In one week I’ll be heading out to Book Expo America.  I’ve been working on having a plan for what I’m going to do there.  It is sort of overwhelming.  You get a list on the website of the author and the book name.  I plugged each one into Goodreads to see if this was a book I might be interested in.  After doing that for hundreds of books over a few weeks I found myself with a list of 34.  This is the first time I started to think that I might be a bit picky.

I used the BEA website and app to highlight the ones I might be interested in regardless of the schedule.  Today I set about trying to sort that all out into a reasonable plan because of course I had highlighted several that all happened at the same time with long gaps where I had nothing planned.

Am I the Only Person Who Doesn’t Care about Signings?

I would love to get able to get books without having to have them signed.  I’m not really looking forward to standing in line to get a signature I don’t want in a book I do want.  I feel like it is wasting everyone’s time.

I’ve seen other people with detailed spreadsheets of times and what signings they want to be at and I’m over here like….”La la la, Yeah Poland!” (More on that later).  I’m not sure if this is really, really smart or spectacularly dumb.  It could go either way.


Here’s my sort-of plan:

Wednesday – Blogger Conference

From 8-9:50 there is breakfast and a keynote but I may sleep in.

10:00 – 10:50 – Social Media

11:00 – 11:50 – Creative Content

12:00 – 12:50 – Lunch

1:00 – 2:50 – Table Talks  This is me!  I’m helping with the Negative Reviews discussion.

Only book I’m interested in that is being signed is at 3:30 – Tetris by Box Brown.  I plan on doing a few walk arounds to see what is available in the booths.


Thursday

8:00 – 9:30 I’m going to the Adult Author’s Breakfast but bringing my own food so the tickets are cheaper.

Morning books that are possibilities for me include some historical fiction, some food books (and future Foodies Read prizes!), and a few crime books.

1:30 – 2:20 – There is a talk about Paderewski.  Ok, here’s the thing that has me really excited.  Poland is the special guest this year.  Poland!  I have this thing about wanting to find good books set in Poland that aren’t about World War II.  I plan on totally haunting the special Polish booth and looking sad until they take pity on me and point me towards some good books.  So back to Paderewski – This is a session about the Polish musician in California and a book about it.  I plan to use the time to eat some lunch.

Afternoon books – More crime and nonfiction.  Here’s my big decision of the afternoon.  There is a ticketed signing by Kareem Abdul-Jabar.  I wouldn’t mind reading his new book and having a picture with Kareem to oh so casually post on my Facebook page because it would make my brother jealous.  (Siblings never grow up.)  I just don’t know that that is enough motivation for me to go stand in line to get a ticket to be able to stand in line to get the book and picture.

Friday

Morning books – There’s one about finding humor when your spouse is diagnosed with cancer.  I think I just lived that one.  Otherwise we have zombie sideshow performers and WWII psychic corp fantasies and maybe some romance.

12:30 – 1:20  A lecture on getting started with Polish literature – Yes, Please!  This is exactly what I’m looking for.

The afternoon has an inner city horse and kid book and a steampunk Mars story to consider.