Blog by S. English
BEA is around the corner and yet I am still undecided as to whether or not I’ll attend this year. I’ve paid for my assistant and a colleague to go, but may not attend personally as I have in years past.
Part of the issue is money. New York City is expensive. Luckily I have a friend in the city who I can stay with, but then transportation is expensive, so there are budgetary issues.
Part of it is the cost of creating the materials to pass out at BEA. We create DVDs every year and have them distributed at the registration desks. Historically we’ve paid $500 for that distribution and the cost of making the DVDs are $500 so that’s been a really great deal. But, as of today I was told that the cost of distribution of our DVDs has not doubled, or even tripled, but it is five times more than what we’ve ever paid before. Five times. Not $500, but now it is $2500 and I’m told this only a month before BEA, long after I sent an email asking to secure the DVD distribution as I have done over the past 4 years.
I may go as I do each year to report for Reader’s Entertainment, but knowing that BEA is charging five time what it normally charges to a small business such as mine makes it a tough pill to swallow just to be there. I guess time will tell whether I go or not.
