Emily's BookCon 2017 Recap!

Hey guys! So it's been a week since one of my favorite weekends of the year, BookCon! It was an amazing weekend filled with great people, books, and authors. This was my third year attending BookCon, and this was by far the smoothest it's ever gone.

Lets begin with what I liked:
I read anywhere and everywhere I get the chance (even it's in a place I shouldn't), and my friends make fun of me for it all the time. At BookCon, everyone is reading; while waiting on lines, eating lunch, or waiting for a panel to begin. I feel at home around all these people (yeah, I know that sounds cheesy). Everything was very organized when it came to getting to BookCon. We waited in a hall and they simply let us onto the show floor when it opened. It was also very easy to get from booth to booth now that they used the bigger floor. Everyone was able to move freely around the show floor as opposed to past BookCon's when everything was on top of each other. Everyone was also so friendly. We were all willing to help each other, weather it was help finding a booth or giving advice on the best publishers to follow on twitter. 

There were so many giveaways and galley drops. It seemed every corner you turned there was a book waiting or a signing to get on line for. The autographing area was by far the most calm and collected it's ever been. It went extremely smooth and there was no waiting on line for hours to meet your favorite author. The ticketing was easy and limited the amount of people in that one small area. Me and Jessica were able to show up to a signing 15 minutes before it started and were done within a half hour.

Jessica and I decided to skip panels this year. There weren't really any we were too interested. This gave us much more time to walk the show floor and pick up more books and swag. We met so many great authors, all of them were so sweet!

Now for some things that definitely needed improvement:

For the most part, everything went smoothly. Like I said before, the autographing area ticketing was an amazing idea. But when it came to weather or not we had to actually buy the book, they were very unclear. Me and Jess both thought that the signings we signed up for were free, but for most of them we ended up needing to buy a book (which kinda sucked cause were both broke college students). Also, when it said the signing was free, they didn't state if we needed to bring our own book or if they were providing a copy. The whole situation was very confusing. Just like the ticketed autographing area, I feel all signings, including in-booth signings, should have been ticketed. It would have avoided waiting on lines only to find out you couldn't get the book you wanted. 

The Penguin booth (where everyone was) was a bit out of control. They offered so many amazing giveaways and singings, but it was way too much for one small booth to handle. When it came to the signings, everyone was told they weren't aloud to line up until half an hour before the signing. You see, it sounds like that makes a lot of sense doesn't it? But when one staff member said to wait by that pillar, another was telling others to wait in the back. This caused confusing clumps of angry book lovers. They weren't communicating with each other which resulted in a lot of pushing and shoving and people who were waiting the longest were shoved to the back of the line, sometimes not receiving a ticket for that signing.  

Now back to a happier note, I received so many amazing books! I was able to snag an ARC of Jennifer L. Armentrout's If There's No Tomorrow as well as so many more! I had the time of my life at BookCon and cant wait for next year. If you also attended share your stories down in the comments. We'd love to hear your opinions on your time at BookCon!