Last June Christine sent me a couple boxes full of books and ranted and raved about this ALA conference she’d gone to and pretty much I decided I had to be at the next. And, lo and behold, the next one was where Christine lived, so I could visit with my awesome friend and get free books.
Best Weekend Ever.
It did not occur to me at the time that January is a crappy month to travel in. It didn’t occur to me later that all the snow making it difficult to get to the Seattle airport might make it difficult to leave the airport. It never occurred to me that my, MY flight would be canceled. That’s never happened before and I didn’t see why it should now.
It was so canceled.
Now, there was a big ordeal with me trying to get the heck out of Seattle. It was difficult. Nothing was leaving. I booked another flight…that was then canceled. But I got put on standby on an earlier flight and did, after over twenty-four hours, leave SeaTac for the Portland airport. With my luggage on a different flight. And I had no way of knowing if that flight was going to get canceled until we’d landed in Portland and I saw that it was on it’s way.
Then I had to wait until six a.m. for my next flight which took me to Phoenix. Then I had to switch planes and my next flight landed in Oklahoma, no switching planes though, and then FINALLY I landed in Dallas. Christine picked me up and we drove directly to the Convention Center as it was now Friday evening and the Exhibit Hall was about to open.
It was open for two hours and I got more books than I could read in a month. Then we went back to Christine’s, I had the second best shower of my life and slept. That sleep was the most beautiful thing ever.
The convention itself is a big blur of random awesome moments (eg. When I found David Levithan in the Hall and just happened to have Will Grayson, Will Grayson in my backpack) and mob mentality overtaking politeness in my NEED for that book. (There was two instances where I dived in between people toward the floor to get a last copy of book. I shake my head at myself now.)
I remember some publishers were super awesome. Most especially Macmillan, Harper Collins, and Candlewick. The very nice gentleman at Macmillan (I totally didn’t ANYBODY’S name!! I am such a failure.) just took our long, small print list and found what he could from it as we stood there. No questions asked. Candlewick took out some copies of the Froi of the Exiles for us when we started talking about it, and were just generally accomodating and nice.
And Harper Collins. Dear, dear Harper Collins. I am so sorry about my part my in the stampede that happened Sunday morning. I don’t know what came over us. It was scary. I knocked a book over. And you guys were so awesome. Special thanks to the woman who was wearing the nice white dress on Saturday (again, I completely blanked on names) who didn’t even give a long suffering sigh as we kept asking about more books. And then later on Sunday the same white dress lady (though she wasn’t wearing a white dress at the time) put out many, many books, just as we happened to by walking by. Coincidence? Maybe…but I don’t think so.
Oh my God, I feel so bad about not knowing anyone’s name.
Everyone else was really great as well except for ONE publisher, who shall go unnamed, who didn’t seem to want to give out books to bloggers. Which is fine. I understand that ALA is a librarian conference, and they’re YOUR books so publishers can do whatever they want with them. But why couldn’t they just tell us that instead of giving us a weekend of runarounds and excuses and lies. It just makes me think bad things of them.
I really loved getting to meet a lot of other bloggers especially Kaitlin and Tillie. They were a lot of fun and it’s always good to have people to talk to in lines. I’m sad we didn’t go to the big blogger meet up Friday night but I had just spend two days in various airports, so…yeah.
The BEST part of the whole weekend, though, was getting to hang out with awesome friends Christine, Kassiah (and her two minions), Emily, Allie, Jessica and everyone else I met. It was much fun!
Oh, and meeting Mary Lindsey! That was fun too! If you’re reading this Mary, you should be writing. Just saying.
As you can imagine we have a LOT of books, so we’re going to start giving some away! Today we are giving away 12 books to two lucky winners! The first winner will get to choose six, and the second will get the rest. All you have to do is leave a comment telling us which book that is being released in the next six months you are most looking forward to! Please see the rafflecopter widget for further instructions, the giveaway will end Sunday, January 29th.
EDIT: Just adding a couple things here. Tomorrow, after the giveaway ends, I’ll be locking the comments on this post. This is in an effort to avoid any arguments starting in the comments. If you feel the need to express anything about this post, please email us or fill out the contact form. I am more than happy to read your responses, and respond to some, as I have responded privately to some comments below.
