Yesterday I went to the Blogger’s Day at Book Expo America. BEA is the largest publishing industry event in the United States, an annual five-day affair at the Jacob Javits Center. Generally, I have a love/hate relationship with conventions but this one is a professional necessity and it’s also very informative and interesting. Best of all, you get to find out what’s up and coming in the book world AND there are lots of free books.

I went to three, yes two, keynotes yesterday. What stamina I have. Will Schwalbe,creator of Cookstr.com and the author of The End of Life Book Club, spoke very interestingly about what makes people visit, share and engage with content on and off the web. He also shared his thoughts on  the roles that book-bloggers, authors and publishers might play in the future.

I also went to a fascinating keynote called Shaping The Future Of The Book: Insight From Leaders Who Are Transforming How We Read with Steve Bercu of BookPeople in Austin, Michael Pietsch CEO of the Hachette Publishing Group, Jane Friedman, Founder and CEO of Open Road Integrated Media, Barbara Marcus of Random House. So what did they talk about: eBooks, self-publishing, backlists, social media and how people will read books in the future and the legacy of print.

My last keynote was the very bubbly and very appealing Randi Zuckerberg, sister of Facebook founder Mark  Zuckerberg. Formerly the head of marketing at Facebook for six years, she has now gone out on her own as CEO and Founder of Zuckerberg Media, a digital media production company. She also runs a blog called Dot Complicated and is the author of an upcoming children’s book called Dot about how much computer time is too much for kids.

I attended a panel called  Adult Book Blogging Pros: Successes, Struggles and Insider Secrets. Moderated by Jim C Hines, it featured three romance book bloggers: Mandi Schreiner of Smexy Books, Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches Trasy Books and Rebecca Joines Schinsky of The Book Lady’s Blog.

I’ve never read a romance novel but I am inspired to do so now so  that I can read these funny, smart, anti-elitist and feminist bloggers.

I also went to a social media panel called What’s Working Now: Search Engine Optimization, Author Platforms and New Social Media with a great group of  smart women: Lori Culwell, Brittan Geragotelis Katherine Sears of Booktrope Publishing and Lisa Hazen. Lots of interesting ideas…