Book Eevents: BookCon 2019

Hey everyone,

Yes, I was away in New York attending Bookcon last week. And now that the jetlag is finally falling away a bit, I thought it was time to talk a little bit about my experiences. I know there’s going to be a lot of posts floating around at the moment about the event, so I’m hoping you’ll stick with me just a little bit longer to find out what I did while I was there as I feel like my experiences of the convention will be a little bit different (also, it was my first time, so you’re getting the newbie experience here). I don’t have a whole lot to compare bookcon to, being from the UK, except for YALC, so you’ll also see a bunch of references to that, and I will be providing feedback in the survey they sent on some of the things I’m going to mention on here 😀

Also, apologies for the length of this. I’ve never been to New York, or Book Con, so I wanted to write down my whole experience, not just the highlights.

Thursday/Friday 30th-31st May: Getting to New York

So, my trip to NY started at 8:30pm on Thursday. My boyfriend took me out for dinner just beforehand, and then I got a National Express coach to London Victoria, and switched there an hour later for Heathrow. It was not exactly conductive to sleep. I’d been pretty reckless in not napping during the day, since I wanted to make sure I was properly packed and everything, so being on a three hour coach and then an hour coach took it out of me. My flight to Boston wasn’t actually til 11am on Friday, so I also had nine hours in Heathrow, drip feeding myself coffee to survive, but I figured nine hours in Heathrow was probably a lot safer than standing around the bus stop for the coach in Nottingham at 4am.

Anyhow, the flight to Boston was fine, I got a little sleep, and then it wasn’t too long until we switched to a flight to La Guardia. Once I was in New York, I quickly got lost, and took about half an hour to find my flat. I also walked, a lot. Which in retrospect was not a good plan for the next day. However, I did get to meet with a girl who was also going to Bookcon, who I’d been talking to for a bit online. We got pizza in East Harlem and it was amazing!

Saturday 1st June: Bookcon Day 1

With my print outs of google maps to the Javitz center firmly in hand, I um… got lost. I made it to Grand Central, but then I got turned around, missed the bus, and ended up walking about twelve blocks while asking for directions. Google maps is great, it turns out, if you can use internet to see if your little icon is walking in the right direction. I definitely wasn’t a fan of it telling me to leave the North West entrance of a subway station, or go South East onto such and such street. I am a human, not a compass.

I finally arrived at the Javitz at 6:30, Starbucks clutched to my chest. And the line was already insane. This was the first time it struck me how big this convention was going to be. At YALC, there’s almost never a line. There’s a line for comic-con (which takes place downstairs) but there’s maybe five people ahead of you in the YALC line if that. I was probably about 200th in line at the Javitz at 6:30, and we weren’t even being let into the proper convention til 10. Some people at the front of the line had been there since 3:30am. At least it gave me a chance to make friends with some people in line. There was a woman from New York who ended up queuing with me again on the Sunday, and a lovely family behind me who were strategizing for their daughter, who wanted to meet most of the big authors but missed out on the autographing tickets for them. They were incredibly kind, and even told me how to get to the booth doing the Leigh Bardugo tickets at 10am, even though there were only 100 tickets and they also wanted one for the daughter.

At 7:30 we were ushered in to go stand in a line inside the convention center. It was a little bit crazy, since people broke rank and tried to shuffle ahead in the line a bit, but mostly it got left intact. I had to disappear to will call, which went almost smoothly. I was told I couldn’t activate my pass without internet (It’s £5 per MB using my UK phone on 4G and the Javitz was charging almost $30 a day for their wi-fi) which meant not being able to enter any giveaways or competitions. So I ended up explaining to them what a big deal that was, and a member of staff kindly lent me her phone so I could activate my pass. Once back in line, I bumped into a journalist from Publisher’s Weekly. My plan had just been to ask her what she was covering, since I thought a contact who covered the event might be handy for my PhD, but once I explained I was a PhD student she ended up interviewing me about it. Which was cool, but a bit strange 😀

Ten am hit, and everyone went crazy. The line was a huge surge, and it was actually quite stressful. We made it to the 10am line for Leigh Bardugo. The line was long enough that it was becoming a fire safety issue, so the attendant asked us to wind it around, which gave some idiot the idea of forming a sort of forking line next to the turn which confused a bunch of people. When we went to get tickets, he shoved a few of us, telling us they were next in line, not us, and we’d joined the line in the wrong place. Thankfully, both me and the woman who had helpfully pointed out the booth to me managed to get tickets, but it was close, and stressful.

Next on my wish list was the 11am ARC drop of Natasha Ngan’s Girls of Storm and Shadow and Kerri Maniscalo’s Capturing the Devil. I was pretty naive about this, thinking in UK terms where half an hour prior is usually considered early enough. My other problem was not writing the publisher names on my schedule, meaning I knew the booth numbers but not the names. Which was a big problem. I spent half an hour desperately looking around for the right booth, and even though there was a row number hanging like a banner overhead (1700, 1800 etc) I couldn’t find the right booth. Also, there were a bunch of lines by this point, all snaking around each other, and I was starting to get a bit anxious. When I found the line, it looked pleasantly short, so I joined it, only to discover that there was a break in the line, and that it actually continued about two rows over. What I’d thought was a 30 person line was more like 200. Needless to say, I didn’t get either ARC, although I did buy a copy of Hunting Prince Dracula for Kerri to sign, since I’d only read the first book in the series. This was first time I felt overwhelmed by the whole thing, and after this I really scaled back what I hoped to achieve.

