Book Expo Australia 2014

As some of you may know, on the 31st of August, I recently had the pleasure of attending the Book Expo Australia at Sydney Showground, Olympic Park! Presented by Australia's fastest growing online bookstore, Booktopia, the Book Expo Australia was the first event of it's kind in almost 20 years. Or so I was told by one of its volunteers on the day.

Attending with my normal book/event buddy, my mum, I found the Book Expo Australia to be nothing but a wonderful experience and couldn't have had more fun if I tried. As always, anything book related is extremely exciting, but it was even more special to be at an event strictly for books.

Selena Fenech, author of the Memory's Wake Trilogy

Featuring a number of different indie authors and smaller publishing companies, an event such as this really managed to showcase the Australian talent we have in the book industry and really opens up a whole new platform for Aussie authors and publishers to showcase their books!

I also found the Book Expo to be a great way to meet and connect with other authors, book lovers and enthusiasts. I had the chance to chat with a lot of authors and discover new books I might otherwise not have known about! I managed to meet a copy of authors and got some books signed I picked up either free or that I bought.

I got to meet author Kaz Delaney and bought signed copies of her books!

 

I was lucky to meet authors and bloggers of Aussie Owned and Read, Stacey Nash and K.A. Last--these ladies were awesome!

 

 I bought K.A. Last's books Sacrifice & Fall For Me

 

The lovely ladies also allowed me to snag some swag from them, so look out for some giveaways in the future!

 

Understandably, as it was the first year the event has been run in recent times, there weren't quite as many tables as I expecting to see but I'm putting that down to lack of exposure. Considering the awesome turn out they had on the day I attended, I'm hoping that the Book Expo will be on again next year, perhaps with an even bigger turn out. I think a lot of publishing houses and authors would benefit from participating in an event such as this and can only hope the show gets bigger!

Plenty of room for more stalls.

With all genre's showcased from children's books and YA to adult fiction, sci-fi, romance and fantasy to food and cooking, homecare and all manner in between there really was something for everyone with plenty of talks and interactive discussions going on. Oh, and there was the FREEBIES. There was freebies galore. I got books, bracelets, bookmarks, bags, aprons, swag and more.

All these FREE books!

 

Alan Baxter was kind enough to sign a copy I got when I met him there on the day :)

 

Just some of the free goodies I got including apron, swag and one of the many Booktopia bags I got :)

 

I was given quite a few copies of Fallen Too Far by Abbi Glines--they just told me to keep taking them, they had boxes and boxes filled. Guess I'll have to give away a copy or two in the near future ;)

 

Overall we had a really fabulous time at the Book Expo Australia. This could be a potentially fantastic opportunity to launch your book to a wider audience if you're an Aussie author looking for promotion and I truly hope more people, companies and publishers get behind this event in the coming years.

Mum is such a goof <3

 

I'll have my fingers crossed that the Book Expo Australia takes place next year, as well as the years that follow and urge you all if you're in the area to jump on board and attend if you can!