Ever since I started blogging in 2012, I’ve always dreamed of going to BEA. A convention to meet fellow bloggers and readers with the bonus of an opportunity to meet authors and potentially receive ARCs of books that are high on your TBR? Count me in! There’s just one problem – the price of tickets.
If I were to attend BEA, it would definitely be a large investment, especially given that I’m currently a college student without a job. I probably won’t have to pay for a place to stay (I live in New Jersey and have relatives in the NYC area) but there’s still transportation fees and food costs on top of the ticket price. $300 is a lot to blow at once and there are so many other ways I could use that money.
It’s especially hard to justify spending hundreds of dollars to attend BEA when Blogbound is happening around the same place and time for free. Yes, that’s right. For free.
And yeah, okay, it won’t be as big of thing as BEA – there won’t be as many publishers or authors, but I’ll still have to chance to meet new friends, my fellow book lovers and bloggers. After all, that’s the main reason why I even wanted to attend BEA in the first place.
If I’m being completely honest, if BEA still had a book blogger convention this year, I probably would make every effort to go. But they don’t and I now have a direct substitute so I’m having a really hard time talking myself into going. 🙁
And speaking of book blogging, that’s another reason why I would be going to BEA. Because I’m a blogger, I technically am qualified to attend BEA, a convention for industry professionals in the publishing world. But there’s no guarantee that this blog will still be active in May. The only reason why I’ve been able to publish posts lately is because I’m on break (and bored to death). I can’t promise this blog won’t take a backseat once school starts up again and therefore I cannot promise I even deserve to be at BEA come May. (Blogbound is open to the public so no problem there).
But who knows? I might still go after all (probably not). Either way, I’ll probably be in NYC on May 31. Just not at BEA. 😉
What about you?
Will you be going to BEA or Blogbound?
I hope you do keep your blog active. I enjoy many of your posts, but I understand the time investment. It is a lot of work with a school schedule.
Ahh I’m so sorry to hear that! BEA has also been my dream but I don’t think I will ever go (at least not in another 5 years, until I have my own job) because I live outside the US and the tickets are crazyyy.