Book Expo What?

BookExpo America starts today in, I believe, Chicago. I think this is a big industry event at which publishers present books they're hot for, though I'm not exactly sure whom they present them to.

I think I should be all bent out of shape because my publisher has never asked me to go. However, since I'd hardly even heard of BEA (That's what those of us in the know call Book Expo America. You can call it that now, too.)before I started going to Readerville, it's hard for me to get up a lot of agony over it. Flying half way across the country so I can sit at an autograph table where it's very possible no one will talk to me? I can do that at the local mall, thank you very much.

However, what I'd really like to do is go to BEA as a guest who just wanders around and looks at the booths. I'd like to do that because I've heard the publishers give away free stuff. You know how you go to a home show and come away with free notepads, yard sticks, little rubber things for opening jars? I've heard that at BEA you come away with free Advance Readers' Copies. (Which those of us in the know call ARCs. You can call them ARCs now, too.) ARCs are the bound galleys publishers send out to reviewers. So if you go to BEA, you can get books before they're available to the general public AND you don't have to pay for them.

At least, that's what I've heard. Because as I may have mentioned, I've never been to BEA.