(Mostly) Free Books!
Apr. 29th, 2004 02:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eruthrosIt just occurred to me that it's very nearly May and I haven't pimped the ABA/BEA since November!
Attention![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
copperbadge, casira, and ryca13, who previously expressed interest, and of course anyone else who thinks the idea of a giant convention filled with people giving away books for free and talking about books and loving books is a good idea:
They finally got around to posting the autographing schedule for the June 3-6th American Booksellers Association Convention (now BookExpo America! complete with exclamation mark). That's about 500+ authors, and each of them will be giving their books away. Signed to you and everything. In fact, they'll usually give you two. And then they'll thank you for being so kind as to accept a signed free copy. *g*
Sadly, the schedule doesn't look as fun (to me) as last year's, but that's largely because any list of authors isn't as cool without Neil Gaiman's name on it. *g* Still. 500+ authors. Books aplenty.
Plus, most publishers try to get publicity for their new books by ... giving them away. Just stacks of books in the booth, and as you go past you grab a copy or two or three. This year Titan's giving away Neil Gaiman's bio of Douglas Adams, for example. And of course some of them are ARCs (which we used to call bound galleys when the book industry was less, well, industrial), which means that they're not just free -- you also get to casually say to your friends "oh, I read that six months ago" when they start getting excited about new bestsellers. (For example, from last year's ABA, I read the Amulet of Samarkand months in advance, and then it turned up in the top ten of the Bestseller list. Me: "oh, yes, I met the author." *g*)
ARCs are actually the cheapest thing to give away, so they're cheaper publicity than things stamped with the names of books, but nonetheless there is stuff aplenty. Pens, bags, pins, hats, all that. Last year I came home with about 10 canvas bags of a variety of styles, included a fab Lord of the Rings bag (thank you, Houghton Mifflin). Thunder Bay Press, oddly, did a kick-ass one too. And I got a Harry Potter OotP hat with the release date on the back, which I could then wear around before it came out and look special. They turned out to be the same hats Scholastic sent to the bookstores for their staff to wear on the day of, actually. Heh.
Notable giveaways for this year -- and I know this without even going, and isn't that sad? -- include the standard drawings for vacations. And also shot glasses from Bloomsbury press, garden gnome keychains from Quirk, signed mp3 versions of various audio books from Brilliance Audio, spices from Temple U, dictionary T-shirts from M-W, bottled water from a variety of people. (Don't laugh. You'll need it. You'll never take enough in your bag, because you'll be going every day with a purse and going home with four big bags and you just can't bloody carry it and thank heavens for the bag-check.) That's just a sampler, of course. There'll be much more stuff actually on the floor than people talk about or list in the marketplace.
Don't care about the pens and the bookmarks and the posters? Well, for everyone who is still a college student at heart, there's always the Cookbook Pavillion where, yes, publishers attempting to get booksellers to stock their cookbooks will have the authors cook. (Mmmmm, the dessert cookbooks. I mean, teriyaki chicken's great, but death-by-chocolate? Mmmmm.) Plus free candy everywhere.
This year they're also doing an area for DVDs, which is a first. So I've never been to that -- I doubt they're giving things away, but what do I know? Maybe they are. Or maybe they have couches for watching DVDs, which would be nice if you ever had time to sit down.
Also, there are the standard sessions and speakers and all that. You can go to many, many diverse things like "Lighting – A Contributor To Your Bookstore's Success" and "Bloggers: Rewriting the Rules of Tastemaking and Trade Influence" and "Mergers & Acquisitions in Book Publishing" (which I would not advise if you're depressed, as 90% of the book publishing industry in the US is already owned by the same 6 companies) and "Understanding Islam: How Books Can Foster Dialogue in a Faith-fractured World" and tons more. And of course the standard two sessions on how to work the two even BIGGER book fairs, the London and the Frankfurt. (If the ABA is the size of a small city, Frankfurt International is the size of ... London. Every language in the world, and every publisher who can afford it, and translations and seminars and... it's just... whoa. I've never been.).