I also wanted to say that I’m sorry my actions have upset so many people. I was, truly, caught up in the moment and previous similar experiences (at Comic Con and that sort of thing) encouraged the mad rush. Thank you for remaining polite in the comments, even if you disagree with people.
Further Edit: Okay, wordpress will not let me lock the comments without deleting them all, and I don’t want to do that. So, please, everyone, just remain polite if you feel the need to comment. If any comments are impolite I reserve the right to delete them.
Because it’s six books per winner, we have to keep this giveaway US only. Sorry about that! International shipping is expensive! So, without further ado, the books to be won are:
The Difference Between You and Me by Madeleine George
Secret Letters by Leah Scheier
Lost Girls by Ann Kelley
Courtship & Curses by Marissa Doyle
The Queen’s Lady by Eve Edwards
Daughter of the Centaurs by K.K. Ross
Waiting by Carol Lynch Williams
172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad
The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart
Infinity by Rachel Ward
The Stalker Chronicles by Carley Moore
The Wild Queen by Carolyn Meyer
Don’t forget about me meeting John Green!!!
I could never forget about that.
I live a few hours away from Dallas, and I’m always so bummed I can never find the time to attend ALA. It sounds like a truly fantastic weekend, and I’m glad you didn’t get stuck in Seattle. (I hope you enjoyed our warm weather, too.)
Thanks for sharing your adventures (I laughed once or twice), and more thanks for hosting this giveaway!
P.S. According to your giveaway entry thingy, I’m supposed to tell you what book I’m most looking forward to coming out in the next 6 months: The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead.
All kinds of yes to The Golden Lily. If they’d had a finished copy there, you know I would have drooled all over it.
Wow it sounds crazy. Your plane…the mobs LOL But I still totally want to go next year! I can’t wait to read Romeo Redeem by Stacey Jay.
It’s hard to choose which book I’m most looking forward too. There are so many great titles waiting to be read. Just hope there’s enough time to read them all
Insurgent and Born WIcked, and Hemlock. And others that i don’t know about.
I’m most looking forward to Article 5, but there a re a lot to choose from. Thanks for hosting this event.
I’m really looking forward to Glitch by Heather Anastasiu. It sounds amazing!
I’m looking forward to pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
Great post! There’s so many books to choose from, but I’m most looking forward to reading Courtship & Curses by Marissa Doyle.
Not sure if this book is coming out in the next 6 months, but Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore. I’ve been waiting for that book for about 4 years. I need it. Now.
I’m dying for Timepiece by Myra McEntire. Dying.
It is tough to choose just one but if I really have to I would say the book I am probably looking forward to the most is Insurgent. Thanks for the contest!
I saw all about your airport troubles on twitter and silently rooted for you to make it there (I thought at several different points you were close to giving up). ALA sounds like an absolute blast! As for the publishers- aside from the one, it’s nice to know that they’re so accommodating to you guys, considering that I get a decent amount of my recs from you, so in turn, you’re part of the reason they get paid.
I’m still insanely jealous of all the mountains of goodies you’ve tweeted pics of over the days. I’m hoping that a large amount of positive reviews come from such an amazing stash. Thanks so much, as always, for hosting the giveaway and sharing your ALA adventures with us.
As for the books I’m most anticipating, I’d say “Incarnate” by Jodi Meadows (Next week- YAY!), “Insurgent” by Veronica Roth, and whole host of others (I’m drawing a blank and goodreads is being a jerk to me at the moment).
Thanks again,
Christina
Sorry it took awhile for your comment to show up. Our spam filter hates us. Or something.
And, if I lived in Seattle I probably would’ve given up and just waited for my Saturday flight (meaning I’d miss half my trip) but as I was stranded there giving up wasn’t really an option. Which is good! I’m so glad I got there on time for Friday and Saturday.
You shouldn’t be proud, you should be ashamed. You think it’s funny to joke about pushing people out of the way for books? You think that kind of behavior is cute or shows how much you love books? You’re wrong. It shows how juvenile and entitled you are. You should be ashamed.
Do you know what I would do with some of the books you have listed here as giveaways? I’d give them to teenagers to encourage their attendance at my programs, to get them to write reviews, to make them excited about the library. But I see that YOU are using them to getting blog comments, so that is much more important!
