By Else
Every year, the ABC does a couple events out “in the wild”; basically setting up a pop-up bookstore on location, be it a convention, The Next Web, or at a school fair. In the middle of March, we set up a pop-up bookstore at Made in Asia 2025 in the Jaarbeurs Utrecht. This was the first time the Made in Asia convention was held in the Jaarbeurs and also the first time I attended it. (Purely for work reasons, I swear, I did not enjoy all the lovely food.)
But as the saying goes, a convention wasn’t built in a day and it takes a bookstore to organise a convention. Our preparations start way before the fateful weekend in which we sell books.
Preparations for Made in Asia
Before we can even think about packing boxes full of books to go to Utrecht, we need to figure out which books to bring. We usually take a bunch of books with us from the stock in our Amsterdam store, but we also order some books specifically for conventions. Just like in our stores, we don’t have one singular person responsible for the entire list, but we split the load between different categories and buyers, so everyone makes a smaller list of books from their section to order extra. As Amsterdam’s Science Fiction and Fantasy buyer, I got to make the list of books we would be bringing from the SFF section.
Because I had to select books for Made in Asia, I mainly focused on Asian-inspired titles, written by Asian and Asian diaspora writers. Luckily for me, this is quite a popular category and I got to bring books such as Iron Widow and the sequel Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao, and Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao. (Water Moon has an amazing, fun hardcover edition, with a double sided dust jacket you can fold into a paper boat (it includes instructions) and a beautiful hardcover design beneath the dust jacket, so definitely check it out!)
After we’ve ordered books specifically for the event, it is time to pack all the books. Slowly the books will start to trickle into our warehouse, where we process all of our incoming stock. Then the great packing begins. And, as I mentioned before, we grab a load of books from stock as well.
The week before Made in Asia, I packed about 1550 books in 2 days, all books taken from stock. If you ever wonder how many books we bring with us to a convention, for Made in Asia it was 2800 books!
The weekend of the convention
Our weekend also starts before the actual two days of the convention, because we have to set up our pop-up bookstore. On Friday, Sywert, Damla and myself gathered to set up our pop-up bookstore. This is always loads of fun to do, because we are basically unpacking books again, and making the stall look pretty. Six pallets full of books, supplies and bookcases arrived for us to work with. Massive thanks to our colleagues who packed the pallets, it made it very easy to work with. Luckily for us, we worked fast and were done early enough for us to enjoy a nice hamburger in the city center afterwards, for all the hard work well done. After that, the con really began.
I wasn’t there for the Saturday, but did join again on Sunday, for the final day and of course packing up again after the convention. (I feel like I did a lot of packing for this convention, both beforehand and afterwards.) One of my favourite things about Made in Asia was the food. I came in earlier on Sunday to be able to walk around before being put to work and enjoy a nice Asian lunch. And boy, was it good. I had some noodles and a curry bun which was great. I also got to walk around a bit, enjoy the other stalls that were set up, look at people’s beautiful cosplays. I was slightly tempted to buy a sword, but managed to show some self restraint. The convention had a very nice, positive atmosphere, where people were just allowed to be themselves and enjoy their interests.
There was even a hot noodle eating contest in which Tiemen took part. He managed to finish his noodles in 1 minute and 12 seconds, which was way slower than the two people who finished 30 seconds ahead of him and the overall winner of the weekend, who apparently managed to finish their noodles in a whopping 14 (FOURTEEN) seconds!
Our pop-up bookstore was never empty and had a wonderful atmosphere of people browsing books and enjoying the selection we brought. Especially the manga section was a massive hit! Which is not surprising, at Made in Asia.
After the convention ended, it was a rush for us to pack everything back up so we could go home and sleep after a successful weekend. During packing, I managed to only hurt myself once on the tape gun, so the packing was also a great success. And we were done within two hours! After that we got to go home and crash in our beds to catch up on some much needed sleep!
All in all, the convention was a massive success and we’re doing it all again in a couple of weeks time for FACTS Belgium!
We made it! And now we need some rest…
About the Author: Lilia
