Signing books at
...BEA. Poets and Writers covers it.
It was Saturday morning and Matthew Sharpe was late, but for a good reason. The author of Jamestown was supposed to be signing copies of his book in the autographing room of BookExpo America (BEA), but he’d just been named a finalist for a Quill Book Award, part of a program organized by NBC Universal and Reed Business Information that honors books in nineteen different categories at an awards show televised on NBC. Sharpe was busy being interviewed for MSNBC.One of the draws at BEA is the free books—as many as you can grab to make up for the price of your ticket if you’re not a bookseller or member of the media. You can also have authors sign your free book for you, which is why one particular table was stacked with copies of Jamestown. A lone intern from Soft Skull Press, Sharpe’s publisher, was left to appease the people waiting in a line that stretched out into the children’s area of the convention center. It was the first day of her internship, and the people waiting in line, some with totes overpacked with books, were impatient.