BookExpo cont'd

Day 3. So many books! The publishers are waving them in our faces as we cruise the aisles, probably because attendance is down 20% from last year, and they don’t want to haul books back to wherever. Also, NY publishers don’t (apparently) want to come to Chicago, and a lot of other vendors didn’t either, so fewer of them had booths here.

A lot of digital publishers were here, although ebook sales are down, and print book sales have grown.

But lots of opportunities here for DIY publishing if you want to go that route. I was invited to a reception by Archway publishers, and talked with a few writers who were clients. One author had paid $7000 to get his book published and had, in the several months since, sold 71 copies, with only 6029 to go before he breaks even.

But the authors I spoke to — all first-timers — were happy to get their books out there.

Money aside, I’m reluctant to do that. The big pitfalls of self-publishing are the lack of publicity and promotion. I will keep querying agents.