BEA 2015 Recap: My Overall Experience and Thoughts

My Overall Experience and Thoughts 

We now arrive to the final post about my amazing experience at BEA 2015... I'm crying. Once again, like I've said a million times before, BEA was amazing. Here is some facts that BEA included by the numbers:

• one publicist who I work with from Penguin Random House!
• 117 ARCs in total! The rest were finished copies!
• books were signed by the author! *squeals*
• 4 days filled with book lovers and authors!
• 1 actual celebrity—Julianne Moore!
• many, many water bottles to calm the stress and dehydration
• one epic trip to the gorgeous city, New York City
• 152 books in total + some middle-grades for my sister

That's just some of it. But honestly, there's so many people that I'd like to thank for making this possible, and for giving me an amazing experience:

• my family
• my partner in crime (Mom)
• the amazing publishers who worked so hard to make this happen (Macmillan, Simon and Schuster, Hachette, Sourcebooks, HarperCollins, Soho Press, Mystery Writers of America, Penguin Random House, Penguin Canada, Disney-Hyperion, Bloomsbury, just to name a few)
• all of the authors who worked so hard to satisfy readers and take time out of their busy lives to meet us
• the staff and volunteers at the event who handled the crazy people and organized everything perfectly
• Starbucks, for all of those times where I died of dehydration and needed a boost
• all of the awesome people who I met
• the amazing city of NYC 
• BEA's press office. Love you guys.

I'm so grateful to have been at the Expo and to be honest..

I'm super excited for Chicago next year. Hopefully I can go? 

That would be awesome. I'm so in love with BEA! I'm going to probably start counting down the days soon enough, haha.

38 signed books!

When BEA time comes around next year, I'll probably write up a tip post, full of tips for you newbies who'll be attending, but here are some that I've come up with that I'd highly recommend following:

1. Have fun. It's not about the number of books you get, instead it's about having a good time and meeting other people.
2. Socialize, socialize, socialize. This is a crazily busy place and you have so many chances to meet people!
3. Take photos. You'll never see such a bookish place in the whole world like you do here.
4. Get in lines early. You won't regret it, and then you'll have the chance to wait less, and head to something later.
5. Make a spreadsheet/schedule earlier before the event. This'll help so much and will keep you organized! (Make a few copies, mine ripped as it was the only thing I held in my hand 24/7!)
6. Check in a luggage. Even if you're sure you won't get much on one of the days, better have it checked in on the bottom floor in case, rather than risking your shoulders falling apart. (See my Day 1 Recap. Hmmph.) It's only $3 per bag!
7. Head to panels! I went to one this year (YA Buzz Editor's Panel) and had a complete blast. It's one of my main highlights!
8. While you're in the city (or Chicago next year), go sightseeing! You don't need to be at BEA every single second to get every single book. Explore!
9. Get there early in the morning. This way, you'll be able to relax and not think about that Passenger signing at 9:30 and how you might not make it. (I DIDN'T. WAAAHH)
10. Make the most out of your experience. It's the #1 biggest (and best) publishing event in all of North America. THINK ABOUT IT—YOU'RE THERE!

There's so much more to the event, but those are the main things that I realized afterwards, and made my experience so much better by following them.

Until next time, KING JAVITS!

What an amazing experience. Now what I have to do is—READ ALL OF THOSE BOOKS.WOW. OKAY. UM. THAT'S GOING TO BE HECTIC. (I already read In the Afterlight, and really enjoyed it!) I seriously cried as I left the city. :(

That's my recap! How did you like my 5 posts? Any questions? Have you been to a book event before?

BEA 2015 Recap: BookCon

Day 4: BookCon

BookCon... wasn't a success as I hoped it'd be. At least, it was better than what I've heard it was last year where they added BEA and it on the same day. That's honestly disgusting, and I bet that it was reaaaaallllyyy unorganized as BEA was this year. Wow. But I honestly didn't really have a fantastic time here on Saturday since, the autographing area was downstairs, I'd have to run around, THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE, and everything was out of control.