Managing my expectations helped a lot with the anxiety. I skipped the Susan Dennard signing, even though I had a ticket for it, because I saw the line was really long and just didn’t have the energy. Instead, I looked around a few booths, talked to a few people. I found the Wick and Fable stall, but they were mostly doing preorders (they’d ship the candles you wanted to you after the con) so I bought one candle and then decided to come back on the Sunday at 4pm to see what they had left in stock for international buyers.

Having missed out on the ARC drop earlier, I wanted to be sure I actually did get to do something else I really wanted to do- meet Amanda Foody. So I hung around the Harper booth about two hours before it started. To be honest, I was just glad to sit at this point, since my ankles were no longer my friends. I talked to the other girl who had made the same decision, and we decided to hit the ‘book bar’ event they were doing while we were waiting. I got an ARC of a YA contemporary romance which sounded cool, (Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite) so I was quite happy with that. And we still made it back to the Amanda Foody line in time, so we managed to meet her and get a copy of her book, along with an ARC of The Speed of Falling Objects by Nancy Richardson Fischer. Joe Hill also walked past us, which was awesome!

By this point, I was incredibly hungry. I ended up skipping the Renee Ahdieh autographing, because we were expected to buy a book in the line. I’d previously been told we could pre-order copies of her new book, and have it mailed to us, but the people at the Penguin booth looked surprised when I said this… so I guess this wasn’t the case? I have all of her other books at home, and she’s signing at YALC this year, so I decided I didn’t want to buy something for the sake of it and decided to go see the extortionate food prices of the center. And they were very pricey. I got a drink, because I was also dehydrated, and bumped into Sasha Alsberg and Tasha Polis! They were incredibly kind, and I managed to arrange an interview with Sasha for my thesis for the next day. She also signed Nexus for me, which saved me from her autographing line on Sunday.

After that, I figured I’d go see the Epic YA panel which started about an hour later, and on my way I spotted Holly Black and Sarah Enni. Holly signed a bookplate for me (since I left my Curseworkers trilogy at home, knowing my chances of meeting her were slim to none) and Sarah gave me a business card to contact her to interview for my PhD.

The panel was a lot of fun, even though I had to duck out early to get in the line for Leigh. It was a discussion between Tomi Adeyemi, Julie Murphy, Cassandra Clare and Jason Reynolds about epic YA and what they considered epic. And it was moderated by Sarah. I loved this line-up so much. Jason was so funny, and there was a lot of energy on the stage. Julie gave some amazing answers, despite saying she never really did panels. And I love Sarah’s podcast (First Drafts with Sarah Enni) so it was great to see her in person asking these amazing authors all these questions.

I got back out in time for the Leigh signing, and found a pretty long line waiting for me. Knowing it was only 100 people helped though. We got raffle tickets for Ninth House ARCs, although I didn’t win (the girl two ahead of me did and she looked so happy!) and then it was time to meet Leigh. She was very sweet, and she loved hearing that I was researching Shadow and Bone for my PhD. I’m so glad I got to meet her, especially since she was one of a small handful of authors that I love who was there and almost never come to the UK. So it was brilliant to meet her.

After that, there wasn’t much left to do for the day. I bought my Jenny Han book for the signing the next day at the Bookcon shop (some drama on this later) and a cute Bookcon t-shirt, and then headed home. By which I mean, I wandered through Times Square in such a tired daze that it took a while to realize where I was, and I had a burger and fries to cope with the giant hunger gnawing at me.

Sunday 2nd June: Bookcon Day 2

Knowing how bad the lines were the day before, I decided to head there a little earlier. I got to Grand Central in plenty of time for my bus, only to realize that it was Sunday and the buses were on Sunday service. So I gave up and took a taxi, which was very pleasant and meant I got to the Javitz at 5:45. I’m not sure if it was the slightly earlier time, or the fact that the Sunday is notably less busy, but I managed to be one of the first 50 or so in line and we didn’t even need to walk around the corner. The only downside of this plan was that I didn’t pass the Starbucks this time, so I had to wait until the one inside the Javitz opened at 8am, by which point I was desperate for caffeine and pastries. I made more friends in the line, joined a book group and had a fun time waiting for it to open.

