Better than Disneyland

Highlights of the Book Expo 2007

Taxis swarm about the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City. Shuttle buses are lined up in an orderly—though impatient—fashion outside the revolving doors. A continuum of bags forms a blur as people flood out from shuttle bus after shuttle bus. Is it a fashion show? Donald Trump dropped in? Radioactivity has made every single other location in New York City dangerous?

          All wrong.

          This is the 2007 Book Expo NYC.

Preparations for the Book Expo are evident to the day-before audience. Vehicles wielding menacing forklifts stroll about the booth grounds; carpets are unrolled amid shouts. It’s a sight children aren’t allowed to see for security reasons, among them the heavy equipment and kids’ notorious reputations for getting underfoot.              

Deborah Pratt, author of futuristic science fiction book The Vision Quest, describes the Book Expo as “Exhilarating and exciting.”  New York’s Book Expo attracts rights professionals, publishers, librarians, booksellers, authors, and exhibitors, providing an extraordinary medium, to many, for book launches and book buying.

“It was a great opportunity to share my book,” Pratt adds. Peter Brown, an acting student who assisted in the booth, says, “I enjoyed [the Book Expo] very much. I enjoyed being exposed to the personalities in the publishing business.”  

“I think it’s better than Disneyland,” ten-year-old Jonathan Campbell says. “With my mom, it’s my fifth [time at the Book Expo].” Meeting authors such as Shannon Hale (Princess Academy), Suzanne Collins (the Gregor the Overlander series), and E.L. Konigsburg (The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler), is certainly thrilling for the younger generation.  

Numerous publishers set up booths at the Book Expo. Scholastic, publisher of the popular books Harry Potter and The Land of Elyon (series), gives away free Harry Potter-themed bags, attracting long lines of people. American Girls, publisher of the American Girls series, celebrates the release of their new 1970s character, Julie Albright.

“[There is] a lot of excitement over Julie Albright, and her friend Ivy Ling,” an American Girls salesperson says, handing out red American Girl bags. Publishers like the Book Expo, not just because of the publicity opportunities.

“I love hanging around with other people who love books,” says Michael Metzler of Action Publishing. Action Publishing displays children’s books The Family of Ree (series), a guide to the Constitution, and several other publications.

Many people enjoy the Book Expo.

“[The Book Expo] touches me so much it brings tears to my eyes,” says Randy Peycer of Author One Stop, a company which assists authors find publishers and navigate the publishing world. The Book Expo is, in many perspectives, an extraordinary mélange of freebies, chat, and the latest in educational materials.

To some, however, this mélange is a maelstrom. The Jacob K. Javits Center is enormous, with a labyrinth of passageways intertwined below the main floor plus numerous escalators and elevators. The confusion is increased when one takes a look at the number of people packed into the Javits Center, but to Randy Peycer—and many other people—the Book Expo is a playground, a playground of the literary world.