Category: BEA 2009

Book Expo America 2009 and NYC Teen Author Carnival wrap up

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A pic snapped by Lauren Barnholdt’s Boy of LB taking pics of us on the BEA panel. (I shamelessly stole this pic and a couple more (noted below) from L’s Twitter.) Left to right: Robyn, me, Julia DeVillers, Maureen Johnson, Sarah Mlynowski.

Another pic taken by Lauren of the BEA panel. The woman on my left is the technician who saved us all with a super important power cord for Robyn’s Power Point.

I almost died when I saw the cover of BEST ENEMIES at the S&S booth on this board. So cool! 🙂

Editor Kate and me at drinks with Lauren Barnholdt (Team Barnhart!) and her Boy. So fun! Much to EK’s dismay, after Lauren snapped that pic with her iPhone she Tweeted it. EK is kinda anti-Twitter. Just kind of. 😉

A blurry pic of a board at BEA that announces the panel line ups. Driving Success with Teens and Tweens: Authors Share Online Success Stories was my panel.

Well, look who it is! THE Kaleb Nation signing copies of his book and chatting with David Levithan and Maureen Johnson.

Almost to the Simon & Schuster booth. The crowd was insane.

I’ve barely been home since Thursday and have had nooo time to blog. A quick run down of Book Expo America 2009 and the NYC Teen Author Carnival *needs* telling. So…

Thursday–NYC Teen Author Carnival

This was hosted by three superawesome teens–Devyn, Mitali and Korianne. It was a fun, crazy two hours of Q&A, meeting readers, signing books and mingling with authors. It was my first NYC author event, so I was nervous before I got there. But everyone was relaxed and there to have fun. It *was* a carnival theme, after all.

I spent time chatting with Melissa Walker, Sarah MacLean, Pam Bachorz, Libba Bray, Micol and David Ostow, Aimee Friedman, Sarah Cross, Jenny Han, PG Kain, Taylor Morris, Carolyn MacCollough, Robyn Schneider, Michelle Zink, Beckie Weinheimer and Lauren Barnholdt. Almost all of them were Internet friends or people I “knew” through some various online channel. So cool to meet them in person.

After the carnival, Lauren and her Boy, EK and I went out for drinks. We had so much fun and I already knew from emailing and texting that I’d like Lauren in person, but she was even cooler–if that’s possible! There will most def be future Barnhart events, so stay tuned. 🙂

Friday–Book Expo America, day one

The Javits Center is HUGE. It has to be said right away. I thought the crowd would be scary and overwhelming, but it was actually the opposite. It was fun to be around so many people who were there with a love for books. I met up with Robyn in the morning and we hurried to get in line for signings for Ally Carter and Sarah MacLean. We got our books, then ran into Lauren and her Boy.

We spent a couple of minutes chatting with Kaleb and wished we had more time, but Kaleb was super busy (he had a signing line, hello) and everyone’s schedules were a mess. (But Kaleb, it was so great to finally meet and come back to NYC soon so we can hang out for real!)

Robyn had a meeting, so LB, her Boy and I wandered the floor for a while and checked out the various booths.

Lauren and I went to the S&S booth to check it out and ran into a lot of our S&S friends. Lauren had to run off to a business lunch, so I spent the rest of the day hanging out with the super fab LA. I loved that we both had enough of the BEA noise/crazy atmosphere at the exact same time and were like, “let’s go hijack an empty meeting room and chill for a while!”

After being at BEA from 9-5, I was exhausted. I got home, ate, looked over notes for my panel and crashed by 8:30.

Saturday–Book Expo America, day two

My panel started at 9:30 and it was exciting to be sitting with Maureen Johnson, Julia DeVillers, Sarah Mlynowski and Robyn Schneider. EK, Nova, LB and a few other people I knew came to the panel, which was super sweet for them to get up early on a Sat and come. I also got to meet LiveJournal friend Jenny Moss. So cool! Lauren took more pics of the panel with Robyn’s camera, so I’ll post when R puts those online.

After the panel, I left BEA to work for a while and then headed off to the S&S party. It was amazing! I got to meet a couple of editors at Pulse that I hadn’t met before and chatted with other S&S authors. Plus, I got to see publishing friends I hadn’t seen since January and it was so good to say hi and see them again. S&S picked a great place for the party and I think everyone was having fun. Perfect way to end my BEA experience.

I probably forgot a lot, since the days were packed, but those are definitely some of the highlights. I’ll keep posting about it next week if/when I think of things.

I’m forcing myself to ignore the shiny books from BEA until I have at least a few pages of the chapter by chapter outline of LITTLE WHITE LIES down. Will not stare longingly at book pile… 🙂



Herald Square pics

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I spent the afternoon here. Here being Harold’s Square in Manhattan. I thought I had my BEA clothes set. But no. No. It required trips to: Macy’s, Forever 21, H&M and a 3.1 second visit in the Gap before I was like, umm, sorry but no. Just not my style. FINALLY found what I wanted at the very last store, Forever 21, (thank you, Aly!!) and now have clothes. Still deciding how to pair them. Being a girl is hard sometimes, LOL. Am hauling said clothes over to Kassie’s in the morning to be like, “Help. Me. Pick.”

