BEA: Harlequin Teen Blogger Breakfast

On Wednesday morning, I was lucky enough to attend the Harlequin Teen blogger breakfast.

Here's the room set up:

And a snapshot of the tables with books: 

The panel featured: Elizabeth Scott (Heartbeat), Julie Kagawa (Eternity Cure), Katie McGarry (Dare You To), and Amanda Sun (Ink)

Each of the author spoke about her book. Then they (along with the editors for Harlequin Teen) sat at each table for five minutes. We chatted over breakfast, had books signed, and mingled with our tables. 

As a librarian blogger, it's interested to watch the dynamics of the room. The YA blogger community is tight. So many hugs happened. So much excitement to see everyone. It was refreshing and sweet. 

At our table: 

Editors/Publishers talked about Netgalley and how what they look for when approving bloggers. They take a look at the whole first page of your blog - checking for over 100 followers, a few comments on posts to see the interaction, and how often your blog.  It was interesting to hear what they determined successful in order to gain access to e-galleys. 

We talked about negative reviews vs critical reviews and RESPECT. There was talk about the author/blogger relationship in regards to RESPECT.

We talked about how we got into blogging.

Elizabeth Scott talked about her inspiration for her book - how her husband reads the obituaries and pointed one out to her. She saw a very short one about a pregnant woman who died. She had a what if moment - what if the baby survived while the mother didn't....and that became Heartbeat.

Julie Kagawa talked about her hobbies - creating clay dragon figures.

Katie McGarry talked about switching it up with the golden boy falling for the bad girl. 

Amanda Sun talked about her love for Japan and her mission to bring more hot Asian boys to YA Lit. She spend time in Japan and made Ink come alive so much, it's like taking a trip to Japan yourself. Plus, she loves food - which you'll find in her book.

It was a fabulous way to start off the morning!