So after spending some of my day at Central Park and its zoo (one of the landmarks my sister and I really wanted to head to), we decided to sneak a peek at BookCon and see what it held. But before that, here are some photos of the zoo that made me squeal and giggle like a little girl. 

The zoo overall was so much fun! I mean, it didn't have a huge variety of animals as the one in Toronto does, but it HAD BEARS AND PENGUINS and it was clean, small and gorgeously decorated and kept. What more can we ask for? Everyone comes to NYC to experience something new, and in this case, it was the zoo as I haven't been to one since I was a kid. Does a theme park in Florida count as one? 

PENGUIN! SO adorable, it followed my fingertips!

The cutest friendship—Betty and Veronica!

After arriving at BookCon, I went to grab my sister a pass ($5 for kids, whoa!) and headed upstairs since I already had my press pass ready. EVERYTHING LOOKED SO MUCH SMALLER! HarperCollins had a very small booth now compared to what it had in BEA, and I couldn't even find half of the things! The huge ceiling signs sure were handy. The official map was my best friend that day.

I think that the first place I went to was Capstone, where they were holding a spin-the-wheel-and-win kind of thing. I won Love and Other Profanities and also ended up getting Lois Lane: Fallout, very anticipated by me, and was the happiest person! Hachette was also having some giveaways in store at the time, but I actually had all of those books from the previous days, so I counted that out. 

Afterwards, as I tried to find Epic Reads to see what they were doing, Running Book Press was right beside it and I FOUND OUT THAT THE AUTHOR OF INHERIT THE STARS, TESSA ELWOOD, WAS SIGNING COPIES! That was a crazily anticipated read for me, but I wasn't sure where to find it at BEA or who the publisher was, to be honest! The line was mega-short, and Tessa was SO sweet! :)

Epic Reads then also had a spin-and-win with ARCs, and then I ended up getting an extra copy of The White Rose by Amy Ewing, which I already had from Wednesday, coming with my luck. :( But then, my mom scored Catacomb by Madeleine Roux, which honestly MADE MY DAY. I hadn't even known that there was going to be a third book in the series! (Horror = my love)

After that, really, was just going around the floor to see what the publishers were up to. Everything was merchandise or books that you have to pay for, since this was open to the public. I figured that I already had so many books (though there were discounts on the ones that they were selling!) and decided to leave. I ALMOST CRIED. Realizing that this is the last time that I'll see the Javits, I took as many photos as I could of the Centre, and left with shame and grief. 

Panorama of my favourite place!

BookCon could've been better. I only stayed for 1.5 hours, and found it really sucky compared to BEA, but if I hadn't gone to BEA, I know that it would've been awesome for me. But hey, I had so much experience with both that I feel like I now know the basics!

Here's my small (but awesome) haul, full of samplers of the reads that I WANTED FROM BEA! 

How was BookCon for you, if you went? Was it as good as BEA, do you think? 

BEA 2015 Recap: Day 3

Day 3: May 29, 2015

Here comes the summertime sadness... and the official final day of BEA. Don't get me wrong, I still have two more posts having to do with this glorious time of my life, but you know—BEA is over after the 29th. And this, I say, is the day where I got the most books, had the most fun and enjoyed the event the most, even though I wasn't present for the whole 8-hour period. SIGHTSEEING, HERE I COME!

I spent my time taking final photos! *sobs*

As you may have heard, Hachette was a publisher who constantly had galley drops and signings happening. If I had to wander around, I'd go to Hachette's booth, just saying. *winks* They weren't the most organized around as they'd state that their lines aren't official when they later turned into that official line, but I loved the books they had! *grins* It was also right next to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid photo booth at Abrams. Which ruled. 

Everyone was getting James Patterson t-shirts!

