BEA 2013 Write Up Day 3

Book Expo America or BEA for short is a publishing event that takes place in North America.  It gives authors and publishers the chance to showcase their new releases to the book publishing industry.  Advanced Reader Copies of upcoming books are available for attendees to pick up.  Attendees often include authors, publishers, librarians, members of the press, etc.  In recent years, the final day of the conference is open to the public for what they call "Power Readers Day".

Saturday the last day of BEA was Power Readers Day.  Power Readers Day is when BEA is open to the public.  For 50 dollars fans of books are able to purchase a ticket to the conference.  I personally love that BEA has a day open to the public.  As I said before, I wanted to go to BEA before I was a blogger.  And it's nice that fans of books are given the opportunity to attend.  A fellow blogger took her roommate for Power Reader Day, and she told me that the Power Readers were given a bag at registration that already had 10 books inside.  It's nice that BEA really takes care of the Power Readers, and gives them a worthwhile experience.

Me personally on Saturday I didn't have a big written list.  The main reason for this was because my suitcase was mostly filled, and I already had way more books than I anticipated.  But unfortunately, my plans for Saturday went out the window.  I actually think Saturday was the day that I picked up the most books.  And mind you this is including Thursday where I picked up a handful of book that I didn't really want to read.  On Saturday all of the books I picked up were all books I plan on reading.  I guess luck was just on my side.

Myself and Jamie McGuire

When I first walked passed Simon and Schuster's booth I noticed that Jamie McGuire was doing a signing.  I actually missed her ticketed signing the day before, so I immediately got in line.  This set my schedule back a little bit, but I figured why not.  And from there on it was a whirlwind day.  As I said before luck was on my side.  I ran into a signing of The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau while wandering around.  For the past couple of days I had seen people walking around with The Hobbit bags, but I always missed the giveaway.  I have a friend who is a huge Tolkien fan, and I knew that would be a great gift for her.  After The Testing signing, the line for the Hobbit bag giveaway had just started.  So I happily stood in line for that, and was able to get a bag for my friend.

Snapped a pic with Sarah J. Maas while waiting in line

Sometime through out the day while I was waiting in line for a signing, someone asked if anyone wanted a ticket to Mary Higgins Clark's ticketed signing.  I happily said yes.  I remember reading her books when I was in high school.  It was such an honor to meet her.  I got a kick out the fact that she doesn't sign with a Sharpie, she signs books with a pen.

Mary Higgins Clark signing my book

At the end of the last day, I pretty much wandered around the exhibit hall and watched the publishers begin to take down their booths.  I started to reflect on how much I enjoyed BEA, and how it was way more than I expected it to be.  I was so happy to be able to be a part of something like this.  To be around people who love and read books as much as I do is more than I could ever ask for.  I hope I get the opportunity to go again next year.