Feature: BookExpo/BookCon 2017
Event Recap & Giveaway!
Attending BookExpo & BookCon is a completely different experience from year to year! This year the event was back in NYC at the Javits Convention Center. I had a blast using Instagram stories to keep you all in the moment with me, Even though you might have missed this event you can follow me on Instagram for future event coverage (and a lot of book mail hauls)!
So if you would like to know more about out my personal experience keep on reading. Be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win some swag & an ARC from my giveaway pile!
Wednesday:
I was thrilled to be invited to the NOVL Brunch at the Hachette offices. It was an amazing event, centered around Ryan Graudin’s upcoming title, Invictus, releasing on September 26th. This book sounds so perfect! Ryan described it as a group of time-traveling thieves, a la Dr. Who meets Firefly! I am so here for this!
We also got to hear from the editors of a bunch of the upcoming fall titles. Did you know that Elly Blake’s 2nd book in the Frostblood saga is on an 9 month publishing cycle? So Fireblood is due to release on September 12th! I love this shortened publishing cycle, with the ever increasing tendency to binge everything these days, I think this is a really awesome move!
This year there was no half day show floor for BookExpo, which really disappointed me. I loved the half day in 2016. If I had known and understood the schedule better, I would have attended BlogBound. Instead I picked up my registration, and met up with one of the bookseller friends I met last year! Hi Ellie!
My group & I decided to walk across the city and head to Union Square to visit Books of Wonder, The Strand, Forbidden Planet, and the massive Barnes and Noble. I haven’t been to any of these stores before so it was amazing! I shelved my anxiety, unlike past years, and said “Hi” to a group that I recognized from twitter. Shelly (@Shellyrambles on twitter), whom I have been following for years, and she always has the best LGBTQIA+ book recs. Mish (@chasingfaes) & Joey (@afterthoughtAn) were also there and at brunch, and I saw them around for the rest of the event! So great seeing you all!
I also did what I tend to do in bookstores and talk to random strangers about books they may be looking at, and since I haven’t stopped talking about Ashley Poston’s Geekerella since I read it, when I saw someone with it in their hands and I was like “I love that book!” and it turned out to be Chelsea Fought from PYR! At least she knows what kind of blogger I am, a bigmouthed one who rec’s books to strangers!
Thursday:
Started off by waking up ridiculously early (4:57 am!) but we were able to get all the signing tickets for the authors we wanted and one of them ran out right after me!
Signings included:
- Maggie Stiefvater’s upcoming All the Crooked Saints! This was a hot commodity but duh it’s Maggie! Plus like usual David Levithan was with her & I love him too!
- Cora Carmack’s Roar! I will be giving away my preorder on twitter now that I have a signed FINISHED COPY!
- And Leigh Bardugo! Yes, I waited in like for a signed sampler of Language of Thorns. 1. It is LEIGH BARDUGO! 2. I have the biggest crush on her! 3. The sampler is gorgeous and really well produced. Embossed cover, color printed graphics and text – definitely worth it! I can only imagine how gorgeous the hardcover will be, releasing on September 26th! 4. I will always wait for Leigh, except if it was at BookCon for Wonder Woman: Warbringer (hahaha those lines were absolutely crazy and I luckily already grabbed it at YallWest!)
- I also was able to get in some non-ticketed lines or in-booth signings for: Beserker by Emmy Laybourne; Kristin Cashore’s Jane, Unlimited; Tillie Walden’s memior graphic novel, Spinning; and last but not least, Lauren Oliver’s Ringer (Replica #2) – which she signed on both title pages – so fun!
Thursday ended with a nice haul (since I was staying in a small apartment with 6 others, I never took daily haul pics). I ended the night attending the Big Honcho Media Stay Golden Party and hung out with the amazing bloggers Brittany, from bbookrambles, and Heidi, from YA Bibliophile, as well as Chelsea from Penguin! So thankful for them hanging out with me, as I waited for Karen from Hypable!
Friday:
Since I didn’t get home until 1am, waking up at 5am AGAIN, was just too much, I was sassy today. I was over this early morning bullshit…but yay, BOOKEXPO!