I actually got two t-shirts at BEA: a James Patterson one, which was handed out on Friday, and then an Endgame one from HarperCollins at BookCon. YOU CAN SEE THE HUGE BOOTH SIGNS HANGING FROM THE CEILING. Who says you need a map when you've got those signs? Those are the best things ever, and I now know that I'll never make a map again since I barely used mine. The spreadsheet did help tons and tons, though.

This day was also my sister's birthday, which made everything ten times better since she also tagged along with my mom and I. She actually had SO much fun, and is one of the reasons why we headed to BookCon on Saturday when I originally wasn't planning to. I'm pretty sure she brought back about 40 books for herself, although I'm the pure reader in the family.

I arrived at the Center after a yummy breakfast at the hotel around opening time, a little later though. Grabbing some coffee from the epic Starbucks overpriced line and checking in our luggage at the coat check, I headed inside, beelining straight to Penguin Random House's booth to grab a galley of Colleen Houck's (FAVOURITE AUTHOR) newest gorgeous pretty, Reawakened as well as another pretty, Stone Rider. We all got tickets, and the line was just pick up and go. AWESOME ORGANIZATION.

Right afterwards, I ran straight to Kenneth Oppel and Jon Klassen's signing of The Nest, a highly anticipated read of mine! They were so awesome! Their signing was from 9:30-10:00, but many people showed up and they took everything to another table just to meet fans! (I found out that they hang out really close to my house, drive around my city, WHICH IS MEGA-COOL.) 

WOOOO! Fangirl alert!

Friday was a huge day for Sourcebooks giveaways. By the end of the day, a ton of the books I had were from them, since I ended up staying at the Center until the exhibits closed after hearing that publishers like to giveaway display copies and such. They were awesome, as well as Soho Teen and Algonquin Young Readers! 

Afterwards, around 11, I left the Center, leaving my frantic mom behind to head over to the signings that I was really looking forward to, so I can be a pure New Yorker tourist and head onto the big red buses with the outdoor roofs!

Macy's, the biggest in the world!

I had a blast. How was I supposed to say that I went to New York without sightseeing? There's so much to do in the city, and SO much that I missed to do, but I know that I'll be back. Next time: Broadway and Statue of Liberty ferry tour. I must say that the BOOKS were on my mind most of the time!

Eyyyy! Hey fellow tourists!

Taxies are everywhere, I tell you.

Madison Square Garden!

After being here in the busiest city of the world, I admit that I would definitely live here if I had the chance and if everything worked out. I even explored the NYU campus and shop, and felt like at home! Who knows? Imagine living in an apartment seeing the gorgeous lights of SoHo outside of your window! AGGGGH, that's heaven. Toronto's nothing compared to the beauties of this city. I even saw Taylor Swift's condo!

A few hours later, after seeing a ton but experiencing a lot of time in traffic (hell yeah, it's normal for everyone) I decided to head back to the Javits, so I can spend some quality time with the Center that honestly left me shedding tears. I met up with my mom, and began to look over the last of my schedule!

While I was in line for Lynn Weingarten's signing of Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls, (which honestly is a signing and moment that I'll never forget, I'll show you photos of her signature later and explain the story), I met Dahlia Alder in line! My mom actually went to her signing earlier (WHICH I WAS DYING TO GO TO) and literally fangirled when I saw her!

She's adorable! 

Wandering and looking at the remaining booths that I haven't gone to (though I never ended up going to the China exhibit or Polish Book Institute of America, since I am Polish), I headed to Scholastic and HMH, two booths that had books I always wanted but I never ended up getting and had a stellar time.

AND THEN. AND THEN. AND THEN. I WENT TO SIMON AND SCHUSTER'S BOOTH AND SAW THE AMAZING ELLEN HOPKINS THERE, BESIDE A STACK OF HER NEWEST NOVEL, TRAFFICK. MY MOM ALREADY HAD IT SIGNED FOR ME, which made (and ruined) my day but I couldn't be there...

