ALA 2012: My first time!

ALA is the American Library Association, the organization that awards the Caldecott, Newbery, Printz, Geisel, Coretta Scott King, Pura Belpre, etc every year. Once a year they have one of the biggest professional conferences in the world, the ALA Annual Conference. It's a weekend full of workshops, sessions, lectures, dinners, luncheons, exhibits, authors, and librarians.

This year it's in Anaheim, a short hour away from me! The conference itself was too expensive for me. But I was presented with the opportunity to volunteer for a free one-day exhibits pass. So in March, I signed up, and this weekend I went. It was crazy. I had read that 400+ authors and illustrators would be there, 800+ exhibitors, career placement and networking services, signings, advanced reading copies of books (ARCs) (these are all things I would have access to just with my exhibits pass).

I could only go to one day. I was worried about missing all the best stuff (like Maggie Stiefvater, Laini Taylor, Mo Willems, ARCs of The Diviners, etc.). But the day I went was great, and I think it all ended up for the best. There were 3 halls filled with booths, but one hall was of particular interest to me: the hall with all the publishers. As you walk by, there are stacks of ARCs on tables for for the taking (there are also heavily discounted books for sale). It was overwhelming at first. I asked someone at one publisher if they had a specific title, and she reached under the table, took out an ARC and gave it to me. (!!) Fortunately I had made a list of not yet published books I was interested in, and started going from publisher to publisher, asking if they had such and such (for example, I now possess an ARC of the sequel to Princess Academy), and then looking at other ARCs that were out. (Unfortunately they did not have the sequel to Withering Tights, they were out of Every Day by David Levithan, and Shadow of Night cost $5).

In this pic you can see the Bloomsbury booth, and next to that (the facing white stripe booths) is Macmillan, the brown/red on the right is Tor/Forge.

Here you can see Candlewick on the left, with people waiting in a short line to get something signed.

Some books were being held in reserve for signings. There were almost 170 signings happening the day I was there. You have to pick and choose because there are so many (though I have one signed book from someone I've never heard of because she was sitting there just waiting for someone to pick up an ARC and get it signed). Some books/authors attract large crowds, long lines. For example, I would have liked to get Origin by Jessica Khoury, but I didn't want to bother with the line. I wish I had a picture of that line or the line for Eve and Adam (it's the dystopian ones that get big lines of lots of bloggers). I waited in 2 lines: Ruta Sepetys (completely worth it) and debut author Gennifer Albin (one of the publicists at Macmillan sold me on Crewel earlier in the day, we'll see if it lives up to her praise).

Artist Alley. That's Gene Luen Yang, author of American Born Chinese behind the table of the left. The person being interviewed on the stage (that you can't see) is Faith Erin Hicks.

Then there were other areas. There was Artist Alley, booths of graphic novel artists, some of them drawing and working on projects at their booths. There was the graphic novel stage where I watched them interview Faith Erin Hicks (there were all sorts of things going on at this stage I was interested in but didn't get to see--it was so far away from the publishers' area). There was a cooking demonstration area (it's funny somehow to see men with chefs' hats walking around a library conference), and an area where authors read passages from their books. There was another stage where they did stuff--the day I went it was authors and the narrators of their audiobooks. There were booths dedicated to databases and online services, e-media, academic journals, library suppliers, even furniture (I wish I'd gotten a picture of that and the booth with artificial trees).  It's like each exhibitor came and constructed, from scratch, a showroom. Honestly, I didn't see a whole lot outside of the Hall A. It's overwhelming, and you get bogged down with books so fast. I wish I'd had more days.

One of the times I ventured into another hall. You can see booths from Ebsco. On the right is Library of Congress. Baker & Taylor, a major library book supplier is in the background.

Maggie Stiefvater with the voice actors of the audiobook for Scorpio Races. 

At the end of the day I was in pain--shoulder, feet, back, neck. It was the price I paid to bring home 30 books (7 of them signed, all but 3 are free advanced reader copies), 10 posters, fake tattoos, stickers, book samplers, audiobook samples, and other stuff. The release dates of the ARCs I got range from August of this year to February of next year.

I felt like a bit of glutton at the end. I think at first I got caught up in the free stuff! free stuff! mentality, and I wanted to make the most of the one day I got to go. But as the day went on I become more discerning about what I took. Highlights included meeting Paul Nicklen (and getting his book for half price), meeting Ruta Sepetys (who was so nice!), watching Faith Erin Hicks draw a sketch in my copy of Friends with Boys, and getting a copy of the much-anticipated Crewel. I also got to read Jon Klassen's upcoming book This is Not My Hat before most people (it was hilarious just like the first; I so wish they had had ARCs available). Everywhere you turn is an author. You can walk down a row of booths and see John Klassen, John Rocco, Patrick McDonnell, and Paolo Bacigalupi.

Paul Nicklen!

Ruta Sepetys seeing her new book with its cover for the first time (my ARC is red with type on it). Penguin had the nicest looking booths

Coolest autograph prize goes to Faith Erin Hicks who did a little pencil and calligraphy ink (?) sketch--see results below.

(the sketch of the girl and then the ♥Faith are her signature--I point it out because when I showed someone else they didn't realize it wasn't part of the book.)   

The ARCs I am most looking forward to reading are Ruta Sepetys's Out of the Easy, Gennifer Albin's Crewel, Elizabeth Fama's Monstrous Beauty, and of course Shannon Hale's Princess Academy: Palace of Stone. But y'know what finally arrived at my local branch after 3 months on the waiting list? The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. So the others will have wait, but it's okay because they don't have a due date!