And also there are special events. A few require extra money, but lots are free. Including this year's keynote speech by Bill Clinton (what, we couldn't get someone who'd actually finished his book? geez). (Still better than the year Colin Powell was the keynote speaker.) Lots of stuff is yet to be scheduled, but there're the Book Sense events, most of which include food, and celebrate Book Sense award winners. Book Sense also runs author readings, if you're into readings. Art Spiegelmen (eee!) is doing a talk about his graphic novels. Ingram (a giant distributor) used to hold a big party that everyone was invited to with 10ish bands and free food and free alcohol, but that was back when they were trying to get a foothold in the industry. These days, Ingram's boring. They are helping BookSense celebrate its fifth anniversary with drinks and food and music, but it's on the show floor, so it can't be that big -- not like old Ingram parties, where they rented the entire Navy Pier and entire hotel roofs and stuff. If I manage to get there, any of y'all who're around will probably end up going to the Consortium (another distributor -- Consortium Small Press Distribution, for those who care) party, also with free food and music. Last year's was nummy except for the raw oysters (blargh), but I tend to flee before the night gets too long -- too many people there knew me as a kid, and I'd rather not have to introduce myself (fortunately they don't recognize me as an adult without prompting). If I have to introduce myself... oy. "It was so funny!" they say "the time when!" and I say "oh, yes, Dave." And so on.
Things requiring money include the Author Breakfasts, a different one every day, where you eat a big breakfast while a panel of author talks about things. Authors this year include Ursula K. LeGuin and Jon Stewart (of the Daily Show) and Tom Wolfe and Alexander McCall Smith and Terry Gross is one of the hosts, which makes me giggle. And the author lunches, which are the same thing only with lunch. One of last year's was famous, because it involved Al Franken and Bill O'Reilly and Molly Ivins. It got replayed on C-SPAN a lot.
And of course, there's my favorite reason to go: the BEA draws a crowd of about 60,000 people, about 90% of whom care deeply about books of some variety. (The other 10% are either in it for the money -- and deeply deluded -- or are top management.) The people you chat with waiting to get autographs are book people from tiny bookstores around the country. When you ask people about authors, they say "Well, his book won the Lambda of course, and a PENN international, but I've never been able to get into it" or "Her? Oh, god, I've loved every one of her books -- have you ever read X?"
Consider the following statistic, rounded 'cause I can't be bothered to go get the study: 60% of high school graduates never read a book after graduating. Not one. In their entire lives. And the 40% remaining contains people who only read a few books, like people who read Harry Potter and nothing else. 25% of college graduates never read a book again in their lives.
So it's just heartening to spend time with so many book people, people who read Chicken Soup for the Soul and people who read Dostoyevsky and people who read in Spanish and people who read war books and people who read history and people who read Neil Gaiman and just a whole group, a small city's worth, of people who read and like to read and talk about reading.
And of course, exhibitors have to pay the teamsters to pack and remove anything left on the floor at the end of the show, so they'll often give things away rather than pay for packing and shipping. Last year, sadly, I had to catch a bus back to the Bay Area before the show ended. Le sigh.
Unfortunately, there's no longer a reduced price for students, but there's still a reduced price for Librarians (if not so reduced as in previous years; 75 whole dollars for librarians!). Christ, has pricing gone up this year. Still, it's a four day event. And if you have editorial status at any news media, or can get a letter from a news publisher designating you as a free-lance journalist covering the BEA, you can get in for free. With some form-filling-out.
My uncle maintains an apartment in Chicago that he only uses occasionally, so I may have a free place to stay for a small number of people. I'll keep you posted.
In order to get the (somewhat) lower prices, you need to register by May 21st, so you've got plenty of time to think about it (and plenty of time to pester me to see if my free housing comes through).
