Book Blogger Confessions is a meme that allows book bloggers to discuss issues unique to what we encounter in the blogging world. Every 1st and 3rd Monday of the month we will post a question and invite you to answer, comment and discuss opinions and different views.
Please keep the dialogue courteous. No bashing!
If you would like to participate in this meme sign up below and please feel free to to grab the button to include in your post with a link to For What It's Worth Reviews or here at Midnyte Reader.
Question: BEA, ALA. Have you ever been before? If you've been before, share your experiences; both pro & con. If you haven't gone before, do you participate in online events like Armchair BEA? Do you hope to go one day? Do you feel too intimidated to go? Are you jealous of the big book hauls and tweets during the events?
Answer: I've been to BEA for the past 3 years and I've basically covered it in blog posts. I think it's a wonderful experience if you can go. The pros are getting to meet and hang out with your bloggy pals, meeting authors, finding out about books and of course getting free books. Well I shouldn't say they are exactly "free" because you have to pay to get in and even if you get in for free as press, getting there costs money. The cons are witnessing negative behavior and not just from book bloggers. But I guess in a crowd that large, there will be bad behavior. There just will. What also bugs me is that sometimes this bad behavior is generalized to all book bloggers and we're not all like that.
I've also been to Authors After Dark in 2012 and it was amazing! The pros are again, meeting and hanging out with friends, meeting authors and finding out about other authors. If I didn't go to AAD I wouldn't have found some of my favorite books in the past year or so, such as My Life as a White Trash Zombie, Three Days to Dead, Mind Games, Royal Street, and The Better Part of Darkness. I loved the panels and the parties. The cons-the amount of money I spent on books! I guess the pros outweight the cons because I'm going again in August.
I've also attended the World Horror Convention/The Stoker Awards in the past few years. This one is really up my alley. Horror authors, horror books, horror panels. Workshops about writing horror, horror history, vampires. It's just so incredible. The cons-again the money, but hey I could spend my money on worse things!
As for events that I can't attend. I'm not really intimidated to go. If I didn't to things by myself, I might not get to do a lot of things. I don't get jealous of book hauls or people tweeting and posting about their good time. I may Oooh and Aaaah over it, but as long as the tweet/post isn't too "braggy" then good for them! I do have to admit is being a bit jealous of people meeting authors who I would really love to meet. But again, I've met some of my favorites, so I have nothing to complain about.
How about you? I'd love to hear what conventions you've attended and what you loved about them or even what you didn't care for.
10 comments:
I have been to 2 RomCons, 2 AADs, 4 Readers & Ritas, 1 Bouchercon, 1 RAGT, and 4 Boas & Tiaras. I would like to get to Thrillerfest, RT, BEA, and Left Coast Crime. I really enjoy spending time with my reading friends but yes the costs add up. I am limiting myself to one a year from this point forward. So next year for me is BoucherCon again :)
I have been to nothing :( But your right its expensive to do all them
I have only been to BEA (3x) and author signings. I love going and being able to talk to authors, reps and blogging friends and gee seeing what new books are coming out before hand is always awesome.
I think the cons is the cost of going. Even if you get in for free you have to factor in traveling, hotels, food etc into so in reality that free pass reality isn't free.
I am happy that I have been able to attend and hoping that one day I can make it to ALA when its in Chicago again :)
@Julie: You're not alone! XD
@Pam: Obviously not all book bloggers are like that otherwise I think everyone *WOULD* be too intimidated to go. There are definitely worse things to spend money on that events & books. I just hope one day I'll manage :P For the moment I'll be happy with my experiences:
Freebies - Kindle books!
Author/Blogger Interaction - Tweets!
That sums it up a lot quicker than my BBC post I reckon :L Oh, maybe not... I also talked about "bragging" bloggers. The minority also but seriously... *sigh*
I forgot about AAD! Too bad because that was one of the few cons that I actually got to sit down and attend panels.
I love hearing about BEA, ALA or whatever from my fellow readers, since I will never be able to go there of course - but it's not like I feel bad about that. It would be fun, sure, but I'm not dying for it...as long as I can read new (and old) books, I'm happy. It doesn't have to be through BEA or ALA...though, on second thoughts, I'm sure they would be a worthwhile experience, and it would be nice to meet some fellow bloggers thanks to those :).
So...keep your convention stories coming, everyone...I'm looking forward to them!
BTW, I'll join BBC again for its next round!
Authors After Dark sounds so cool --- it's nice that you were able to attend.
Nice to read your thoughts on this topic!
Yes--not all the people behaving badly are bloggers and while some are, most bloggers I've been at BEA are fab, like us.
I do feel that book bloggers get a lot of the blame, but you're right, the bad behavior is spread out amongst all the attendees.
I would love to attend other book conferences, but it really depends on where they are held. Someday though!
@Felicia: You are a good girl for limiting yourself. I wish I was better at that.
@Julie-Hopefully, one day you'll be able to attend one of them.
@Cindy-Yeah, doing anything fun seems to cost $$$.
@Amy-Yes, you will find bad behavior no matter where you go (work, vacation, conferences, lol)
@Karen-Yes, I really enjoyed AAD.
@Roberta-I love hearing about everything too even if I can't go.
@Jo-AAD was really a lot of fun. Hopefully, I'll enjoy it just as much this year.
@Steph-Agreed. It's all types of people...some behave poorly some wonderfully.
@Kate-I'm fortunate that I live near NYC so I get to attend a lot of events. Hopefully, more will come to your area.
Post a Comment