This year's Book Expo America (BEA) trade show promises to give attendees access to what's new, what's next, and everything exciting in the world of books. Whether or not it does is another question. The American Booksellers’ Association, (ABA) has been holding this event for decades. Back in the day, it was possible to actually make money by getting as many giveaways as possible and selling them to local used bookstores. You can’t really do that anymore as everything is now digital.

 

There is still plenty to do however, as there are dozens of panel discussions and the like (they don’t do official receptions anymore, or at least won’t tell me about it.), and even though the amount of giveaways have declined, the exhibit floor is still full of interesting stuff. A new focus is on digital self-publishing, which means that print is now passé and just about anybody with a computer can produce an e-book and sell it on Amazon, and they have a number of workshops on how to do this. With bookstores rapidly becoming extinct, alternatives need to be found and pronto.

Over the weekend, the trade show will, for the second year running, be accompanied by BookCon, which is sort of like a comic book convention only without the pictures.

The general public is permitted to attend BookCon.