As the largest meeting of book trade professionals, BookExpo America attracts between 20,000 to 30,000 booksellers, distributors, marketing and publicity professionals, editors, librarians, agents and scouts each year in addition to over 1,000 authors and 1,500 exhibitors.
What’s New at BEA 2010?
Already hosting around 75 educational conference sessions, BookExpo America 2010 introduces many new seminars, events and platforms geared to make the many attending professionals very happy. Here’s an overview of some of the innovations:
- mid-week show timings
- keynote address by Barbra Streisand
- new Midtown Author Stage
- Digital Book Stage
- Global Market Forum: Spanish Publishing
- New York Book Week
- Librarian Lounge
- Independent Publishers Lounge
Special mention deserves the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) 2010 Conference, held on the BEA show floor. At this new initiative, interested attendees can learn more about digital devices, applications, business models, publishing “best practices,” EPUB and more.
BEA Show Timings and Dates
This year, show organizers decided to try out visitors’ suggestions and moved the exhibition from its weekend schedule to a mid-week slot. The venue hasn’t changed; it is still the Jakob K. Javits Convention Center at 635 West 34th Street. Here are the days and opening hours at a glance:
- Monday, May 24: 8 am – 5 pm (BEA DIY Authors Conference & Marketplace only)
- Tuesday, May 25: 10 am – 5 pm
- Wednesday, May 26: 9 am – 6 pm
- Thursday, May 27: 9 am – 5 pm
BEA DIY Authors Conference & Marketplace
Another call answered at BookExpo America 2010 is that of the many writers participating in BEA each year. For the first time, they will have a dedicated platform to connect with each other and many do-it-yourself service providers like Amazon, Author Solutions, Blurb.com, FastPencil, Filedby and SharedBook. Launched in association with the Gotham Writers’ Workshop and The Writer magazine, the DIY Authors Conference is BEA’s answer to the rapid growth and change in the self-publishing world.
Says BEA’s show manager Steve Rosato about the new initiative: “Aspiring writers are empowered by technology in a manner that they never have been in the past. Authors may now forge their own way in the world of publishing and this means they will need to make lots of critical decisions. Our goal in creating DIY is to make this process simpler by providing them with information and solutions.”
Visitors of this year's BEA can take advantage of many new initiatives and events that will manifest the show's position as leading North American publishing fair further. Readers interested in this article may also want to read about London Book Fair (LBF), taking place from April 19-21 in London, UK.
Simone Preuss - Simone is a freelance writer, editor and translator who decided to go solo after a successful career in publishing. That was more than ...
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