Signing Highlights:
- Marieke Nijkamp signing Before I Let Go!! I can’t tell you how excited I was! AHHH! Really cool!
- If There’s No Tomorrow by Jennifer L. Armentrout; the line was crazy long so happy to get one of these!
- I was lucky enough to meet Kerri Maniscalco and snagging a Hunting Prince Dracula ARC! I hadn’t ever met Kerri so I was all smiles. My natural defense is just smiling and turning red.
- Another highly anticipated book was Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore! I also got to chat with her more later that night!
- I honestly love the signings, and another I was lucky to wait for was a Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao, she admitted later that this was her first public signing as an author! How exciting!
- And I ended the day getting NPH’s signature! Yes, THE Neil Patrick Harris was there signing his new middle grade book, The Magic Misfits!
That night was rounded out perfectly with Happy Hour MCPG Publicity! I can’t even tell you how exciting this was! Hanging out with so many great bloggers, publishers, and authors!
BookCon Saturday & Sunday:
BookCon was really, really crowded but so damn fun! It is a lot of line waiting but I was so lucky to get to see Laini Taylor, Rainbow Rowell, and Stephanie Garber on Saturday. On Sunday I was able to see Marie Lu and Scott Westerfeld!
One of my number 1 goals for BookCon was to try and meet Rainbow Rowell, and since her presale for the autographing line sold out too fast, my 2nd chance was to get to the MacMillian booth and wait for a ticket. Another failure, so I resigned to not meeting my Con goals. Oh well, time to try for some special ARCs and signature line waiting.
While waiting in Laini Taylor’s autographine line, I strike up a conversation. I was truly curious if this 12 year old had read Laini’s books because they can be a little deep for me. She’s read & loved them! We talk about the rest of their plans, and I mention mine and how I missed tickets for Rainbow. They just happened to have a ticket and decided they wanted to go to a panel together at that time instead! The kindness of strangers will never cease to amaze me. They made my day! We also talked ACoTaR series, because her mother is just starting them and her daughter already finished! Awkward! Also major thanks to more line waiters this time in Rainbow’s line, a father gave me his Carry On poster they handed out in the panel earlier! So amazing!
Having the signing tickets secured ahead of time took a lot of the pressure off in the morning. I was able to just walk around and enjoy the setup. Got to say hi to Ashley Poston as she walked around! I also ran into CB Lee and was so excited that to get her books signed! Thank you so much for leaving your friends and taking a few minutes to sign for me! So kind!
One of my favorite giveaways last year was the First in Line event, and this year they rebranded into Underlined and the swag was on point! A beautiful zipper tote, beach towel, a small zipper pouch, and of course some arcs!
I am so glad I was able to visit OwlCrate during BookExpo days and get to say hello to all the wonderful people there, since the line was insane during BookCon, I love them all so much, sweet, sweet group. I love seeing them at all the festivals!
Another huge thanks to the amazing breakfast hosted by Penguin Young Readers Highlighting the Game-Changers! How fun it was to listen to authors pitch their books to bloggers, it really felt backwards! But my table of fellow bloggers asked such great questions and had so many amazing thoughts and ideas!
Giveaway:
Leave a comment! I will pick one person (US Only – sorry), for a random swag pack & a book or ARC of choice from my giveaway pile! Open until the 19th!
Not entering (because you’re being a booger and wanting to keep all the cool things LMAO jk bc i love you)
Just saying, holy cow you did amazing and omg JLA, Barduge and MS!! yay
#bloggergoals #kellyisthekoolest
Sounds like a blast (except for that getting up early part!). I want so bad to go to a big book event, but everything’s a great distance and I have no one to go with! All those great titles and names, though …but still it sounds kind of exhausting (in the best way). Maybe one of these days I’ll find a slightly smaller scale one, and a bookish travel buddy, who also likes sightseeing. Because I’ve never been anywhere like NYC and I can’t imagine not seeing the major tourist stuff. Thanks for the chance. 🙂
Thanks for sharing! I’ve never been to one of these events and it’s always fun to hear about them. I would be like a chocoholic in Willy Wonka’s factory at one of these.
