New York ComicCon Pro Reg

The Beat was nice enough to post a reminder about free pro reg for NYCC this year, you can read it here. I just want to make sure all is clear though....

You can register as a pro, with proper credentials, for free until February 15th by going here.

After February 15th you'll need to go through your publisher to get a free pro badge, and they all have limited supplies. So what is your homework? Fill out the free professional registration for before February 15th!

Did you miss the link? Here it is again:

New York ComicCon Professional Registration

-L

Share Your BEA Tips and Tricks!

Surviving BookExpo can be tough, trust me, I of all people know this! I'm in Louisville this weekend at the American Booksellers Association Winter Institute and this afternoon I'm doing a panel on how to survive and even thrive at BEA, which I promise will be entertaining and maybe even informative.

More on the Winter Institute later, but you can check out the ABA blog about the event here.

This reminds me though that we are working with the publisher, Hundreds of Heads who is creating a How To Survive BEA book that we will get into attendees hand in some way before the show. We need help filling it with good tips! So if you've got any ideas, please send them along to me via email or by posting comments here on the blog. Here's an overview of what we are looking for....

Since our little "How to Survive BEA" booklet was such a hit at last year's BEA, we're doing it again at BEA '08. The BEA organizers themselves loved it so much, in fact, that they'll be distributing it this year.

Which means that your words of wisdom will have a much larger audience. So - please send us your short pieces of advice - about what you do to "survive" BEA. One or two lines is plenty. Bonus points for any Los Angeles-specific advice. The more input we have from veterans of the trade - the better this will be.

Here are the content areas - but feel free to write about anything (See some "prompting" questions below.):

1. What to Bring
2. What to Wear
3. Food & Drink
4. On the Convention Floor
5. Do's and Don’ts
6. Going Places (travel, follow-up)

Also - pls give your name, city, and affiliation as you would like them to appear in the "ID tag" in the booklet.


-L

Gogai! Gogai! The Revolution Will Be Blogged!

My name is Peter Tatara. Tatara, in Japanese, means "The Proud Goddess" or "The Ricefield Codfish." Personally, I feel the latter is more appropriate. I grew up watching Robotech and Sailor Moon and never stopped. While my parents were concerned about my employability come adulthood, with a few years in the Marketing Departments of various anime and video game distributors under my belt and my time at Reed Exhibitions approaching a year, I'd like to think they're not completely, entirely disappointed in me.

And with that introduction, welcome to the first installment of "Gogai! Gogai!" -- the Japanese equivalent of "Extra! Extra!" If I haven't made it bluntly, bleedingly clear, I'm the anime guy. I'm responsible for the guests, screenings, panels, and special events at the New York Anime Festival and also update the show's MySpace page. (Again, I'd like to think my parents are not completely, entirely disappointed in me.)

I'm writing at MediumAtLarge.net because BookExpo America czar, Lance Fensterman -- who I should point out is a handsome, charming, and dashing man -- thought it would be great to add a bit of the giant eyes and technicolor hair to his blog. Here's the thing, though, Lance has read my personal blog, GiantRobotsFightingGod.com, and even quoted it at the office Christmas Party. He's aware that my past three posts cover the hard-hitting topics of me growing a beard, why I think there were two monsters in Cloverfield, and an open letter to Keira Knightley. He knows I rely entirely on cuss words to prove my point. So, I've got to ponder why Lance -- a man whose intellect, wit, and charisma I can only compare to that of a young Jack Kennedy -- has made such a grievous lapse in judgment.

But, hell, I'm here, typing up my first post inside the Communications Dome on Level 44-C of BEA Tower, which, for anyone interested, is located next door to the Aquasphere, where Lance is trying to teach dolphins to appreciate Chaucer. It's my aim for "Gogai! Gogai!" to provide insights into (or at least my personal views of) the anime industry, but I've got to admit there are a couple of problems here:

1) Most of what I know is insider information. It's stuff that isn't public yet. I can't just start yapping about what Del Rey Manga has up their sleeve. Sure, it's true, I haven't signed any NDAs, but I don't want to be an ass. Can I say "ass" on MediumAtLarge.net?

2) The anime industry isn't the healthiest it's ever been. If you've even tangentially paid attention to what's going on in the market, it's becoming ever harder for US distributors to make a profit as anime is readily and illegally available online five seconds after it airs in Japan. So, while there is plenty in the anime world I can talk about, there's not much that isn't a bummer.

So, what do I do? Should my posts be "I just saw something so, so awesome, but I can't say anything" or a string of sincere, playfully-arranged expletives? Maybe I could just write up stuff on all the remarkable people I know. Ali T. Kokmen, I'm looking at you. I could conduct all my interviews over lunch and expense them to the company. Hmmm. Ali, want to meet up on Friday for burgers and champagne?

I don't know. Odds are very few editions of "Gogai! Gogai!" will end up anime related at all. Did you know Stalin tried to create an army of half-human / half-monkey super soldiers? It, at least according to The History Channel, is true, and "Gogai! Gogai!" could be my forum to reveal this long-hidden page of Soviet history to the world.

Whatever "Gogai! Gogai!" is, we'll find out together and it'll be revolutionary. Revolutionary? Really? Isn't that a strong word? It is, but it's true. Or, at the very least, it's a hint at a big New York Comic Con anime announcement. While I can't come out and spill all the insider dirt I know, I suppose I can tease it plenty.

PS: I was a Screen Writing Major in college. If there's anyone looking to buy a vampire western, action movie starring a gay samurai, or a horror movie I scribbled together in the weekend after I broke up with a girlfriend, you know where to find me.

Thomas Friedman to Keynote Conference at BEA!

I Love This Time Of Year……The announcements of authors, guests of honor, creators, comedians, etc are starting to come out on a regular basis now and to that point, we have another big announcement for BookExpo. Thomas Friedman will serve as our conference keynote speaker on Friday morning.

We created the conference keynote platform last year to highlight the outstanding international conference sessions that take place at BookExpo every year - nearly 160 sessions in all. Our hope was to call attention to the BooKExpo conference by featuring more business focused authors on the Friday morning platform, the first of them of course being Dr. Allan Greenspan and now the three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and National Book Award recipient Thomas Friedman.

Mr. Friedeman’s new book, Green Is the New Red, White and Blue will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on August 19, 2008. In his appearance at BEA, Mr. Friedman will thoroughly discuss and introduce his new book which his publisher describes as a “manifesto for our climate-challenged future”. In his new book, Friedman proposes that an ambitious national strategy – which he calls “Geo-Greenism” – is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating; it is what we need to make America healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure.

The timing of this is perfect as we here at BEA headquarters had been brainstorming how to give our conference a green bend to it, and then Friedman came up as a possibility. It couldn't have worked out better and thanks of course go to our friend Jeff Seroy at FSG - whom I'm also working with for a really cool panel at New York ComicCon that I'll tell you more about as soon as I can.

But I digress, Friedman is the man of the hour and I am thrilled to have him keynote BEA's exceptional conference, the message not only dovetails nicely with our own programming, but it promises to be a definitive ‘call to arms’ for how we manage our environment in the future.

I'm ashamed to say it, but I just plagiarised that last sentence from myself - I stole it from the press release going out to the trades tomorrow afternoon......

Also, the event is free and open to all convention attendees, Friday, May 30th at 11am - See you then!

-L