Attention
copperbadge, casira, and ryca13, who previously expressed interest, and of course anyone else who thinks the idea of a giant convention filled with people giving away books for free and talking about books and loving books is a good idea:They finally got around to posting the autographing schedule for the June 3-6th American Booksellers Association Convention (now BookExpo America! complete with exclamation mark). That's about 500+ authors, and each of them will be giving their books away. Signed to you and everything. In fact, they'll usually give you two. And then they'll thank you for being so kind as to accept a signed free copy. *g*
Sadly, the schedule doesn't look as fun (to me) as last year's, but that's largely because any list of authors isn't as cool without Neil Gaiman's name on it. *g* Still. 500+ authors. Books aplenty.
Plus, most publishers try to get publicity for their new books by ... giving them away. Just stacks of books in the booth, and as you go past you grab a copy or two or three. This year Titan's giving away Neil Gaiman's bio of Douglas Adams, for example. And of course some of them are ARCs (which we used to call bound galleys when the book industry was less, well, industrial), which means that they're not just free -- you also get to casually say to your friends "oh, I read that six months ago" when they start getting excited about new bestsellers. (For example, from last year's ABA, I read the Amulet of Samarkand months in advance, and then it turned up in the top ten of the Bestseller list. Me: "oh, yes, I met the author." *g*)
ARCs are actually the cheapest thing to give away, so they're cheaper publicity than things stamped with the names of books, but nonetheless there is stuff aplenty. Pens, bags, pins, hats, all that. Last year I came home with about 10 canvas bags of a variety of styles, included a fab Lord of the Rings bag (thank you, Houghton Mifflin). Thunder Bay Press, oddly, did a kick-ass one too. And I got a Harry Potter OotP hat with the release date on the back, which I could then wear around before it came out and look special. They turned out to be the same hats Scholastic sent to the bookstores for their staff to wear on the day of, actually. Heh.
Notable giveaways for this year -- and I know this without even going, and isn't that sad? -- include the standard drawings for vacations. And also shot glasses from Bloomsbury press, garden gnome keychains from Quirk, signed mp3 versions of various audio books from Brilliance Audio, spices from Temple U, dictionary T-shirts from M-W, bottled water from a variety of people. (Don't laugh. You'll need it. You'll never take enough in your bag, because you'll be going every day with a purse and going home with four big bags and you just can't bloody carry it and thank heavens for the bag-check.) That's just a sampler, of course. There'll be much more stuff actually on the floor than people talk about or list in the marketplace.
Don't care about the pens and the bookmarks and the posters? Well, for everyone who is still a college student at heart, there's always the Cookbook Pavillion where, yes, publishers attempting to get booksellers to stock their cookbooks will have the authors cook. (Mmmmm, the dessert cookbooks. I mean, teriyaki chicken's great, but death-by-chocolate? Mmmmm.) Plus free candy everywhere.
This year they're also doing an area for DVDs, which is a first. So I've never been to that -- I doubt they're giving things away, but what do I know? Maybe they are. Or maybe they have couches for watching DVDs, which would be nice if you ever had time to sit down.
Also, there are the standard sessions and speakers and all that. You can go to many, many diverse things like "Lighting – A Contributor To Your Bookstore's Success" and "Bloggers: Rewriting the Rules of Tastemaking and Trade Influence" and "Mergers & Acquisitions in Book Publishing" (which I would not advise if you're depressed, as 90% of the book publishing industry in the US is already owned by the same 6 companies) and "Understanding Islam: How Books Can Foster Dialogue in a Faith-fractured World" and tons more. And of course the standard two sessions on how to work the two even BIGGER book fairs, the London and the Frankfurt. (If the ABA is the size of a small city, Frankfurt International is the size of ... London. Every language in the world, and every publisher who can afford it, and translations and seminars and... it's just... whoa. I've never been.).