Thanks for sharing and for the giveaway! 🙂
Kerri Maniscalco – I can’t wait for Hunting Prince Dracula. I loved her Stalking Jack The Ripper. Berserker is one I am interested in seeing how the story goes. Congrats on getting the signed Roar!
So jealous you got to meet Rainbow Rowell! Glad you had such a great time!
Looks like so much fun! I’m so glad you got to visit with so many incredible authors! 🙂
I’m so sad I didn’t get to go this year – it sounds like you had an amazing time!
It sounds like you had such a great time 😀 I’m sorry you didn’t get to meet Rainbow. I scored a ticket for her autographing line and she was a genuine sweetheart.
This sounds like such an amazing time. And you met so many lovely authors <3
Don’t know if that comment posted, so posting again. I’m so glad you had a lovely time! <3
Thank you for your comment (it did throw you into spam) So now they are both here! Thanks again!
I’m dying to go to these events! Looks like you had an amazing time. 🙂 Hopefully I’ll be brave enough to take a plane there next year. Lol
Oh how awesome, Mina! I hope you can try!
So sad that i couldn’t go this year! Sounds like you had sm fun! I’m glad you had such a good time!!
Nice meeting you again stinks didn’t get to talk much. But I loved hearing about your experience of the event. And all these in publishing house breakfast and those things Iv never gone to.
It was great to see you again too! The publisher events are a dream! Makes the trip worth it for real. It took a few years before I started getting invited, and last year I was invited to completely different events than this year…I wasn’t sure if it was just me or the other events didn’t occur this year. But I had a blast!
Definitely a better experience than I had! That novl brunch sounded amazing and I’m super jealous! This was my first year at bookcon and had a overall good experience ( minus people snatching posters out of my bag and shoving me off lines during ticket handouts for giveaways/signings) but I had so much fun and am in withdrawals lol
OMG…That is horrible Gina! I am so sorry to hear that happened to you. Sometimes fans can be brutal! I had less cares about BookCon so I stayed out of the big melee and I was pretty much in the signing lines the whole time.
What an awesome post! This was my first BookCon and I had such an amazing time. I also have a gigantic crush on Leigh Bardugo ? I want to two of her panels and had the great pleasure of being able to meet her in the cafeteria area! I had missed out on her signings (and like you said the lines for her in-booth were crazyyyy) so it was incredible to be able to meet her at random. What an awesome person and spectacular writer she is. That being said, I’d love to enter your giveaway! Glad you had such an amazing BookExpo and BookCon, can’t wait for next year!
Oh that is an awesome story Colleen! I am glad you were able to have such a fun time and now have a great story about meeting Leigh in person! Thanks for stopping by and best of luck!
Hey!! You have such a cool blog! I am an aspiring book blogger as well so I find people like you really inspiring. Sounds like you had a lot of fun at bookexpo and bookcon. Thanks for hosting this giveaway!
Awww thanks so much Shristhi! I appreciate hearing that more than you know! All the best!
Wow, I’m so envious! It sounds like you had a great time! Thanks for the great giveaway!
Book conventions always sound like an amazing time, and it seems your experience was incredible! I’m hoping to start going to more bookish conventions this year, and hopefully make it to BookCon next year because it sounds like a dream for book lovers <3
Uhg! I am so jealous, but it sounds like you had an absolute blast!
Even if it wasn’t signed I would’ve waited in line for the Language of Thorns sampler just because the cover is so gorgeous ?.
I got Wild Beauty back at the LA Times Festival of books in April. It’s amazing. You should definitely put it on your immediate TBR if you haven’t read it already.
I’m dying to go to bookexpo. I’m glad you had fun!
Oh Wild Beauty is high on my list! But I have so many June & July releases I have to read…that is one of the hardest parts of getting all these fall titles, as I want to read them ASAP but I have obligations. Thanks for stopping by!
ugh, I totally understand.
Loved reading your recap!!!
I’m so glad you were able to do all you wanted!!! Book people are the best!!!
I’m not sure if I could handle all the people and the lines… I do love hearing about everyone’s experience at these big events!
Thanks for the giveaway! <3
THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED. Will choose a winner shortly! I need to get a pic of my ARC pile together first so I can share some of the choices! Thanks everyone & good luck!