Knocking on the doors of BEA

The primary purpose of the show has traditionally been to make booksellers aware of publishers’ fall lists. However, between the decreasing number of independent booksellers who now generate less than 20 percent of book sales and the fact that sales reps have already sold the fall list by the time BEA takes place, the convention is in the process of reinventing itself. But your understanding of publishing will not be complete until you have been to BEA. It’s the only opportunity to see almost all of trade publishing in one place. Observing how publishers promote their books to the trade will be an eye-opening experience.

The BEA offers an unparalelled opportunity to meet other authors, publicists, people in the media, subsidiary rights buyers and your publisher’s sales and marketing staff.

You will also have the chance to shake hands with as many “blue badges” as you can find. They are worn by booksellers who, as their numbers decline, are treated like royalty. Until the industry started losing 150 booksellers a month, the number of booksellers in attendance was a litmus test of how successful the convention was.

The BEA will enable you to place your books in the context of the thousands of others that will be published in the fall. Going to BEA is one of the best ways to keep tabs on what’s happening in the business, especially if you’re living outside of New York.

It will be most worth your while to attend BEA when you have a book coming out in the fall. Then you will want to talk up your opus to as many blue badges as you can buttonhole. They will be valuable sources of information about local media and about what kind of promotion generates sales. The booksellers you meet may be willing to host mini workshops in their cities. The BEA is a superb opportunity both to learn about how publishing works and to forge friendships that may last a lifetime.

All you need to join the family is a passion for writing and books and a bemused fascination with the industry’s perpetual gyrations. The more you attend BEA, the larger your family will grow.

Attending BEA will also give the sales and marketing staff in your publisher’s booth the opportunity to make your book stand out from the hundreds of others they sell by matching your book with the author behind them.

Publishers are able to bring only a few authors to BEA, if any. Their first choices will be the authors who need the exposure least but whom booksellers most want to hear and meet: celebrities and best-selling writers.

Your publisher may not want other authors in their booth distracting the staff, whose job is to justify their travel expenses by helping as many blue badges as they can.

That said, if yours is a fall book, your publisher may be willing to provide a badge for you for at least one of the three days the show runs. If not, you can register as an author. Register in advance or the day before the show opens. Opening day generates a line that may take you hours to get through.
If your agent is attending, he or she may be willing to add your name to the registration form, especially if you pay for the ticket.

BEA is a valuable source of contacts and knowledge, making it an essential learning tool for authors. For many of the more than twenty-five thousand people who attend it, BEA is also like a family reunion at which they meet friends from around the country they see only at the show.

The excitement of being at the convention, the parties, learning about the business, being inspired by the speakers, catching up with old friends and making new ones make BEA an extremely enjoyable way to combine business and pleasure. You will also enjoy picking up complimentary galleys of upcoming books and other freebies.

Although what the BEA offers is worth more than the cost of attending, traveling costs will add up. So entrepreneurial authors make it a goal to find people with whom they can stay or share the cost of a room. Ditto for the cost of driving to the convention if that’s an option.

Join Us at BEA—Time is Running Out to Register! All you need is your ISBN and to follow this link for instructions.

GUERRILLA TACTIC FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL AUTHORS
When you re at BEA check out the press room to see if any media people are around and do a reconnaissance of the publicity materials set out for the media. Also attend trade shows in your field. Thousands of regional and national trade shows take place a year Whether you re writing about interior design or mortgages there is a trade show that can help you under stand how to make your books as salable as possible and reach the gatekeepers between you and your readers.

Don’t forget one of the best annual BEA events. The day before activities which include our very own Author 101 University where publishing and marketing experts reveal tools and techniques to get your book published and double or triple your income as an author.

Join Mark Victor Hansen, Rick Frishman, Brendon Burchard, Barbara DeAngeles, Alex Carroll, myself and a hand picked publishing panel of editors, agents and publishers this year at Author 101 University on May 28, 2008 in New York at the SkyLine Hotel from 8:00am to 6:00pm.

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