How did your co-op booth work out at Book Expo America in Los Angeles?
Is exhibiting at Book Expo a good idea for the small press publisher?

I am writing this from 34,000 feet, somewhere over the hinterlands of America, on my way back to New York City from Book Expo America (BEA) in Los Angeles. We just completed our first trade show where, instead of representing the BooksJustBooks.com publishing service to publishers, we represented a group of Small Press publishers to the booksellers. All of the books represented were produced through BooksJustBooks and are available in the www.JustBookz.com online bookstore.

The Small Press section was tucked away on the bottom floor of the South Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center in a place called Kentia Hall. Having exhibited in numerous BEA shows in the past, we knew that the Small Press section was not given “Prime” space and was normally tucked away in some remote corner of the convention hall. Los Angeles presented the additional issue in that there were no other publishers other than Small Press in Kentia Hall.

The decision to take a double booth in the Small Press section vs. a single booth in one of the general sections upstairs was not an easy one. In the end, we felt that we belonged in the Small Press section. Our main goal was to reach the Independent Bookstore Buyer. The large publishers on the main floor have reps that make sales calls to these buyers during the year so they are already familiar with their product line. A visit to the Small Press section was the only way to see many new titles that they would not otherwise see any other time of the year. Also housed in the Kentia Hall was the autographing section. For those of you who have never been to a Book Expo, the autographing section resembles the Chicago Stockyards. There are 30-35 tables at end of this hall and long channels leading up to them. The autographing author sits behind the table and the “eager horde” contributes $1 and waits in line to get a book signed by an author. The authors ranged from Jamie Lee Curtis and Oliver North to one of our own Small Press publishers, Tonia Evans and her mom. The place was absolutely packed.

I don’t know how many signed books were given out, but it was definitely well into the thousands. I couldn’t resist and got a book signed by my friend Tonia as well as a beautiful book on pool landscaping for my wife. This activity, kept the place jumping on Friday and Saturday. Sunday, with no autographing to bring in the crowds, we had to do something ourselves to increase traffic. For this we chose to raffle off the 17” flat screen monitor that we were using to show off the JustBookz.com online bookstore. We distributed several thousand postcards all over the eating areas on the other show floors, encouraging people to visit the Small Press. In addition to placing their business cards into the pot for a chance at this monitor, participants were encouraged to help us name the dog in our logo. This worked well in bringing traffic that would not normally come, to the booth. Santa Claus, who was in the booth behind us, picked the winner. The winner was Rennie Gabriel from Gabriel Books in Sherman Oaks, CA. We still need help with the dog’s name. I have included the current list of possibilities. Your opinion would be welcomed.

All in all, the show was a success. The booth looked nice, we had plenty of traffic. When I walked the floor to see some of the other co-op booths I came to the conclusion that our customers definitely got the best “Bang for the Buck”. We certainly had the nicest catalog of which hundreds were given book buyers? In addition, Dana and I were familiar with all of the titles in the booth so it made it easy to talk to anyone who would listen.

We had two of our authors spend time in the booth. Ruth Glick, author of Fabulous Lo-Carb Cuisine , signed over 80 books in a fairly short period of time. Tim Wiggins the author of, Colloidal Silver, never stopped during the entire three days and personally talked to over 500 people who had Health food sections in their bookstores. He was also asked to participate in an alternative medicine show later this year. Books supplied by the other authors/publishers also found their way into many of the right people’s hands.

Next year the show moves to Chicago. The plan is to start much earlier for next year’s show. After seeing how successful that the authors were who attended the show, I am going to really push to have authors make the trip to Chicago.

My conclusion is that exposure at Book Expo is definitely worthwhile. The ideal situation is to spend about $30,000+ and get a 400 sq’ booth on the main floor. Unfortunately, very few people that I work with can afford this. A single booth on the main floor becomes lost among the giants so I wouldn’t recommend it. A single booth within the PMA group of booths is not a bad idea although the costs are still pretty significant. The least expensive way to get into the show is to buy a $100 book slot in the PMA booth. The good thing with this is that PMA has a significant amount of space on the main floor right in the middle of the heaviest traffic. The down side is that there were over 600 books displayed in this manner. No one really knows anything about any individual titles and only a simple, type only, catalog was available for the book buyer, so you are really a needle in the haystack.

This leaves us with the co-op type booth that was offered by JustBookz.com. There were about 40 titles involved. The catalog was “first class” and included a picture of the book as well as a full description. The catalog was backed up by a bookstore section at the JustBookz.com website. It was easy for those working the booth to become familiar with the content of every book in the booth making the booth more “interactive”. Best of all, the price was only $300 per publisher.

Well, the captain just announced the plane is approaching Kennedy Airport. I guess it’s as good a time as any to wind this down. If you would like to help us name the JustBookz.com dog please email me your ideas. The names that have been suggested so far are:

Bookie
Peanut
Paige
RJ (a personal favorite)
Dorg
Poopsie
Gutenberg
Dogier Paige
Wordsmith
Paige Turner
Woodruff
Reade
Zephyr
Book Bowser
Deckle
Ruby
Barkus Maximus
Latke
Kona
Booker
Scruffy
Page
General
Hounder
Tuffey
Just Bozo
Wordy

For more information about Book Expo please visit www.BooksExpoAmerica.com

If you have a question pertaining to the publishing production process, please feel free to contact me at ron@rjcom.com.

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