Book Expo Tips for the Published and Wanna-Be Published

Book Expo's are wonderful ways to learn about the book writing, publishing and marketing industries. The last three years I have attended and come away with some very good lessons. This year I was able to do a book signing at the Mystery Writer's of America table. One can meet a lot of librarians who are interested in placing books in their library. Since that is an important goal for writers, this was a worthwhile experience.

FOR THE PUBLISHED:
Contact your publisher and see if they have a booth. Will they display your book(s)? I am published with Archway (affiliated with Simon & Shuster). They held a reception for their self-published authors. I was able to speak with representatives of the editorial department. I was also able to invite my follow Indy’s to be on my author interview show, The Writer’s Dream.
If you are self-published, check out IBPA to see what they are offering members who attend BEA.
Be prepared to share your experience on facebook and Twitter, or other social media.
Write a blog, just as I am doing.
If you are an autograph collector, bring a wheely for your loot.
Wear comfy shoes.
Chat people up. Hang around the Library Journal booth to speak with library people on how to best deal with getting your books into libraries.

FOR THE NON-PUBLISHED: Spend a day, check out the speakers and attend as many of the lectures as you can. I believe a day pass is $75.00 and can be purchased on-line. You will gather important information about the industry.

Find books in the genre you would like to publish. Look at the books that are being promoted by publishers. Look at format and cover art, font size and layout.
Go home and Google all aspects of creating a book, for example, graphics. The Internet is a vast resource.
I didn’t see much in the way of agents, but I wasn’t looking for them. One way to check into agents is to go to the library, find some books in your genre, look at the acknowledgement page. Authors often mention their agents. Agents have websites with submission guidelines.

FOR YOUR READER-SELF:

Since publishers give away books as a come-on, you can leave with a steamer trunk full of your favorite genre of books.