Back from BEA 2007
BEA 2007 was both overwhelming and wonderful. As with any large trade show, its massive size makes it too much to take in during three hectic days. But if you can filter the show content down to the things that you really want to focus on, you can greatly accelerate your business. BEA offered a new website this year (MyBEA.com) that I used prior to the show that allowed me to search for companies, people, and seminars that interested me. I’m certain this kind of social networking prior to trade shows will become quite popular and help attendees get more out of each show.
For Flap Jacket, our goal was to promote our September release of The Lace Reader. To that end, we had author Brunonia Barry participate in multiple book signings that ended up getting the book into the hands of over 350 readers. We also made connections to partners in foreign markets, audio editions, various press and media contacts, and had a chance to speak face-to-face with most of the our national sales reps.
One of the many highlights of the show was a Friday morning signing where Brunonia was in the main author signing area and found herself sandwiched between Joyce Carol Oates on one side and America idol participant Mandisa on the other. Odd as this pairing my seem, it does show that the publishing industry is open to diverse offerings.
One would suspect that these two authors probably don’t share many of the same readers which brings up an important question for publishers: How do you cost effectively identify and communicate with the potential readers for a particular title? The big hope discussed at the show was the Internet and I’ll discuss some of the ideas presented in a future post.
Gary Ward
Topics: Events |
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