If I Went to BEA

First a little lesson for those of you who don't know what all this BEA talk is about. BEA stands for Book Expo America, which is, I think, pretty much the biggest event and gathering of bookish people and products in the country. From what I'm understanding, it's held at this time every year in New York. (Though it has been in other cities, right? I'm not sure.) Anyway, there's hundreds of authors, hundreds of publishing companies... all promoting themselves and their up and coming new books. And just in the last year or two, hundreds of bloggers have been joining the fun. In fact for the first time this year, the bloggers have tacked on an extra day to the main event, just for their own Book Blogger Convention. Cool.

But sad for so many of us who aren't able to go. But we can still dream about it! Thus, the Armchair BEA event was born! And today for my first post as part of the Armchair BEA, I'm going to do some dreaming and ponder what it would be like if I got to go.

If I went to BEA, I know I'd be so overwhelmed by all the many exhibits, and panels and author signings, that I wouldn't have a clue where to start. I'd probably stand in one place and spin in circles trying to decide. I mean, just click on one of these links and you tell me where you'd start!

If I went to BEA, I'd probably end up going to say hi to all the local authors... the ones I get to see all the time right here anyway!

If I went to BEA, I hope I'd have the courage to check out all the big publisher exhibits like Random House, Harper Collins and HarperTeen and Simon and Schuster and Little Brown and Scholastic and you know all those famous ones. And hopefully I'd be brave enough to say "Hey I'm a blogger!"

If I went to BEA, I also hope I'd check out the interesting little guy publishers too. And I would say, "Hey, I'm a book blogger!"

If I went to BEA, I'd spend a lot time hanging out at the author signings. Let's going down the list I'd have to meet: Justin Cronin, Cory Doctorow, James Dashner, Rosemary Wells, Carmen Deedy, Lemony Snicket, Holly Black, Rick Riordan, Bree Despain, Dan Wells, Melissa Marr, R.L. Stine, Beth Kephart, just to name a few. And if there's an author that I've never heard of who has no one in his or her line, I'd go say hi and say, "Hey, I'm a book blogger!" (Which reminds me, have you seen this video yet? It's hilarious! Those poor authors with no one in their line!)

If I went to BEA, I'd go crazy because I'd want to go to all the panels! Ones like Hot Book Club Titles, From Writer to Reader, You're Reading That?!, The Next Decade in Book Culture.....

If I went to BEA, what I'd really really look forward to is meeting other book bloggers. Meeting the Utah bloggers is a blast, and I imagine meeting bloggers from across the county would be just as fun! Oh, man, this is the part that makes me sad.

If I went to BEA, I'd need a friend, because I really hate doing these sorts of things alone. Really.

If I went to BEA, I'd probably exhaust myself trying to fit too much in.

If I went to BEA, I know I'd have a blast no matter what I ended up doing!

Maybe one of these years......