Manhattan has BookExpo America, But Brooklyn has Hotel ABA--and parties, food, free stuff, bookseller contests, atmosphere, and lots of your colleagues!
Hotel ABA is a headquarters hotel exclusively for ABA bookseller and provisional members.
The block of rooms at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge for Wednesday, May 27 through Sunday, May 31 at the newly reduced rate of $159 per night is soldout. Booksellers can now add their names to a waiting list by sending an e-mail to ABA's Sarah Rettger. Booksellers with reservations that are no longer needed are also asked to contact Rettger, so their rooms stay in the Hotel ABA room block, and can be filled by booksellers on the waiting list on a first-come, first-served basis.
BEA and ABA are working together to cover the cost of providing ABA bookstore members with NYC MetroCards to travel between Brooklyn and the Javits Center. Shuttle bus service will also be available.
Bookseller guests of Hotel ABA enjoy:
- Low, Member Hotel Rate
- Serendipitous Networking
- Complimentary MetroCard, sponsored by Frommer's Travel Guides, published by Wiley
- Extra Free Badge to BEA
- Evening Parties
- Morning Coffee
- In-Hotel BEA Badge Pick-up
- Hotel ABA Welcome Desk
- Author-Guided Walking Tour of Brooklyn Bridge
- Brooklyn Indie Bookstore Events
- Limited Complimentary Theatre Seating at BEA Book & Author Breakfasts & Lunch
- More, More, More, including...
A chance to win a full scholarship (airfare and hotel) to Winter Institute Five in San Jose, CA!
Throughout May, the Independent Booksellers of New York City (IBNYC) are spotlighting different NYC indie bookstores on their blog. Each IBNYC bookseller shares some favorite independent businesses located near their store, so when you’re out browsing at the bookstores, you’ll have info on other indie businesses to visit nearby. Links to the businesses on IndieBound.org's Indie Store Finder map are included with each article. 
In addition to the free badge offer available to ABA member bookstores, each ABA-member bookseller registered as a guest at Hotel ABA is entitled to one extra complimentary badge for admission to BEA (from Thursday, May 28 - Sunday, May 31, at the Javits Convention Center). Yes, that's per bookstore employee, not per bookstore.
To claim a free Hotel ABA guest badge:
- Send an e-mail to ABA's Kristen Gilligan with the names of the booksellers from your store who have a hotel room booked at Hotel ABA, including booksellers sharing a room. ABA will verify these names against the hotel's rooming list and send a request to BEA Registration to have your "free badge allotment" adjusted.
- ABA will let you know when BEA Registration confirms the addition.
- Then you'll need to register on the BEA website. (There's a section during the BEA registration process that shows you you're free badge allotment: how many you're entitled to, how many you've used, how many remain, etc.)
Complimentary New York City MetroCards, sponsored by Frommer's Travel Guides, published by Wiley, will be available to ABA-member booksellers staying at Hotel ABA. Each card covers four rides to help Hotel ABA guests avoid New York City rush-hour traffic on Thursday and Friday during BEA. MetroCards will be available for pick-up at the Hotel ABA Welcome Desk in the Marriott Lobby. (One MetroCard per bookseller while supplies last.)
And to help make sure that your subway trip from the hotel to the Convention Center goes without a hitch, ABA has reprised "Brooklyn's Hotel ABA to Manhattan's Javits Convention Center: A Photo Journey," which proved so useful to Hotel ABA guests during the 2007 trade show. (BEA is providing shuttle buses between the hotel and the convention center, but they're prone to delays during NYC rush hour on Thursday and Friday.)
Limited Free Theatre-Seating at BEA Author Breakfasts & Lunch
Enjoy the authors, not the food. Complimentary theatre-seating tickets at BEA's meal functions are available upon request on a first-come, first-served basis. One free ticket per ABA-member bookseller staying at Hotel ABA, while supplies last. To request a ticket, e-mail ABA's Sarah Rettger.
Grab a cup o' joe to go or sit, chat, and plan your day... Located just beyond ABA's Welcome Desk and next to the hotel's bar on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings from 6:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
There will also be a special Saturday morning "Tea-and-Crumpets Breakfast" sponsored by Little, Brown and Company Books for Young Readers in celebration of the publication of The Julie Andrews Collection.
Convenient, quick, and located right at ABA's Welcome Desk in the hotel lobby.
A special ABA Welcome Desk will be set up on the second-floor lobby level of Hotel ABA, the Brooklyn Marriott, from mid-day Wednesday, May 27, through mid-day Friday, May 29. Here, ABA members will be able to pick up their BEA trade show badge, badge holders, a BEA exhibitors' guide, the latest details about ABA programming, and information about other convention-related events and info on the Brooklyn area.
>Read more about the Hotel ABA Welcome Desk
Author-Guided Walking Tour of the Brooklyn Bridge
Author and New York City expert Kevin Baker (Striver's Row) will walk with a limited number of ABA-member booksellers across the legendary and iconic Brooklyn Bridge -- just like the elephants did all those years ago. (Go on the tour and find out what that means.) The tour is scheduled for Wednesday, May 27, at 4:00 p.m. To sign-up for the tour, send an e-mail request for ABA's Sarah Rettger.
Chance to Win a Full Scholarship to the 2010 ABA Winter Institute in San Jose, California
It just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it? All ABA member booksellers staying at Hotel ABA will automatically be entered into the scholarship drawing, which will take place after BEA when ABA receives the final rooming list from the Brooklyn Marriott.