by Danielle Kelly
BookCon hosted its first year in 2014, as the consumer counterpart to Book Expo America, the signature event at the time for publishing professionals. Having written my college admissions essay about wanting to work in publishing ever since discovering fan fiction in 2003, I immediately jumped on the opportunity to attend BookCon, and a few months later I eagerly trekked across town to the Javits Center. The opening night panel discussing the movie adaptation of Jonathan Tropper’s This is Where I Leave You felt fated, as that book was a core component of the first assignments of the first publishing course I ever took. Attending the #WeNeedDiverseBooks panel the next morning felt like a no-brainer–I wanted to work in publishing in order to elevate underrepresented voices, and this panel was an opportunity to hear what those voices were saying. Bumping into Dr. Ruth was also an unexpected experience, and now I have a fun anecdote to tell about the time we crossed paths in a random hallway!
That Saturday, I got to be in community with 10,000 other readers, lining up for panels and booth giveaways, constantly gushing over our shared interests and rapid-fire trading recommendations. If there’s one thing New Yorkers do well, it’s make the most of waiting in a line! There were adults and teens spread across every inch of the show floors, an experience I had never been a part of for any fandom, let alone for books in general. I left the Javits Center with a tote bag of galleys, a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, and having added myself to an unknown number of bookish mailing lists. I made that same trek again in 2015 and 2017, once again communing with thousands of likeminded souls. Twelve years later, I still wear some of the swag I acquired and think about some of the conversations I had while waiting to spin those wheels!
This year, BookCon is back at the Javits Center for the first time since 2019. Since then, the bookish community has exploded beyond BookTube and into Bookstagram, Booktok, and even tHReads, which has allowed people to come together with an overwhelming amount of real-time content to hype up their favorite authors and series. Despite the internet connecting people around the world, a gap remains for younger fans to unite in-person, especially in New York City. Brooklyn Book Festival and Bronx Book Festival have taken place since 2006 and 2018 respectively, but their names do not seem to garner as much mainstream notoriety with the under-30s as BookCon did. Smaller festivals have popped up to fill some age- and genre-specific needs, such as Y’All West, Y’All Fest, ApollyCon, and even romantasy-themed balls, but nothing quite to the scope of the original BookCon. If past years are any indication, more than 20,000 teen to early 30s readers will descend upon the Javits Center this upcoming April weekend. Ticket sales prove that readers want to connect en masse, having sold out two ticket releases in September and in December.
Nostalgia is part of what fuels my eagerness to attend BookCon in its returning year, but logistical realities remain in my mind and temper my expectations. Concessions must be made in order to grow an event and have it run well. More attendees means more space is required, which means experiences being physically spread out more so than in past years. There are also a finite number of hours available in a weekend; popular panels and signings will inevitably overlap, even when planned in the most generous manner possible. Requiring reservations for big-name events is an understandable change to mirror ReedPop’s other events like ComicCon, but it’s one that I meet with some irritation. When I previously attended, I hopped around between panels and signing lines and booths as time and my stamina allowed, often finding myself in front of an option I had not considered when mapping out my days ahead of time–that’s how I ended up in the packed Stan Lee panel and with a signed copy of Zodiac in 2014. I understand the need to create order given the volume of attendees, but I will miss some of the spontaneity.
Despite logistical limitations, my bookish enthusiasm only seems to grow as the dates draw near. I am already poring over the weekend schedule and mapping out my plans like a game of tetris. What’s worth one of my four reservations per day? Will I be able to secure everything when the panel and signing reservations open? What are my plans B and C? Do I have my work calendar blocked off for that time (if you’re my boss reading this, I will be working diligently!)? I feel a sense of giddiness just thinking about being around so many of my community again. I am a bookish fangirl through and through, whether it’s 2003 and I’m meeting Tamora Pierce at my first ever book signing for Lady Knight’s release, or it’s 2026 and I’m chomping at the bit to get into BookCon’s Heated Rivalry panel.
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