Oh yeah, the first day of the Book Expo. Hot and sweaty. There was no air conditioning on in the building on Thursday when everybody was setting up their booths. They turned it on for Friday but it didn't feel any cooler. Too many bodies.
I arrived shortly after the 9am opening. I put my flyers and postcards on one of the display tables at my printer's booth and started to make my rounds. Oops, I forgot all the pages I tore out of the catalogue with the companies I wanted to see circled. I decided to forego a new catalogue, they're too damn heavy to carry around and toddled off to Amazon. That took about an hour...the meeting, not the toddling. Three different Amazonians checked out the mock-up. All positive responses.
Then it was off to see the major wholesalers. One of the wholesalers won't distribute for publishers that only have one book. After I showed her the mock-up, she said they'd make an exception.
My other stops on my many mile walk included as many exhibitors I could find that had connections to foreign companies that were appropriate for distribution (Canada and the UK) and/or co-editions and translations. None of the end people were there but I was given excellent referrals.
My other stop on Day 1 was the five minutes it took to snap photos of the correctly identified celebrity (by Brett) LL Cool J.
I was dog-tired by the time I walked the three avenue blocks (much longer than street blocks for those of you unfamiliar with NY) carrying my heavy bag back to the hotel at the end of the day. But not to tired to hike uptown to the Burger Joint at the Parker Meridien (best burgers ever) followed by an evening at the theater to see Wicked (big thanks to Rick for that). Great show. I was especially impressed with the lighting and sets.
Stay tuned for Day 2.
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