Inaugural Publishers Weekly U.S. Book Show Recap

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Last month, the Smith Publicity team was pleased to exhibit at the inaugural U.S. Book Show, which ran from May 25 – May 27. The latest numbers reveal that the show – which was hosted by Publishers Weekly – saw nearly 7,000 registrations and reported close to 80,000 booth entries. Professionals from across the industry gathered at the virtual show to connect after a truly unprecedented year, and included booksellers, librarians, media, and publishing peers.

Though the preparation for a virtual show differs greatly from that of an in-person show, there was still plenty to
do to ensure our Smith Publicity booth was welcoming, informational, on-brand, and running smoothly. Generally, the setup was fairly easy to navigate and the thrill of “running into” people we know brought some of the in-person-feeling we’ve all been missing!

The Smith Publicity team was really pleased to be one of the exhibitors at the first ever U.S. Book Show, which was from May 25th – May 27th 2021 Our booth featured a brief welcome video, a “who we are” section to let visitors know more about Smith Publicity and our company history, as well as our brochure and marketing deck that outlined our capabilities. We also made sure to include three separate areas to navigate to depending on the visitor’s needs: Agents & Industry Vendors, Nonfiction Book Promotion & Expert Branding, and Fiction Publicity & Author Branding. Each outlined the various ways Smith Publicity can serve authors and publishers.

In addition to meetings with connections old and new, our team had the opportunity to sit in on a number of panels and presentations and found the panel, “Political Books: What Does the Post-Trump Landscape Hold?” moderated by Jimmy So, editor, Columbia Global Reports, Columbia University, to be particularly compelling. 

As the trade show landscape has, seemingly, been in transition for many years, this year’s completely virtual show was an unexpected reminder of just how energizing and impactful in-person shows can be and, further, how many new connections they bring. If you missed this year’s event and would like to register for on-demand viewing available through August 31, you can do so here: https://publishersweekly.6connex.us/event/virtual/login

We’ll be ready to get back to it in person when possible and, for now, are especially grateful to Publishers Weekly and other participating sponsors for allowing us the opportunity to connect in 2021!