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At BookExpo, silly dress is optional. (Unless you're an unknown author)
At the largest book trade show in the US, self-promotion was the name of the game.
By Teresa Méndez | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the June 12, 2007 edition
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New York - The country's largest book trade show was spread out over five blocks in the Jacob Javits Convention Center – a meeting place so far on the western edge of Manhattan it seems about ready to topple into the Hudson River.
While by no means a buttoned-up affair, BookExpo America (BEA), which ran May 31-June 3, wasn't exactly the type of circus where you'd expect to see a woman in a firefighter's suit – complete with helmet. Or a young man with an oversize name tag plastered across his entire chest and then some. I, for one, was certainly not expecting to come across God.
But here they all were, roaming among the estimated 36,000 attendees and 2,000 exhibitors where book publishers were offering up their newest and best to ambling booksellers.
The annual convention is mostly about the business of books, though many of the transactions were social. Many of the writers in attendance tended to be of the marquee-name and celebrity variety: Ian McEwan, Khaled Hosseini, Rosie O'Donnell, Jenna Bush. Their appearances were carefully doled out by invitation or ticketed breakfasts and book signings.
The firefighters and God, not to mention a man wearing a giant name tag and a woman wearing a decorated safari hat, on the other hand, could be found more easily. They were wandering the convention center floors, past publishers' booths, and through the food courts. They were mostly here on their own dime.
In a business where just shy of 300,000 books were published last year, finding a way to be seen is essential – particularly if you are self-published or with a small press lacking deep pockets for marketing.
"In that whole pile, you have to somehow stand out or have some unique way of reaching booksellers," said Diana Guerrero, who traveled here from Fawnskin, a tiny town in California, to promote her book, "Blessing of the Animals: A Guide to Prayers & Ceremonies Celebrating Pets & Other Creatures" (Sterling Publishing).
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