You should be ashamed.
I’m so sad I missed out on ALA!! Thanks for the giveaway.
I can’t wait for CITY OF LOST SOULS!! Chyeahh Cassandra Clare. 
Don’t know when exactly it comes out but I am most looking forward to Wither and Insurgent to come out in the coming months
Yeah, I’m kind of disgusted by this behavior exactly. This is the kind of blogger that gives book bloggers a bad name to publishers. One of these kinds of bloggers can ruin it for all of us. Please don’t pull this diving and cutting in front of people for books act again. You should actually be ashamed.
I think there are three things to take away from this post:
1) This blogger is giving mad props to the Publishers and Distributors they met and received items from, something very few people actually take time out to do – kudos to you for that.
2) As with all public events, especially ones catered toward an excitable crows, we need to remember to act courteously and keep things safe and pleasant for all attendees. It seems like some people may have gotten a little carried away but, goodness, it certainly doesn’t sound like a Black Friday Shopping experience by any means.
3) People still don’t seem to “Get” what it is that Book Bloggers do. To the commenter who said she’d give away the books to young readers so they could review/form opinions as well – what exactly do you think book bloggers are all about? Did you miss the giant portion of this post that’s actually about giving away some books to other readers? We LOVE to share books and opinions about books and, for most of us, this is a huge time commitment with very little (if any) compensation – we don’t get a salary to work with books, we do it because we love it. Anyway, I agree we book bloggers who care about image need to remain vigilant and keep acting with respect and the highest levels of professionalism – there are a lot of preconceived notions in the ‘established’ book worlds about us – prove them wrong.
I for one thank you for this post – I’m glad you had a good time (despite all the other irritating experiences and unforseen complications). I hope future events go well for you!
I agree with Roof Beam Reader. I just want to clarify my earlier post. I am a book blogger, not a librarian. And I would love to go to an event like one of these, but I can’t afford it right now. But please, PLEASE, no pushing or shoving at any of these events. It makes all of us bloggers look bad and we SO don’t want that. We want to continue getting ARCS and earning respect from those in the industry. At least I do.
And for me personally, I don’t review books to build publicity for authors and publishers. That’s a nice side effect and all, but I review books because I like to, it’s an outlet for me, and I like to spread my love of books to others who love them. I am not, nor will I ever be, a mouthpiece for a publisher. And those bloggers that are I don’t understand at all.
Oh so many! Probably Insurgent, COLS, and Of Poseidon!
Hi friends,
I work for a publisher and I was at ALA Midwinter. At the risk of sounding like I’m pandering, I do have to say that we love how much you love our books. We love our books, too! And then the love begets more love and then we’re all just swimming in a big pool of booklove, and isn’t that the way the world should be? You all do give a valuable voice to our books, to our readers, and we sincerely appreciate it.
But I do want to refute a few things in this post. I’m sorry if you thought that some of my colleagues (I hope it wasn’t me!) didn’t seem to be that obliging to you. But I think I can explain why that might have been the case.
We were at the American Library Association Midwinter Conference. Midwinter is a lot different than Annual– it’s much more businessy. Librarians are on committees for everything from who gets the Newbery to who is going to be the next President of ALA to who gets to be on the next year’s committees. So, this means a few things– it’s a little more of a low-key show, and the librarians don’t have a lot of time on the floor because they’re off doing other things.
My colleagues and I have spent the last year organizing a conference for librarians (yes, a whole year. That’s how far out you reserve a booth, hotel rooms, start pitching authors for panels, planning author signings… there’s a lot to do). You might have noticed that a lot of the books you, as bloggers, were interested in, like the paranormal romances, weren’t available either at all, or in very small quantities (unless it was a HUGE book coming out in the next six months or so). That’s because it’s a show for librarians, who do story time or host middle school book clubs. Yes, they do YA work, too, but the very paranormal stuff they will buy and put on the shelves and enjoy themselves, but it’s not something that they’re going to use extensively in programs, etc. We had beautiful picture books on display, charming and heartwarming middle grades– and the bloggers didn’t want anything to do with them (or so it seemed).
