It was a long week and a fruitful one. Despite the doom and gloom predictions I saw a lot of action, meetings, signings and industry news in the making going on all week during BEA.
I attended as Press since I work for Reader's Entertainment and I planned on blogging during and after the event. But, I was there to promote my own business as well and paid the fee to have my material put in the high traffic areas of the registration desks. It was the best $500 I've spent on promotions this year. I saw an immediate return on investment with an increased amount of traffic to the COS websites.
I heard a lot of talk about social media. Once group said you have be present online the other group saying social media just doesn't sell books. My question is, how do they know that ads in magazines sell books when they aren't tracking that? How do we know what is working? It was interesting to hear the same old song and dance from the same people who continue to hold out, believing that online promotions will go away.
The best workshop I attended was put on by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. They were promoting their book Trust Agents which I highly recommend. The book talks about using the web to build your reputation and earn trust. There's a lot of great information in this book. If you're job takes you to the internet to interact you should pick this book up immediately!
I could not see where BEA suffered from any lack of participation. That doesn't mean that it didn't, or that those publishers who did not attend weren't missed. I just didn't see any indication that BEA was anything but successful. I walked out with information, ideas and over 100 pounds of books!
I will most certainly attend and invest again next year.
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