The first edition of the main book fair in the United States took place in 1947 in Washington, D.C. Back then, the event was known as the American Booksellers Association Convention and Trade Show. The show moved outside Washington in 1971 for the first time. Since then, BookExpo America has been held in Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles. BEA is run and managed by Reed Exhibitions, the world’s largest event organizer that holds more than 500 events in 30 countries including meetings and conferences, trade and consumer exhibitions, and pop culture conventions.
BookExpo America features nearly all significant book publishers in the United States as well as plenty of international participants. For exhibitors, BEA is a major platform for showcasing upcoming titles, selling current books, and exchanging professional experience with colleagues from other publishing houses. It’s also a great place for selling and buying publishing and translation rights.
One of the main goals of BookExpo is to provide a professional environment to learn from peers and industry leaders, engage with the most influential publishers from all over the country and abroad, and discover new titles and emerging authors. The event is attended by authors, translators, illustrators, librarians, educators, buyers for book retailers, journalists, library critics, copyright specialists, studio executives, book bloggers, and other people somehow related to book publishing.
Along with the expo itself, the program of BEA includes conferences, the Global Market Forum focusing on the publishing industry of the current year’s country of choice, lectures, luncheons, meetings, and other special events.
As we’ve already mentioned above, BookExpo America is primarily designed for industry professionals. But it is always followed by BookCon, a fan convention where book lovers and avid readers can interact with authors, publishers and content creators.
In 2020, the event was held online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Photo: bookexpoamerica.com
