Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Readers Expo America - A Brilliant Idea
Book Expo America (BEA) has come and gone (my first one!), and in place of commentary, novelist and blogger M.J. Rose offers (what I consider) a brilliant suggestion on her blog, "Buzz, Balls and Hype": Instead of holding a yearly convention for book industry professionals and booksellers, why not hold several conventions each year aimed directly at readers?!!
READERS EXPO AMERICA.
This is a traveling convention. It takes place every other month in 6 big cities a year. Six different cites each year. Different authors/different cities. Unlike a book festival, readers don't buy any books at this convention. Unlike a book festival it's not run by bookstores.
REA would be all about pre publicity buzz. Just like BEA is supposed to be. But in this case it's buzz aimed where I think we don't have it and where we desperately need it.
Buzz aimed at the reader.
REA is all about the reader. And it's all about the publishers and the industry coming up with ways to get those readers jazzed up and thinking even more about books in an even more exciting way.
REA works like BEA in that the reader gets a ticket that lets you into the whole show. And this show is a forum for readers to mingle with authors and to get advance reading copies of books coming out the next 2-3-4 months. It's a forum of panels where the writers and the readers get up on the stage and figure out what they want from each other. And publishers give parties at these conventions for the readers with as much energy as they give parties for each other at BEA.
M.J. has posted some really interesting ideas on her blog in the past, but I think this is her best one yet. And I hope that some influential folks in the book industry - like Sara Nelson of Publishers Weekly, Mitch Kaplan of the American Bookseller's Association, Bob Gray, bookseller and blogger extraordinnaire, and Jane Friedman of Harper Collins - will sit up and take notice.
I must admit that BEA appealed much more to the reader in me than the book industry professional. I was overcome by excitement - walking the aisles grabbing advance copies of books with glee - so many that I was barely able to get home with my heavy shopping bags filled with (free! gasp!) books. And I can't wait to dig in and start reading them and sharing them with my friends.
Sure, I enjoyed meeting with various editors and literary agents - it's always nice (and good for business) to put a face to a name - but for me, the excitement of BEA was in the books and the "buzz" surrounding them.
Now imagine if all of that energy was directed toward our ultimate audience - readers.
- Jen Itskevich
Publicity Director
READERS EXPO AMERICA.
This is a traveling convention. It takes place every other month in 6 big cities a year. Six different cites each year. Different authors/different cities. Unlike a book festival, readers don't buy any books at this convention. Unlike a book festival it's not run by bookstores.
REA would be all about pre publicity buzz. Just like BEA is supposed to be. But in this case it's buzz aimed where I think we don't have it and where we desperately need it.
Buzz aimed at the reader.
REA is all about the reader. And it's all about the publishers and the industry coming up with ways to get those readers jazzed up and thinking even more about books in an even more exciting way.
REA works like BEA in that the reader gets a ticket that lets you into the whole show. And this show is a forum for readers to mingle with authors and to get advance reading copies of books coming out the next 2-3-4 months. It's a forum of panels where the writers and the readers get up on the stage and figure out what they want from each other. And publishers give parties at these conventions for the readers with as much energy as they give parties for each other at BEA.
M.J. has posted some really interesting ideas on her blog in the past, but I think this is her best one yet. And I hope that some influential folks in the book industry - like Sara Nelson of Publishers Weekly, Mitch Kaplan of the American Bookseller's Association, Bob Gray, bookseller and blogger extraordinnaire, and Jane Friedman of Harper Collins - will sit up and take notice.
I must admit that BEA appealed much more to the reader in me than the book industry professional. I was overcome by excitement - walking the aisles grabbing advance copies of books with glee - so many that I was barely able to get home with my heavy shopping bags filled with (free! gasp!) books. And I can't wait to dig in and start reading them and sharing them with my friends.
Sure, I enjoyed meeting with various editors and literary agents - it's always nice (and good for business) to put a face to a name - but for me, the excitement of BEA was in the books and the "buzz" surrounding them.
Now imagine if all of that energy was directed toward our ultimate audience - readers.
- Jen Itskevich
Publicity Director
