Should You Go to Book Expo America to Find a Publisher?
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If you hope to get a book published, Book Expo America in Los Angeles may be the place to be at the end of this month.
It’s a huge publishing industry convention, and it’s the place to be to get a real feel for the book publishing world and to make contacts.
Back in 2003, I attended BEA and through making personal contact with several publishers, managed to land two offers to republish a book of mine (despite three agents telling me “nobody is buying reprints”).
One caveat, though: It’s best if you use the opportunity to further your education in what it means to be an author. Otherwise, BEA can be quite overwhelming.
There’s a one-day seminar happening on May 29 I recommend if you do plan to go: Author101 University. It’s a one-day seminar hosted by Mark Victor Hansen (who knows a bit about selling books as the coauthor of the most successful series ever published, Chicken Soup for the Soul), and publishing veteran Rick Frishman. (Listen here to my interview with Rick on publishing, including what you’ll learn from this seminar.) You do need to hurry though; space is limited and it already may be filled up.
Attending Author101 University will teach you a lot about publishing, arm you with what you need to know to approach publishers successfully, and allow you to meet a lot of other people you can “buddy” around with at Book Expo. I am still in touch with some of the great people I met, and one even became a client.
If you do go to BEA, send me an email (diane at wordstoprofit.com), and I’ll write back with some guidelines as to how to get the most out of BEA. You need to go with a plan. I can tell you some of the dos and don’ts of how to approach publishers (some of which is pretty subtle stuff, known only to those of us “inside” the industry.)