ReedPop’s BookCon 2015 Returns to the Javits Center

This past weekend the second annual BookCon, a conference and exhibition for book lovers, was held at the Jacob Javits Center in New York. The two-day event followed three days of Book Expo America, otherwise known as BEA, a long-running event for publishing industry insiders. Last year the ReedPop division of Reed Elsevier introduced BookCon as a consumer-focused addition to BEA.

ReedPop hosts several major comic book and pop culture conventions including New York Comic Con and the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (universally known as C2E2). Much of BookCon would seem familiar to anyone who has attended these Comic Cons. Like most Comic Cons, BookCon includes presentations and panel sessions, an exhibition floor filled with vendor booths, and autograph sessions giving fans the opportunity to meet their favorite writers.

In some instances, the parallels to Comic Con go even deeper. In addition to publishers of conventional books, the exhibition floor at BookCon featured a number of comic book publishers including Image Comics and IDW Publishing. With graphic novels providing a profitable niche for many bookstores, comics-related content was also conspicuous in the booths of some book publishers. Hachette, which distributes a number of Marvel Comics omnibus editions, gave away copies of Marvel’s Star Wars comic book — copies of which could also be picked up in the Disney booth.

Giveaways are a noteworthy feature of BookCon. Many publishers provided hardcover copies of new or forthcoming book titles, which can quickly accumulate to become a heavy load. Fortunately, many vendors also provided hefty cloth book bags for carrying weighty swag.

The BookCon exhibition hall was scaled down from the larger BEA exhibition, with workers dismantling booths from the previous day’s BEA exhibition visible through the partitions at the Javits Center.

While the show floor was generally bustling and the lines for presentations and autographs from popular writers were long, the event exhibited nothing of the sardine-like crowding of the New York or San Diego Comic Cons.

As with Comic Con, Hollywood celebrities were also present, although in this case the TV and movies stars are also book authors. On Saturday, Mindy Kaling was interviewed by fellow cast member from The Office and writer B. J. Novak. While Kaling was in attendance to promote her upcoming book, Why Not Me?, the conversation and audience Q&A session covered her entire career as an actor, television writer, and author.

Comic Con fan favorite Felicia Day was also a featured guest at BookCon. In conversation with The Mary Sue editor-in-chief Jill Pantozzi, Day discussed her forthcoming book You’re Never Weird On the Internet (Almost) and answered questions from audience members.

Novelist and comic book writer Brad Meltzer signed free copies of his upcoming thriller The President’s Shadow. I used the opportunity to briefly discuss his 2004 DC comic book series Identity Crisis. I mentioned that, while I liked the book, I know Meltzer received criticism over the book’s dark tone and killing off of characters beloved by some. As Meltzer noted, however, narratives need to have consequences for the stories to matter.

As pop culture becomes increasingly mainstream and comic book characters appear in everything from movies and TV shows to graphic novels, events like BookCon offer much for those who love both books and comics.

For the full gallery of photos from this year’s BookCon, see the Flickr photo album: BookCon 2015.

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