And also there are special events. A few require extra money, but lots are free. Including this year's keynote speech by Bill Clinton (what, we couldn't get someone who'd actually finished his book? geez). (Still better than the year Colin Powell was the keynote speaker.) Lots of stuff is yet to be scheduled, but there're the Book Sense events, most of which include food, and celebrate Book Sense award winners. Book Sense also runs author readings, if you're into readings. Art Spiegelmen (eee!) is doing a talk about his graphic novels. Ingram (a giant distributor) used to hold a big party that everyone was invited to with 10ish bands and free food and free alcohol, but that was back when they were trying to get a foothold in the industry. These days, Ingram's boring. They are helping BookSense celebrate its fifth anniversary with drinks and food and music, but it's on the show floor, so it can't be that big -- not like old Ingram parties, where they rented the entire Navy Pier and entire hotel roofs and stuff. If I manage to get there, any of y'all who're around will probably end up going to the Consortium (another distributor -- Consortium Small Press Distribution, for those who care) party, also with free food and music. Last year's was nummy except for the raw oysters (blargh), but I tend to flee before the night gets too long -- too many people there knew me as a kid, and I'd rather not have to introduce myself (fortunately they don't recognize me as an adult without prompting). If I have to introduce myself... oy. "It was so funny!" they say "the time when!" and I say "oh, yes, Dave." And so on.
Things requiring money include the Author Breakfasts, a different one every day, where you eat a big breakfast while a panel of author talks about things. Authors this year include Ursula K. LeGuin and Jon Stewart (of the Daily Show) and Tom Wolfe and Alexander McCall Smith and Terry Gross is one of the hosts, which makes me giggle. And the author lunches, which are the same thing only with lunch. One of last year's was famous, because it involved Al Franken and Bill O'Reilly and Molly Ivins. It got replayed on C-SPAN a lot.
And of course, there's my favorite reason to go: the BEA draws a crowd of about 60,000 people, about 90% of whom care deeply about books of some variety. (The other 10% are either in it for the money -- and deeply deluded -- or are top management.) The people you chat with waiting to get autographs are book people from tiny bookstores around the country. When you ask people about authors, they say "Well, his book won the Lambda of course, and a PENN international, but I've never been able to get into it" or "Her? Oh, god, I've loved every one of her books -- have you ever read X?"
Consider the following statistic, rounded 'cause I can't be bothered to go get the study: 60% of high school graduates never read a book after graduating. Not one. In their entire lives. And the 40% remaining contains people who only read a few books, like people who read Harry Potter and nothing else. 25% of college graduates never read a book again in their lives.
So it's just heartening to spend time with so many book people, people who read Chicken Soup for the Soul and people who read Dostoyevsky and people who read in Spanish and people who read war books and people who read history and people who read Neil Gaiman and just a whole group, a small city's worth, of people who read and like to read and talk about reading.
And of course, exhibitors have to pay the teamsters to pack and remove anything left on the floor at the end of the show, so they'll often give things away rather than pay for packing and shipping. Last year, sadly, I had to catch a bus back to the Bay Area before the show ended. Le sigh.
Unfortunately, there's no longer a reduced price for students, but there's still a reduced price for Librarians (if not so reduced as in previous years; 75 whole dollars for librarians!). Christ, has pricing gone up this year. Still, it's a four day event. And if you have editorial status at any news media, or can get a letter from a news publisher designating you as a free-lance journalist covering the BEA, you can get in for free. With some form-filling-out.
My uncle maintains an apartment in Chicago that he only uses occasionally, so I may have a free place to stay for a small number of people. I'll keep you posted.
In order to get the (somewhat) lower prices, you need to register by May 21st, so you've got plenty of time to think about it (and plenty of time to pester me to see if my free housing comes through).
no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 01:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 01:11 pm (UTC)I'm actually not sure if I'm going yet; it depends on whether or not I can get free tickets from a publisher and whether or not the free place to stay comes through and all that sort of thing. I love the ABA, but I don't have that much money, so.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 01:18 pm (UTC)I'm still thinking about this. Oh so tempting. *reading site again*
(Just as long as you promise we can sneak out at some point during the weekend to go see The Movie. y'know. That one. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 01:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 02:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 02:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 06:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 02:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 08:11 pm (UTC)Ok. NEXT YEAR. Next year I am bloody well GOING TO BOOKEXPO.
Man, I am glad that I love Japan so much, because if I didn't, I'd HATE IT. *g*