You're so AMAZING AND AGHHHHHH ASDFGHIKL

BEA was simply composed of moments that changed my life forever, really. Did I ever mention my luck of finding ARCs at random locations that people left behind? I found Eileen, an adult mystery that I AM SO EXCITED FOR beside the door, just sitting there, a random copy of Upside-Down Magic by Sarah Mlynowski somewhere too, and grabbed endless amounts of LAST ARCs in a bunch. EEEE!

Adi Alsaid! I wish I met you!

And then afterwards, my mom mentions that she went to the Harlequin Teen Hour where Eleanor Forman, Adi Alsaid, Kady Cross and Katie McGarry all were signing, WHO WERE AT THE BREAKFAST I MISSED. I literally squealed and couldn't believe it, as that signing crossed my mind. Thank goodness she was there and looked at the schedule! *sends kisses*

Kady Cross! (Used to live in my hometown!)

Harlequin was a publisher who never had any galley drops? There were only signings, and those were FULL OF PEOPLE ALWAYS. I found out that this Teen Hour wasn't as busy as the first, but was super organized. Glad to hear!

Another gorgeous sign!

I left the Center around 5:30? Something like that. My day and life was complete with so many gorgeous new reads and it couldn't have been done without: my mom, my scheduling, THE AMAZING PUBLISHER AND AUTHORS AND ADVICE BY ALL OF YOU FANTASTIC BLOGGERS! I'll get to the thanks part on Monday's post, but you know what I mean. I actually thought that this would be the last time I'd be in the Javits... never expecting to go to BookCon the next day. Here's Friday's haul:

57 gorgeous reads this time around!

FRIDAY WAS AMAZING AND AWESOME. HOW WAS YOUR FINAL DAY OF BEA, IF YOU WENT?! Liked anything from my haul?!

BEA 2015 Recap: Day 2

Day 2: May 28, 2015

Day 2 was really what I was waiting for from all of BEA. Jokes, I wanted to see all of it, but Thursday was also known as the gorgeous day that incorporated the 7:30-9:30 Harlequin Teen Breakfast at the Javits itself! My, when I got the invitation, my heart exploded into millions and billions of sparks. And then, I realized that I wasn't a true New Yorker and didn't know what could really happen.

NYC traffic is horrendous. If one thinks that Toronto traffic, or traffic anywhere else is bad, they should take a trip to NYC. 

I left my Jersey hotel around 7, and expected to be a little late, maybe around 30 minutes, maximum? And hey, it lasted for two hours, so there was much to see. When (at least) trying to get close to the Lincoln Tunnel to the city, it took about more than an hour and a half of stalling in the gross traffic to finally get inside. Ew.

By the time my mom and I entered the Center, it was close to 10:00. That means that I: missed the breakfast completely and the chance to meet amazing authors (ie. ADI ALSAID, JLA, KATIE MCGARRY!), completely missed Alexandra Bracken's signing of Passenger, another crazy-needed read of BEA, and wasn't even there at the Centre when it opened. PEOPLE ALREADY GOT STARTED ON THEIR DAY AND I WAS STUCK IN TRAFFIC. Ew, again. Excuse me for my ranting, but I was in a huge state of shock. Never staying in a Jersey hotel again. -_-

But Wednesday was amazing. I got my signing-shoes ready and was all set to hit the floor and run around for the whole day. First stop? The BEA Young Adult Editor's Buzz Panel downstairs. I heard so many awesome things about this panel, and I figured that it'd be my only panel that I'd be visiting this time around for time's sake. I arrived a little late, but did get to hear a bit about Nightfall, and all of Zebulon Finch and This Raging Light. The editors' speeches and lectures were ultimately fabulous, and this encouraged me to want to go into the publishing industry someday and work as an editor, perhaps!

Here are the editors and other awesome peeps who put this together!

