It was once again time for the annual Book Expo at the Javits Center and as tenured readers of “The Chronicles” know, we have been attending this particular convention since around 2011. I’ve only missed it twice since then with one of the times happening when it relocated to Chicago for some reason. This adventure was going to be the first in a series of events since not only will the Book Expo lead us into The Book Con, but the Five Points Festival will be happening in a few days and we are attending that as well. The Book Con stuff will be here while the Five Points Festival coverage will fall to PiercingMetal.com so do please check both of those out as they go live.

For those of you who have never attended or know much about the Book Expo, this particular event is aimed at the industry and select press only.  That means the publishers, vendors, librarians and marketers for this industry along with select press.

Oddly enough, when I arrived and got my credentials, a larger part of the expo was not yet open to the public and still being assembled by the crackshot teams working for the Javits.

Useful information like this was posted at numerous points.  Some filming restrictions and of course today everything has an app.  I didn’t use the app this year but will for sure next go round since it can be helpful for the networking.

Readers of my NY Comic Con posts will recognize this space as being the location of the DC Comics pavilion.  It generally has a large superhero emblem where you see the word “panels” and some kind of display cases with heroic costumes and such.  You’d also see about a thousand fans down there too but this event has less traffic since the public cannot just attend. That is what The Book Con is for and that happens post Book Expo.

While the larger part of the expo floor was being worked on I did chance upon some folks who were ready and here is a display of Nimbus Publishing stuff.

Here are some offerings by the folks at Rare Bird Books.  These two novels are by Keith Buckley, the lead singer of Every Time I Die.  I am going to have to look into these.

These are some sidelines which means the stuff you find on the side of the outlets selling books and such.  I feel this stuff needs its own focused area at Book Expo to make it more special.

Now we can begin.  Here is my annual press badge being protected by my always used credentials holder from Think Tank Photo.   I’ve been using this handy item since early 2015 and you can see our Product Review by clicking HERE.

One of the first areas that I like to check now at Book Expo is the aisle where some of the comic book and graphic novel companies are set up.  The folks at Image Comics often have a couple of larger booths and this year were doing a lot of signings.  I decided to give them their own spotlight in a post that was done for the Comic Book section of PiercingMetal.com – Please click HERE to see that because they had some awesome people in attendance.

Here is a small display by the Dynamite Comics folks.  They have been releasing a lot of great titles and some featuring KISS who you might already know are my favorite band.  Nothing here from them this year though.  Sigh.

Here’s some stuff from Quarto Publishing.  We always try to support their tomes and they have issued some good ones over the last couple of years.

These Princess In Black books for the younger readers intrigued me since a lot of my friends have young children.  The design of the character made me wonder if I will end up seeing toys made of her at any time in the near future.

These are Book Beaus and they protect your books.  They looked nice and sturdy too and that’s important if you bring your books along with you on train or bus trips.  Nowadays I am just playing with my phone and queuing up texts to go out when I have a signal instead of reading on the train.

Hey this is “Grumpy” and she reads.   A lot.  Making this downer of a grimace is her thing and I thought it was a hoot.

Here’s Don Diamont and Stephanie Land who were each signing copies and posing for photos with anyone who wanted them.

Da Capo Books has a new book by founding Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing.  I wonder what the former member of one of my favorite bands has to say about everything.

I’m sure that I don’t need to say that this is the famous Dr. Ruth Westheimer do I?  Well, she was at the Behrman House Publishers booth signing her book “Roller Coaster Grandma”.

How could I miss the chance to say hello and get a signed book for myself.  Dr. Ruth rules and was so sweet.

Crate subscriptions are the hot thing today and this one should go over well with the bookish folks in our world.  They are LitJoy Crate.

I’ll wrap things up for the moment with this batch of images and notes and be back tomorrow with some more so please stay tuned. While you wait, I hope that you will click through to some of the websites that are linked below so you can learn more about the people and companies that were featured in this chapter. As you know, its during events like this one that we are VERY active on our social networks so you’re going to want to come on over to our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Official Websites:
Book Expo: http://www.bookexpoamerica.com
ReedPOP: http://www.reedpop.com
Apples and Honey Press: http://www.applesandhoneypress.com/
Behrman House Press: https://store.behrmanhouse.com/
Book Beau: https://bookbeau.com/
Da Capo Press: https://www.dacapopress.com/
Dynamite Comics: https://www.dynamite.com/
Image Comics: https://imagecomics.com/
LitJoy Crate: https://litjoycrate.com/
Mascot Books: https://mascotbooks.com/
Princess In Black: http://www.princessinblack.com/
Rare Bird Books: https://rarebirdbooks.com/