The build up to the rope drop on Sunday was super brutal. When we started getting to our feet around 9:45 they started playing “Paperback Writer” by The Beatles, and then right before we were let in they started up Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” which even though we were all stomping away, made us feel a bit like we were about to enter the Hunger Games. At 10am, me and a girl beside me in the line raced to the booth where they were doing a signing by Claire LeGrand and fortunately managed to make it in time to get a free copy of Kingsbane. Despite being so close to the start of the line, and other big stuff going on at the same time (Holly Black and Cassandra Clare tickets were also dropping at 10am) we were 45th or so in line, which was insane. The line snaked so much too. We were early enough in the line that it took a while to notice, but the line looped around the booth, went down the next aisle, passed around another booth and then sort of folded in on itself? Fortunately, we did make it, and when we stood in line with our tickets, they actually changed the music to Queen’s “We are the Champions” which fitted the moment perfectly.

I didn’t have too much planned for the day, since I was mostly doing author interviews. I did go to my Jenny Han signing and met some lovely people in that line, but mostly I just meandered around some of the booths. I won a candle and a tea mug rug, which were very cute, and then headed over to talk to Sasha after her signing. She was very sweet, and answered my questions very enthusiastically, and then she asked for a hug at the end of the interview.

I had just enough time to breathe before running off to meet Susan Dennard. She was doing an in-booth signing, so she had a lot of people wanting to meet her, but while I was sitting around waiting, I ended up accidentally talking to her assistant who set up the interview (she was wearing the most awesome skirt I’ve seen). When I finally got to talk to Susan, we chatted in the Macmillan section where all the authors were milling, and it was very hard to keep my cool when I noticed V.E. Schwab was in there (she said hi to me, and I had to remind myself to stay professional and not fangirl) and a few other authors I recognised from the weekend. I chatted to Susan outside of the little tent kind of thing, and she answered so many questions, and was so nice about the whole thing. She even got me coffee afterwards, and we chatted a little about my PhD and the Witchlanders street team, before I had to dash off to meet Marie Lu. Susan also signed my copies of Truthwitch and Something Strange and Deadly since I’d missed the autographing session the day before.

Marie Lu was also awesome, as you might expect. I hadn’t managed to get tickets for her autographing, but fortunately the attendant who escorted me to meet her after her session also really wanted a signed book from her, so I managed to sneak in the line with him. Marie answered a few questions, although she didn’t have a lot of time, and was very sweet. I’m again, so glad I got the chance to meet with her, especially since she was another author on my want to meet list.

After that, it was drawing to a close. I got some of the candles I wanted from Wick and Fable and wandered around for a bit, and then headed off to the booktube and bookstagram meet up. In there, I found total chaos. Many of the big booktubers were in there, and it was creating something of an impromptu meet and greet gaggle. I did stand in line and meet them all, and asked if I could get in touch to do a skype interview in the future with them, but there were definitely a few booktubers sat at tables looking a bit put out by the chaos. Which I totally got. The meeting had been labelled as a chance to connect with other booktubers and do some networking. And I know the person in charge was trying to control the chaos, especially since there was no official person in charge, but there was a cynical part of me that felt as though the ‘celebrity’ booktubers had sort of taken over the meeting. It wasn’t supposed to be a meet and greet, it wasn’t organized that way, but I feel a little like they must have known it would create a big buzz if they all turned up in one room. Of course, they’re also still booktubers, and it was an event for them as well, but it feels like they either didn’t consider the chaos their presence would cause, or didn’t really care? As lovely as they all were, it did feel a bit like a misdirection, and yeah there were some unimpressed booktubers and bookstagrammers trying to wrestle back some control of the meeting during all of this.

After that, I decided it was time to leave. The friend I’d made on my first night in New York happened to be at the meeting too, so we left a few business cards and shuffled off to grab some Chinese food on the way home.

And that was it, the end of bookcon. My feet were absolutely killing by the end of it, and I definitely should have remembered to bring food each day, but I enjoyed it a lot. In a way, I was pleased that my hand luggage only limited how much stuff I could return with, since it meant I couldn’t spend a load of time hunting down ARCs or picking up free books for the sake of it. I was definitely surprised by how many people were there specifically for free books, and it added to a lot of the chaos, but overall I had a very pleasant experience.

I will say to anyone considering Bookcon next year, that the event isn’t very accessible (many of us are saying this on feedback forms so I hope that changes). At YALC, ARCs are pretty limited, but they do raffles instead to avoid people running and hurting themselves, and to ensure that people with disabilities which impact on walking can actually stand a chance of participating. Bookcon didn’t do this. If you didn’t fast walk everywhere, then you had to linger and hover by booths for about an hour and a half prior, meaning you had to potentially miss a bunch of stuff to ensure your success. I also saw that there wasn’t much seating capacity, particularly in the autographing lines. I had heard prior to going that people with medical passes got put in the VIP line for signings, which meant they got to go a bit earlier, but it still made it sound like you had to wait a little while on your feet, as opposed to being nudged to the very front of the line so you were there for about two minutes. However, I did see some attendants doing it this way, so maybe I’d just misunderstood.

Anyhow, I had an amazing time. I’d love to go again at some point, although the trip was very expensive and I only managed it this time around because my uni paid some of the travel costs. If I went again, I’d definitely try and work in BookExpo too, to get the full experience 😀

Did anyone else go to Bookcon this year? Did you want to? What did you get up to or want to do? Let me know in the comment section below.