All of the novels sounded so intriguing and of course, I got my hands on them all! *photos below with haul* This year's beauties were:

• Everything, Everything, by Nicola Yoon
• This Raging Light by Estelle Laure
• Dream Things True by Marie Marquardt
• Nightfall by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski
• The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch by Daniel Kraus

And the rest of the day involved tons of more intense fangirling. Like, here's a photo of me with the fabulous authors of Elusion, Claudia Gabel and Cheryl Klam!

Ew. I look horrible, but the ladies OBVIOUSLY look stellar!

I literally died and was out of words to say when I came up to them in line! I can't wait to read Etherworld! 

Moving on, I felt like I REALLY got to know the Centre by this day. I could find the big publishers' booths with my eyes closed! Around 12:30, I headed to the Penguin Random House booth to grab a ticket for this:

YES. I ALMOST DIED WHEN I GOT IT.

Can I just cry and bawl again? Ultimate fangirl mode. I planned on heading to this signing since my BEA schedule became real, but I was unsure if I'd actually get the chance, since you know, IT'S JULIANNE MOORE. I love her to death, she's such an inspiration, gorgeous inside and out! Here's starstruck me with the amazing her:

HI! OMG YOU DON'T KNOW ME BUT I LOVE YOU.

AGGGGHHHH! I also met two fabulous ladies in line who kept me entertained although the line wasn't even official?: OMG, I forgot your names but you know who you are if you see this! (You guys were hilarious!) I will never look at a blue tote bag the same way ever again! (Let's hope the guy found his own eventually.) Well that was amazing. 

Did I mention that I MET DAVID LEVITHAN? I was in the line for Will Walton's signing (who was one of the most memorable, funniest authors I met), and David was writing everyone's names down for personalization for the copy. I wasn't completely sure if it was him (as we usually are), and then I read his badge and it all made sense. Here's a snippet on how our conversation went like:

David: Hi! What's your name?
Me: Mmmiicheeellleee... Oh my gosh, it's you!
David: It's me!
Me: Agh, you're my favourite author and it's amazing to meet you!
David: Thanks, but I'm just an ordinary guy...
Me: NOO! You're not, haha. Thank you so much!

My insanely good stalker skills helped me quite a bit here, I was too nervous to ask him to take a photo with me! *slaps forehead* I was so dumb.

Looking great, DAVID!

Now that we've come to this stage, I really feel like noting how awesome the publishers are. KUDOS TO:

• Penguin Random House
• Macmillan
• Simon and Schuster

for being SO organized with your lines and knowing exactly how to make people smile. Your booths were the highlights of my trip and I had so much fun exploring them! Tickets and publicists holding lines together and controlling crazy people? THAT'S THE BEST WAY TO DO IT ALL. Thank you so much for making this trip forty times better. *sends love and hugs*

Ready for my haul? I know you are, I know you are! Thank goodness I brought a luggage this time, or else I would never have been able to lug anything this time. My shoulders were killing from Tuesday, and this was a breeze!

45 FABULOUS NEW READS!

Just look at Zebulon Finch! It's actually massive! *stares and awes*

This was my memorable second day of BEA! How was yours, if you went? See anything worthy of in my haul?

BEA 2015 Recap: Day 1

Day 1: May 27, 2015

After honestly waiting for this experience for all of my life, IT FINALLY CAME. Really. Actually. I felt like I've been waiting to go to a HUGE book convention and event since I began blogging. No, it's not all about the free books, BUT THERE WAS ACTUALLY TEN THOUSAND other beautiful things that made this possible for me.

On a bright and early Tuesday morning (the day before) I left my house with the family and drove for eight hours all the way to the beautiful city where we stayed at: Elizabeth, New Jersey. It's only a 15 minute drive to the city (without the horrendous traffic) and from the window, you can see the city's skyline, at both day and night! I feel that arriving early was the best possible thing so I can get relaxed and prepped and still spend a day doing some sightseeing and starting to enjoy myself. (I use "and" waaaayyy too often, but there's so many things to list!)

