Hey everyone!
As you may know, we were off in NYC for Book Expo of America at the end of May and we finally had a chance to sit down and talk about the amazing week we had. For our third year attending BEA we felt like we had a really solid plan on what we were doing and where we were going… we even switched it up a bit and headed out a bit early to spend some time with our lovely friends Kass & Meg. We arrived on Saturday and spent some time relaxing and visiting together before the crazy that is BEA started.
Something we noticed this year was that Erin and I are getting better about NOT grabbing every single thing that is set out. Typically we bring a suitcase to the Javits to unload, and to be honest, I don’t think we even used it! We managed to ship only one box each back home and stuffed the rest into out bags!
Also, we noticed that publishers just weren’t doing as many random ARC drops as we had seen in the past. It seemed that most drops were scheduled and lines were much more orderly. ALSO let’s just say that Harpercollins had the best idea of providing a charging station at their booth… which I took advantage of while waiting for an ARC drop at once point!
Now for the recap!
Saturday – Sunday
We basically relaxed and did touristy stuff and ate. Food – Good Lord – I think that was the focus since we knew once BEA started we wouldn’t be having actual meals.
Monday
Monday was the first day we did bookish things – We headed out for brunch at Kitchenette Tribeca with the lovely and amazing Heather from Harpercollins. Not only was the food amazing, but the company was as well! We chatted about books we were excited for and schedules and all the things we had been up to since we saw her last! It was sad to part ways, but we knew we’d see her at the Javits!
Then it was off to Books of Wonder because you can’t go to NYC and not stop in at Books of Wonder. Of course we all bought more books than we needed and chatted with the lovely Gaby for a bit.
After that we were off to Max Brenners because CHOCOLATE!! And since we were in the area we had to find Baked by Melissa! Erin and I had tried these mini cupcakes before, but we had to stop in and get a baked goods fix with the girls!
That evening, we had manicures & pedicures and grabbed dinner in Hoboken … yes, New Jersey… and then headed back to the hotel for the night.
Tuesday
Tuesday brought even more fun – We met up with Tara from Paper Lantern Lit at Alice’s Tea Cup to chat all things books and gossip and BEA! We had so much fun with her and Alice’s was such a lovely place! After that, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the evening.
For the last few years, we had been thinking we’d go to Teen Author Carnival, but for whatever reason it just never seemed to work out right and we always ended up missing it. This year… we had to go. We headed to Jefferson Market Library in NYC where some amazing authors had come to chat and sign books. Jennifer L. Armentrout, Susan Dennard, Kody Kepplinger, Alexandra Bracken, Virgina Boecker, Melissa Grey, and Adam Silvera were just a few of the authors there and if you haven’t gone to this in the past, you should check it out. I’m glad we finally did!
Then we headed over to the Rooftop Blogger Party being hosted by Hannah, Andye, and Liza. Every year this party is an amazing event that lets us spend time with a lot of different people and this year was just as wonderful. Admittedly, we consider this one a bit more special because this is the year that Liza has a new book (Hello?) coming out so we had the opportunity to celebrate the event with her and be her first “official” signing for the ARC.
Wednesday
We knew we were going to be running around all day! We got up early to meet Cassie for coffee at the Javits and talk about all the great books Random House has coming out as well as the ones we loved so far this year.
After picking up our BEA badges, we headed over to the Novl Brunch where we had the opportunity to mingle with publicists, editors, and some authors (Jennifer E. Smith and Virginia Boecker were there this year)! This was the first year Jaime and I were invited to this brunch and it was great to be included and see the great job the team does there!
After learning about all the great books we had to look forward to this fall, we headed back to the Javits to see if we could get our hands on a copy of Truthwitch. People were actually lined up at an ungodly hour to make sure they could get in and honestly we had decided that if we got a copy cool… if not, while we’d cry, we would survive. Since Macmillan was only giving out 100 tickets we were a little scared of those who would be in a mad dash when the doors opened and I was kind of afraid that there might be some pushing & shoving! Surprisingly everyone was very well behaved and we snagged tickets! Tickets in hand, we found ourselves wandering around a bit and then headed back in line to get our books signed by one of our favorite people, Susan Dennard.
Once we did that, we had to run back to our hotel to get ready for more events. After getting cleaned up, we headed over to the Woolworth building for the Harlequin Tea. I have to say, this building is amazing and Harlequin has some fantastic views. In addition to that, this event is always a wonderful time. We get to connect with publicists, editors, and authors and end up talking about anything and everything.
From there, we ran over to the Epic Reads party which was being held at a place called Bourbon Street Bar & Grill and boy was it packed in there. We spent some time chatting with other bloggers and some authors and also decided to get our photobooth pictures done again this year. There were some great swag bags this year along with these mini rice krispie treats that made a perfect snack when we got back to the hotel.
Thursday
We had to get to the Javits early on Thursday for the Harlequin Teen Breakfast so after the much needed Starbucks stop, we sat down with some bloggers, authors, and Harlequin staff to talk about what else…BOOKS! We always have a great time at this event because it is run in a round robin sort of approach which means everyone gets at least 5 minutes with all of the staff and authors attending the event. Because this event goes right up to the start of BEA, we headed right up to the floor and wandered before heading over to the line to get our hands on a copy of Alexandra Bracken’s Passenger. Can we just talk about that line for a minute… it was without a doubt the longest line we stood in all of BEA this year… after waiting an hour and a half we finally were up to chat with Alex and get our book signed and then we were off again!
After wandering the expo for a while, we headed back to our hotel to get cleaned up for the Macmillan Happy Hour which was being held at The Strand. This event was amazing and not only did we get to hang out with the awesome team at Macmillan, but we also were able to spend some time with some wonderful authors (and meet one from our wish list)!!
Friday
This was our last day/night in NYC and at BEA so we spent some time wandering around the expo again and running into some familiar (and favorite) faces.
I have to admit, the event I was most looking forward to was scheduled for that night at The Strand and we decided to get there a little early so we could get some good seats. You may not know this about Jaime and I but we LOVE all things Zach Braff and he happens to have a brother who is an author. Well…it just so happened that Joshua Braff was having a launch party at The Strand and Zach Braff was scheduled to be there with him. There was no question, we were going and we dragged Meg and Kass with us. While it would have been amazing to get the opportunity to chat with Zach a bit, he ended up bailing just before we got up to the line to have our books signed. After a quick chat with Joshua we headed out!
Saturday
We all had super early flights on Saturday morning so we ended up packing up our bags on Friday night and heading to the airport to catch our flights home. We decided we weren’t even going to attempt Bookcon this year and based on some of the pictures we saw, we figured we made the right choice!
We’re super excited to see what BEA brings next year… it’s going to be in Chicago which is so much more convenient for us here in Milwaukee!
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