Giving It To You Straight: BEA

The L.A. Convention Center has gone dark and BookExpo America (BEA) has come to a close, leaving in its wake 30,000 exhausted attendees, 60,000 weary feet, and countless tote bags stuffed with catalogs, business cards and readers’ copies. Strong trade show floor traffic, provocative and informative programming, and a wealth of networking opportunities combined to make the 2008 BookExpo America a huge success.

With over 2,000 exhibits to visit, including 1,200 publishers, we were able to see the very best the book world had to offer. The exhibition halls showcased major publishers, independents, university presses and audio publishers, sharing books in all formats and of every genre. BEA is the only publishing industry event where it’s possible to observe and be exposed to the full spectrum of book publishing under one roof.

Visiting the BookExpo America each year proves to be invaluable for our agency and the authors we represent. It is the ultimate exposure and a wonderful opportunity for one-on-one discussions with prospective publishers. This year, we met with editors from over 100 publishing houses, reestablishing old contacts and making several new ones. There were a number of new publishers that made their debut at the show. These houses were eager to talk with us and review our clients’ material.

We naturally visited the top publishing houses that were present, but also made it a point to introduce ourselves to several offbeat, smaller publishers—those that would take a chance with first time authors. Several selected houses showed interest in the genres we were representing, and asked us to send submission packages for manuscripts written by our clients.

Working the floor for three days was invigorating, worthwhile, and exhausting. Personally meeting with publishers and introducing our clients’ work certainly gave those clients an invaluable advantage!

Lisa Martin owns Martin-McLean Literary Associates LLC. She represents established authors as well as new writers.