On Wednesday morning, I woke up bright and early, believing that the wonderful staff at BEA would let everyone in early before 1 PM when the exhibits were supposed to be opened. We got there at 11 AM, 2 hours early. Hah. Mistake there! The traffic was really horrible, and we got out of the car farther from the Javits Centre, not even knowing which way to head. Thank goodness Google Maps is available for walking GPS routes! *wipes sweat off forehead*

The city skyline view from the NJ Turnpike Highway!

The Centre actually stunned me and I just wanted to run and hug the gorgeous, clean glass walls immediately. I couldn't believe that I was there! My mom (wonderful escort of mine) and I headed to pick up our badges, went to get some coffee, grabbed an issue of the Publishers Weekly published especially for BEA (which helped us with so many galley giveaways!) and went to wait in line. I even grabbed a ticket for JLA's signing of Lux: Consequences, but never ended up going to that because I already had that book at home. In line, I met 2 new friends: Ope @ Ope's Opinions and Kristin @ Kritters Ramblings! I'm SO DUMB for not taking a photo with you ladies! 

The line to get into the exhibits!

The staff finally let us in at 1 PM sharp, and I headed straight to the Macmillan booth to get a ticket for Truthwitch by Susan Dennard, probably my most anticipated read for BEA itself. I SHOULD'VE RAN THERE OR GOT THERE FASTER. Of course, I got distracted by the Hachette booth and wanted to get some galleys! By the time I got to Macmillan, they ran out of tickets and the line was HUUUUGGE. I honestly don't know how people got there so fast. 

Penguin Book Truck! Prices were exactly like bookstores...?

I mean, yeah, I was disappointed, but I actually couldn't even predict what was ahead of me. That day, I headed to most of the booths, got to know the galley schedules and see what they have in store for us. Little did I know that I'D BRING SO MANY BOOKS HOME. WHY DIDN'T I CHECK-IN A LUGGAGE? Here's a tip: Even if it's a half-day, you should definitely check-in a luggage, even if you don't get to fill up half of it. It sure helps instead of having to lug eight bags with you like a true New Yorker, having to walk a few blocks to your destination!

I can say that I was nervous the first day. I met Amy Ewing, one of my favourite authors of The Jewel, and I was in fangirl-freakout mode. And then we all have to remember the amount of totes we're all carrying and the amount of people. I thought that there were a lot of people there on day one... That's nothing even close. 

Illuminae stairs! SO COOL.

Did I mention that the Starbucks was crazily overpriced? Get your drinks before if you'd like to grab something at the start of the day! But hey, there were always tons of people buying beverages...

At the end of the day, I was so tired. UGH. I left the building at 4:30, had to walk a few streets and blocks, with a lot of bags on hand. Thanks to the fantastic, humid weather that NYC had in store this time around, I was sweating tons, and you can picture the story. 

In the Centre. HUGE, YES?!

Well I feel like bawling. THAT DAY WAS A TRUE SUCCESS. All I needed after that was a day at the spa, but I didn't care. Shoulders hurting? Yes. Fun? Yes. See the awesomeness? I'll do whatever it takes to have a great time with bookish people around. WOOT. I know you're ready to see my Day 1 haul, hehe! Here it is: (at least I tried to remember which were from which day)

50 BOOKS! YAY!

Sorry friends, but these are too many to list. Check them out on Goodreads, as I'll begin to add them to my TBR! YA is on the left, and adult is on the right, by the way!

I ALSO MET CASSIE MCGINTY, AN ASSOCIATE PUBLICIST AT PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE! I've known her for a looong time, and I literally teared up when I met her at the These Shallow Graves signing for Jennifer Donnelly! <3 br="">

ASDFGHIKL! I had an amazing time, and it was only DAY ONE! What was your first impression of BEA if you went this year! Kudos to the publishers that were awesome at organizing things: Macmillan, Simon and Schuster and Penguin! YAY!