Now, I love my job. And my favorite part about it is telling people about our books. Our books are like my friends– I know each one. I know if it’s quiet or if it will make you laugh or if it’s just good for resting your head on after a long day of work. I love to talk about books. I love it. I bet you do, too, otherwise you wouldn’t have a blog. Now imagine that you’re in the middle of telling someone about a book and instead of listening to you explain why it is SO AWESOME they just take it from you and walk away. In the middle of a sentence. It’s frustrating.
As for the diving, we know you’re excited. But you’re also grown ups. Just like we are.
On Sunday, you might have noticed a bunch of groups of teenagers walking around with librarian chaperones. These were the BFYA teens. The Best Fiction for Young Adults list is awesome because it’s one that the teens actually get a say in, so we’re so excited when they come up to our booth and ask us what we like, what’s hot. But by the time they got there on Sunday, there were practically no YA galleys left. The librarians were mad, the teens were upset, and we looked stupid.
We love that you love our books. I can’t stress that enough. But we have people back at Book HQ who cater to your needs. Our online marketing people are so happy to send you things. But imagine we let a whole bunch of librarians into Book HQ and let them raid online’s shelves before they had a chance to mail anything out to you. That’s kind of what happened at ALA.
We appreciate what you do, and we’re so willing to send you books. But when you come into a show for Librarians– librarians who are fighting to keep books on the shelf, who half the time are volunteers, who don’t get any credit for what they do, who don’t get paid anything, who work with no budget whatsoever, who constantly have to battle administrators and video games and the internet and whathaveyou– please don’t get upset if we’re not prepared for you. We weren’t expecting you. And we brought these books for the librarians who need them.
To the people who walked out with bags and bags and bags and bags of books– how many of those are you going to actually read and review? How many of them are going to be sent to you by our online marketing staffs? How many of them could you have left for someone else?
We all need to be on the same team. And I think that means being respectful of other people’s needs, plans, and personal space.
Also, no diving. No begging. You’re better than that. And if you’re not, then pretend
Happy reading, all!
Sorry your comment didn’t show up right away. Our spam filter is overzealous about things. I like the points you bring up.
Thank you so much for this comment. I think it really explains the situation nicely. I imagine it took some time to write and I appreciate the thoughtful response. As a librarian I get the frustration and as a blogger I get the excitement. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said, “We all need to be on the same team. And I think that means being respectful of other people’s needs, plans, and personal space.” I can’t say it enough… keep it classy!
Wow. Outstanding response to this whole situation and one that so very clearly explains ALA MidWinter and who you are there for. So very sorry to hear about all the BFYA teens not getting books because there was so little left. Years ago I got to be a part of that, making sure the teens who came in the library could pick from the ARCs the youth services librarian returned with. How fun it was to talk books with them, see their reviews and help them make their next pick-all because of your team and others like it at ALA. I’ve also taken ARCs into library book club meetings. Kids love being able to read them and oftentimes that can be a selling point to get them to join up (and cause that works, you can bet I use it, lol!) Hope your message is heard and we can get back to do what we all love–promoting books and reading! There are venues for us all to get the books we need…this one just happens to be one that is focused on librarians and library staff–and BFYA teens.
I’m glad a publisher took the time to write such a thoughtful reply. I attended last year’s ALA Midwinter and I totally get how you can get caught up in the excitement of all the shiny new books that I’ve been hoping to read for ages. Still I tried to restrain myself to the number of books I figured I would be able to get to before the release date. If I knew I would not be able to get to it I refrained from picking up an ARC and just bought a finished copy or borrowed it from the library.
I’m glad you had a great time but hopefully next time you pick up only the number of books you think you can reasonably read and review for the release dates without resorting to giveaways of so many books that could have gone to others.
I am dying to read Insurgent and Pandemonium.
I was at ALA too, and I think some of the publishers were rude. Some were amazing though and I loved talking to them, but others just blew me off.
Nice post!
Insurgent.
Back again. Sorry I messed up on the comments…replied to the post rather than Friendly Publisher. But did want to say I am not upset with you. I’ve never been to ALA, in particular and I am a librarian. Now, I am pretty sure I would not dive for books (I might break something lol), but take what might be considered way too many? Yep. Of course, now I won’t.
And here is to a smoother flight to your next ALA or BEA!