I’m working on getting my thoughts/general notes together for the BEA panel on Saturday. Am also working on sending a few emails here and there to New York and New Jersey schools about visits for the fall. If you know of any schools who are looking, please send them my way!

My list of authors to stalk is growing by the hour. Plus, um, I heard that a certain superfavoriteOMGIhearther author is attending a party that I’m going to. What if I fan girl out and squee or fall at her feet? Seriously. I have to be cool. Ahem.

Tomorrow, I’ve got the carnival (sooo packed with big authors that it’s making me super nervous!) and a quick trip to pick up my BEA badge. Friday, it’s BEA all day. Or until my arms fall off from too many books. There’s also a Friday night party, but I’m not sure if I’m going. Saturday is my panel and two parties. Very exciting!

Off to bed to read NIGHT WORLD.

BEA 2009…

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After much chatter about BEA clothes with Lauren, Julia, Robyn and Jen, I think I’ve got it. Think. *peers into closet* I won’t be going in pajamas now. Whew.

Anyone else hear about Publishers Lunch TV? Or Publishers Lunch Junior? Apparently, PL people will be running around with Flip cams taking footage and broadcasting it live. Super cool! 🙂 Love this. I want to take a ton of pics and hopefully a vlog of some sort.

BEA starts on Thursday. Have I mentioned that? 😉 If anyone has last minute BEA advice, please share!

Gotta run into Manhattan for an hour tomorrow and then it’s back home for final BEA freak outs.

BEA clothes = fail

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*All* of my potential BEA panel clothes are on my on my bed and the shoes are tossed on the floor. Everything! Is! Wrong! Ack! It’s too casual or too professional or too girly or too blah or just NO. I might be going to BEA in pajamas.

*takes calming breath and goes back to outfits*

Random things on a Friday

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I’m so excited (read: nervous) about Book Expo America! But first, I’m doing the NYC Teen Author Carnival next Thursday from 4-6 pm with awesome authors including Lauren Barnholdt, Taylor Morris, PG Kain and more! Lauren and I, dubbed “Barnhart” by Editor K, are going to be veeery scandalous. We invite you to come join us! 🙂 I’ll be giving away: two copies of TAKE THE REINS, two copies of CHASING BLUE and two copies of BEHIND THE BIT. Plus, there will be signed postcards.

Back to BEA. There are so, so many people I finally get to meet! I’m trading numbers with people so we can text if things get crazy and we don’t end up running into each other. So, if I’m supposed to meet up with you at BEA and you want to trade cell numbers, shoot me yours. I think the convention center is going to be huge and the odds of just running into people seems slim. Meg Cabot already sent me her number so we can meet. 🙂 Kidding.

I’m going on Friday to pick up my badge and to track down Kaleb Nation at the Sourcebooks booth. I will attempt to ask for (read: steal) a copy of Kaleb’s Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse.

My panel with Robyn Schneider, Maureen Johnson, Julia DeVillers and Sarah Mlynowski is on Saturday morning and so many of my friends have said they’re coming. Thanks, guys! 🙂 It’ll make me less nervous to have friends in the audience in case I start to babble and/or embarrass myself during the panel. (Um, did you see the big names on my panel? Eeep…very intimidated!) The friends can then cause a disturbance so I can slink away in shame.

I’m going into Manhattan today to get a sparkly haircut for BEA. Going to the place of awesome–Soon Beauty Lab West. Love it there. I really want hot pink streaks for the summer, but…I won’t. Yet.

Keep fingers crossed that I do not get into any sort of trouble on this trip. It would be a first. I really can make it from home to the city and back without incident–I *know* I can! I’m still so jealous of the people who can listen to music and read or sleep (!) on the subway. I’m the girl clutching her HopStop instructions and checking off every stop like a total dork. The one time I tried to listen to music on my iPod on the subway? I almost ended up in Queens!!

Happy Friday!

Book Expo America!

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I know I posted that I’m going to BEA, but I don’t think I posted the full details. I’m soo excited about going and it will be a lot of fun to meet up with friends.

Here’s the info, straight from the Website:

Saturday, May 30
9:30 – 10:30 am
Room 1E16

Driving Success with Teens & Tweens: Authors Share Online Success Stories

Sure, you’ve got a blog, but so does everyone else. What makes your online brand stand out? With so many networking, lifecasting and social media outlets available to authors, having a dot com, a myspace page, and a regularly-updated LiveJournal are only the bare minimum. This discussion will focus on non-traditional online marketing to teens and younger readers: ever thought about creating a Ning network, a Twitter feed from the perspective of your protagonist, or complimentary online content such as a YouTube channel, fashion blog, embeddable meme or downloadable EP? This discussion features a variety of perspectives from young adult and middle grade authors as well as handouts containing tutorials on how to make your own online book trailer, create an embeddable quiz, start a Ning network, and think outside the textbox.

Moderator: Robyn Schneider, author, Knightley Academy series

Presenters: Jessica Burkhart, author, Canterwood Crest series

Sarah Mlynowski, author, Magic In Manhattan series

Julia DeVillers, author, How My Private Personal Journal Became A Bestseller