Do you have any plans for Book Expo America this year?

I have been exhibiting at Book Expo America since the McCormack Center, in Chicago, opened back in the middle 90’s. The show evolved as did my own booth in an effort to keep up with the changing times.  This year’s Expo is being held in New York City. In line with my “don’t put your eggs in one basket” philosophy, Self Publishing, Inc will offer authors a variety of ways to get their books in front of buyers.  One of them should certainly fit your budget.

I probably attended my first trade show sometime in the early 1980’s. A buddy and I had invented a pretty controversial political board game, which had been receiving tons of press and had picked up a few commissioned sales reps to sell it. The first major trade show we attended was Toy Fair in New York City. I remember it, like it was yesterday, heading to New York City with visions of purchase orders dancing in our heads. “How hard could it be?”, I remember thinking.  Well, four days later we were headed back to Annapolis with orders for a few dozen games, egos completely deflated. Before it was all over we sold almost 100,000 games, so we were considered pretty successful, but how many of those sales were attributed to us attending trade shows? Actual orders… very few.  Sales resulting from the buyer first seeing the game at a trade show? Mmmmmm… impossible to say for sure but these, ethereal “indirect sales” were the main reason we kept coming back, show after show.

The book business turned out to be no different than the game business only this time, instead of Toy Fair, the big show was Book Expo America.  We started attending this show almost 15 years ago, the first year the McCormack Center opened in Chicago. Each year we approach the show in a slightly different manner…each time attempting to stage the “perfect” show that would result in direct sales. Somewhere between year one and year fifteen the light bulb went off and we came to grips with the fact that trade shows are not as much about sales as they are about exposure and indirect sales. As such, exposure is a little harder to sell than actual sales.  If I tell you that you are going to pay $2000 for a booth but you will most likely sell $4000 worth of books, it would be an easy sale. Unfortunately this is not the way it works, no matter what others might say. Trade shows are a little like the lottery.  You need a ticket to win… you need to pay to play… but the odds of winning are pretty small. A book buyer is not going to buy your book if they don’t see it. You generally have to pay to get your title into a spot where a buyer is going to see it. But like the lottery, the odds are still pretty small that your book will be picked up, even if the buyer sees it.  So what does the intelligent small press publisher do to get their book out there in front of buyers?

If budget is not an issue, maybe they call up Book Expo and rent a full booth or two and “go-it-alone”.  The Javits Center is approximately 675,000 square feet.  A simple 10 x 10 booth will cost at least $10,000 by the time you get done. It doesn’t take a math major to figure out that 100 sq feet is not a very large percentage of the total 675,000.  The reason that people don’t mind the long odds on the lottery is because the cost of the ticket is a very affordable dollar. If the price were $10,000, how many tickets do you think would be sold? That number is just about the number of authors who should buy a booth at Book Expo. Even the small press section of the Expo is no bargain. While the price is a few dollars less, the small press section is usually just to the south of Outer Mongolia so nobody ever makes it there, other than other authors. So what is an author to do if they want to have a shot at getting their book in front of bookbuyers, yet not break the bank doing so?  There are two primary ways to do this.

1.    The least expensive way is to participate in the Book Expo Sponsored New Title Showcase.  Anyone who has been to the show before might remember a group of bookshelves right at the main entrance to the show. While everyone might not walk every one of the 675,000 sq feet of the Javits Center, they all come through the front door.  Location, location, location… as the saying goes. All books are displayed face out and are included in a New Title Showcase printed catalog as well as a special section of the Book Expo America website ( http://www.newtitleshowcase.com ). BEA charges $265 per title to be a part of this exhibit but has offered the discounted price of $199/title to readers of the Publishing Basics Newsletter and customers of www.SelfPublishing.com.  The deadline is April 1st so, if you are interested, please sign up today.
NOTE: There are other exhibits similar to this but only one located at the front door of the convention center.

2.    The second way is to participate in the SelfPublishing.com shared display. After two years in the Children’s book section, Self Publishing, Inc. is moving back to the main floor.  We have a 16 foot booth on a main aisle. Booth number #4859, to be exact.   The cost to be part of this booth is $495. Included in the price is a day pass to the show (an $85 value).  As in the past, the booth will be manned by SelfPublishing.com personnel as well as many participating authors. The full “flavor” of the booth will not be known until we get an idea of what books will be included so while there is no “set in stone” deadline, like there is with the New Title Showcase, the sooner you know you’d like to participate, and let us know, the better.

3.    If you are really feeling lucky and would like to try a booth by yourself, a 6 x 8 booth in the Writers Row section is $1946 or a 8 x 10 in the Independent Publisher section is $3154.  You can contact Lisa at LMontanaro@reedexpo.com for more information.

Did I tell you that Book Expo is during the week this year? After being held on a weekend, since the beginning of time, the decision was made to hold the show on a Wednesday and Thursday.  I have heard lots of different theories on that one but, I guess, time will tell.  It will be great for the local market and will also be great for those who would just as soon spend their weekends in May planting grass seed or something at home, rather than attending a trade show in New York. Like the old saying goes, you have to play to win.  Book Expo America is absolutely the best book show in North America.  Can I promise you sales if you participate in either the New Title Showcase or the Coop booth? No, but I can promise that if you don’t participate in some manner, you will definitely NOT sell books. May 25th is right around the corner.

New Title Showcase – $199/title – To reserve a spot click here

Self Publishing Coop Booth – $495 for 1st title, $200 for each additional title – Reserve Space, contact ron@selfpublishing.com.

Ron Pramschufer

Ron Pramschufer has been in or around the printing and publishing industry for over 35 years. His experience, including working in the pressroom, bindery, production office and estimating department helped give him a firm foundation to build on when he entered sales and management. He was partners in a small press publishing company in Annapolis, MD in the late seventies and co-invented and marketed two controversial political board games which sold over 100,000 copies in the early eighties. Moving from his home state of Maryland to New York City after his game experience, Ron sold printing services to, primarily, small to mid-sized book publishers for over a decade before founding RJ Communications with an old friend. Ron recognized the potential of the Internet very early as a powerful communications tool. In 1997 he started one of the first printer related websites, www.rjcom.com, which caters to the professional print buyer. This evolved into www.BooksJustBooks.com and more recently www.selfpublishing.com which target the print buying novice, primarily self-publishers. All three sites are still operating successfully and SelfPublishing.com was named as one of Writers Digest’s, 101 Best websites for writers for 2006. Educating the novice print buyer has been a top priority from day one. To help address this issue, Ron co-authored the popular title Publishing Basics- a Guide for the Small Press and Independent Self-Publisher, now in its Third Edition, as well as Publishing Basics for Children’s Books, in its Second Edition. He is the organizer of the monthly Publishing Basics Newsletter where he writes a sometimes controversial Ask Ron column which addresses various aspects of the publishing process. On the same note, he started the Publishing Basics Radio PodCast in 2005 and serves as the show’s host. A wide variety of topics are covered including a very popular series titled, The Truth Behind POD Publishing, where he conducts interviews with a select group of industry insiders. Since its inception, RJ Communications has helped thousands of customers print over 105 million books. Ron is married and has three children. His daughter, Stephanie, teaches second grade and recently self-published her first children’s book in the Oliver the Clownfish series. Matthew, his oldest son, owns a website design business and Erik, the youngest, is enjoying high school.

Website - More Posts