The last live and in-person BookExpo was in January 2020 led by Villages writer and management guru Jack Hayes. The 2021 edition was cancelled in the midst of Covid-19, lack of vaccines, widespread fear and rising cabin fever. Now, postpandemic (we hope!) the BookExpo is on again and scheduled for Sunday, January 30, 2022 at the Eisenhower Recreational Center in The Villages.
January 2022 seems so far away—but it’s only six months.
BookExpo follows the usual community book fair model. Authors have a six-foot table in conference rooms filled with tables to display their books for sale, mix with buyers, talk and sign copies. There’s an energetic hubbub in the rooms, the buzz of conversations and people moving, stopping and talking. For the 2022 edition, BookExpo will occupy virtually all of the Eisenhower Rec Center space; enough for about 100 tables and authors.
As with past BookExpos, the book genres will include everything from mysteries and novels to memoirs and non-fiction. Some authors sell coffee table books and others have slim volumes of poetry.
Since the Writers League of The Villages (WLOV) is the co-sponsor, members get the first opportunity to reserve tables until the end of August. After that the BookExpo is open to all and any authors. For WLOV members information is being distributed through multiple email blasts and in the WLOV Newsletter. Information will be sent to book clubs and writers’ groups in Florida starting in early September. Publishers and agents may also participate.
Authors with a half table can sell only one title; those with the full six-foot table may sell any number of titles. One restriction is that the author of any books being sold must be present. Books must have an ISBN number and be published before December 31, 2021.
In addition, BookExpo2022 will feature speakers on writing and book publishing for general audiences.
Look for more information on BookExpo2022 in future editions of Hallard Press Gazette.
BookExpo2020 Authors
Author Manijeh Badiozamani at BookExpo2020. She has a new book coming out in July, One Summer in my Life: A Memoir in Short Stories.
Mark Newhouse, one of the founders of BookExpo at the 2020 event. Mark has won numerous regional and national awards for trilogy, The Devil’s Bookkeepers.
Author Marsha Shearer at BookExpo2020. Her new book, Life After Trump: Seeking a More Perfect Union has just been released.
I’m confused. My publisher took numerous titles with the authors not present. Could not an organization such as FAPA take authors in the organization and not require them to be present?