Oct. 5, 2025 - Book Festivals

Book Festivals are wonderful! 

A place for readers and writers to find each other and connect. I have had the honor of being part of more than 30 such festivals in the 17 years since my first book was published.  And no two are exactly the same.

From formal and well organized, to relaxed and casual; from large and all-encompassing, to small and genre-specific.

Book Fests, from an author’s point of view, are a great way to “get out there”. Categorized under the sales, marketing, and publicity part of our careers. We pack up our books, banners, and swag and set up our tables. We smile and greet strangers and friends alike. We get to talk with both fans and new readers about our stories, our characters, and our processes.  We do readings, sign books, and take pictures.  We even get to connect with fellow writers and authors.  It is so very different from our day-to-day work of writing and revising and writing and revising- most times in isolation.

Some Book Fests are wildly successful for us in terms of sales, while some are dismal. But they all allow us the opportunity to connect with the readers of our work.

Book Fests, from a reader’s point of view, are also awesome.  It is a chance to chat with an author whose work you have enjoyed, and a chance to perhaps discover new works. It is a chance to support the art of literature and the power of books. It is an opportunity to get signed books as gifts for loved ones, and to add to your own collections. It is a place of inspiration and discovery.

Yesterday I participated in a Local Book Fest.  It was at a Mall and included writers of all genres.  My 6-year-old granddaughter came along as my “assistant”. Already a little book worm and story-lover, she was in her element.  Handing out bookmarks and “I love to read” swag to the kids who stopped by my table. She watched with big eyes as some of the students in our Elementary School Writing Club stopped by my table to tell me with passion that they had spoken to a favorite author, or had purchased a signed book. She enjoyed visiting with some of the other authors there and held with reverence, some new treasures that she would be bringing home.

Some of the students in the Children’s Literature class I am teaching this semester at the University were there as well.  They came to feed their own love of books as well as seek out treasures for their future classrooms.  

Book Festivals are definitely a place for book lovers, authors, readers, dreamers, writers, and artists to feed their soul and find their tribe!