show attendees might be interested. Not all indies are at that point, certainly. But Holly with her Kindle Million status is — and others are working hard to flank her with their own notoriety.

    Personally, I don’t believe that our trade show administrations are there yet in terms of discovering the most meaningful engagement for authors. And I think they’d agree. To a person, i find them to be concerned, engaged pros who would like to understand better ways to involve the creative corps.

    But the trade show per se is an event created decades ago for the trade, for the industry, and recent years’ efforts to include authors in one way or another (I can go into more in my piece this month to explain) are still new and experimental. But that doesn’t mean these efforts aren’t well-meant.

    These massive (you’re right) shows are trying to figure out how to turn an 18-wheeler into a comfortable sedan for a new class of customer. No one would get this right on the first try.

    The good news is that there’s an awareness on the part of the indefatigable Steven Rosato who directs BEA and the gracious Jacks Thomas who directs LBF (London), and my fine, fine colleagues in Frankfurt — Juergen Boos, Holger Volland, Thomas Minkus, and so many others there. No blind eye is being turned, I can guarantee you. I work directly with these folks. They’re aware and trying things.

    And this is not to say that every author in the land needs to hie him- or herself to next year’s BEA or LBF or to October’s Buchmesse.

    But honestly — still thinking toward my longer piece — I think I might ask for a bit more perspective and even patience from our authors on this. “Nothing there for authors, move along” is an overstatement. These shows are mighty ships that simply can’t turn on a dime. And I think there are values in place right now that many writers overlook.

    As much as we all love Janet Reid, I’d never recommend crossing something off my list on the say-so of a blue shark. :)

    And, just for the record, there WAS an authors’ conference at BEA this year, as there has been for many years. It’s called uPublishU and is aimed, obviously, at independent authors. In fact, Ben Galley, one of our Alliance of Independent Authors stalwarts from the UK, was there leading a panel.

    Janet is absolutely right that the trade show is not the place to go meet agents. Indeed, the Rights Center at each of these events has controlled access, which makes good sense, so that about 100 one-on-one meetings can go on in one large room between agents, publishers, producers, etc., as Don is describing.

    But I think there’s something else important there for an author. We might engage the independent writer Viki Noe on this, she goes every year and is now a seasoned observer of the floor.

    And since Vaughn has chimed in here, I might just offer him a personal tour next year in Chicago if he comes to BEA — in fact, we might form a bit of a WU Delegation if some would like to come along, and I’d be happy to introduce the group to “The Floor” as we call it and the activities going on there and all around it in conference rooms, and huge special-events halls. Wear sensible shoes. :)

    This is a good topic and you’ve started it well for us, Jael, thanks!
    -p.

    On Twitter: @Porter_Anderson

    • That’s an excellent idea, Porter: a tour from someone who understands the lay of the land in a way few of us ever could seems extremely valuable.

  6. I’ve never been at BEA. But after reading your article I’m desperately want to go there. Endless aisles with books, a lot of trustworthy publishers and free galleys – sounds like heaven.