My Bookfair Adventures (Frankfurter Buchmesse 2017)

Last week I spent four days at Germany's biggest bookfair and it was such an amazing experience! In the past I have either only visited for one totally stressful day or have worked at the fair as a representative of the publishing house I worked for. This year I was lucky enough to have four free days and a blogger pass to enter the fair for free.

Bookfairs are seriously one of my favorite things on Earth. They are like the world's largest book shop but with authors walking around, millions of like-minded booklovers waiting to meet you and fun and educational events. It's every reader's and writer's magic place. And as I am both (plus having worked and planning to work again in the publishing industry) I enjoyed it a lot.

Because I experienced so much during these four amazing days, I'm going to divide my adventures into themes to not overwhelm you too much (though I still feel utterly overwhelmed in a good way).

Networking

I only have one semester left before I get my Master's degree and will finish my studies once and for all. Then what? So many people ask me that and I have no clue. What I do have are several vague ideas and as many of them revolve around books, I set out to check out the industry and what's in it for me. And let me tell you, there are so many possibilities!

I went to two networking events, getting to know many people from the industry (both people just starting out like me as well as top notch employees, CEOs and other important people). I collected their contact info and will definitely connect with them. It wasn't all rainbows and butterflies though. The book industry is a tough business, especially if you want to be an editor (in that case good luck - you're gonna need it!). Luckily I'm more interested in marketing and that's an easier career to get in. It's still tough but I'll find my way, wherever it may lead me.

Writing

As you may know, I'm not only a passionate reader but also a writer, working on a youth novel at the moment. I'm unpublished so far (well except a short story I won a contest with), so I'm one of the millions of writers who are looking to be published. I went to lectures on writing (which were amazing!) and also on marketing yourself or your book through social media.

The problem is that everyone is a writer nowadays. Classical publishing houses take almost no new authors at all. The chances to be published the traditional way are really, really bad, which I was told again and again at the bookfair. However there are other ways. Many say that traditional publishing is a dying breed anyway and the way to go is to self-publish. Obviously there are many disadventages to taking this route: having to market entirely on your own and being overlooked in the massive amount of self-published books out there are the most important ones. Which is why I will still try to find a publishing house to take on my novel. In the end, I believe that the best thing you can do to get published is to write the very best book you could possibly write. That's what I'm focusing on right now. Improving my writing, making my novel better, finishing it. We'll see how it'll progress after that.

Blogging

I also attended a blogger event which was really interesting because they discussed many exciting topics and trends in the blogging world and also I met like-minded bloggers and You Tubers. I think it's amazing that everyone can start a blog or a You Tube channel. My goal is to start and establish a German blog solely about writing and reading and after the bookfair I am so motivated!

Fun Stuff

Of course it wasn't all networking and attending lectures at the bookfair, I also did some things purely because they're fun (but the other stuff was fun, too). Most notably I met my favorite YA author Teri Terry! Her trilogy "Slated" is the best thing out there. Seriously, forget about "The Hunger Games", "Slated" is the best YA distopia I have ever read. I bought another book by her ("Mind Games") and so far it's also amazing. She really knows how to write YA literature.

Also I attended a reading of my favourite German adult Sci Fi author, Andreas Brandhorst. I've only read one book by him so far but it's one of the best books I've ever read, particularily in the Sci Fi genre. His other books were too hard Sci Fi for me, but his new one is right up my alley, so I'm definitely gonna give it a try. He was reading and being interviewed together with Germany's most succesful fantasy author, Wolfgang Hohlbein, who I haven't read anything by yet but my Mum likes his work and she doesn't even like fantasy, so it sounds like it might be up my sleeve. His new book sounds great, too.

Also I met some old and new friends, as well as a famous German You Tuber and of course I spent numerous hours browsing books and being amazed by literature. It's truly magical what a good book can do to you and I'm so grateful for books, reading them as well as writing them. I brought home from the bookfair new contacts, wisdom, lots of inspiration and motivation and so much reading material in form of magazines, extracts and more.

#Readmyowndamnbooks Challenge 2017 - Mid August Update

It's time for another update of the Read My Own Damn Books Challenge. It has been a couple of months since my last reading update and there are still many unread books in my shelves, but I did make some progress. I've read four of my books during the last months and I didn't buy any new ones.

Philipp Schmidt - Schattengewächse. Auftakt: This is a German distopia book, the first of a series. I went to a reading of the author and found it intriguing enough to buy it together with a friend. The reason it's not on the photo above is because it's already at my friend's now. The book itself was fine. It wasn't phenomal but it wasn't bad either. There were many interesting ideas of a world ruled by huge companies plus some witchery and stuff. What I didn't like was the portayal of the main character. He was this tough fighter ex-con which is fine but the story was for a big part told from his view and I found it a bit strange that he never really showed any emotions, not even in his thoughts, not even after a huge loss and threat. I got sick of him after a while. The next books focus more on other characters but I still don't think that I will continue with the series - it worked as a stand-alone fine, too.

Holly Smale - Geek Girl: This is the final book of the Geek Girl series which like most of my books I picked up spontaneously second hand. I've read the first and second book of the series, so I missed a couple of books before the final one but it was no problem at all. It was a fun and quick read, which I enjoyed very much. I like the tone of the Geek Girl books and there definitely were some pretty passages which felt true to me. The know-it-all attitude of the main character is always on the edge of been cute and being annoying, though. It was a well written and deserving finale of a fun book series.

Harold Robbins - The Storyteller: So this book was an utter suprise. I had no idea what it was about except that it's soft erotica and that the main character is a writer. As sex and writing are pretty much my two favourite things in the world, I was instantly on board with it and I wasn't disappointed. Turns out the novel is set during the Second World War, however the protagonist, a Jew living in the US, never goes to war, first because he makes some shady deal which has him working as a drug dealer and pimp, then because his writing which started with erotic short stories takes off, he moves to Hollywood and becomes a successful screenwriter. This book was a delight to read. It was juicy in every possible way, from the intrigues over the struggles up to the sex scenes. To be honest, the way women are portrayed wouldn't be publishable in the 21st century but it was fun nevertheless.

Keira Cass - Selection: I was kind of afraid of this book. I decided against buying and reading it so many times because it didn't seem to be my kind of book, but now I finally gave it a try. And I'm so glad I did! I was a bit nervous because I have a really hard time with fantasy at the moment, I just can't get into it, so I was relieved to find out that so far there has been no fantasy at all. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic society with castes. The main character is from a lower caste but is selected to participate in a casting through which the prince chooses his future wife. Regardless of the distopian setting, it feels very contemporary. There is a love triangle and the first book is truly only about the love story with a few mentions of terrorists now and then. Though I have been waiting for the terrorists to become a bigger plotline, I was fine with the shallow beginning of the series. I truly enjoyed it, because as it turns out I apparently like love literature. To be honest, it was pretty predictable but I didn't really mind. I have already purchased the next three books as ebooks and am reading the second one right now. It is already better in regard of unpredictabilily than the first one and has more action (though there's still a lot of love stuff, too.) It has been a long time since I really dept deep into a series, reading one book after the other, but I am ready to dive all in with the Selection series.

I'm not listing the books I want to read soon, as I never keep up with my plans and as the four other books of the Selection series will occupy me for a while anyway.