Are you signed up to sell books at a book festival this spring? This is what I call book festival season. Writers’ groups, libraries and others generally start organizing book festivals—small and large—to start in March. I’ll be a part of the large book festival in Tucson the week of March 9/10, 2013. The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is April 20-21. (Contact me if you want to share a booth at the LA Times Festival of Books for much less than if you go it alone. If you are out of the area, we’ll display your book for the 140,000 plus visitors to see.) Email me here and find out how: PLFry620@yahoo.com
Here are a couple of book festival directories, however neither of them are very complete. Disappointing.
http://bookfestivals.com
http://author-network.com/festivals.html (events in the UK)
Your best bet in locating book festivals near you or in the areas where you will be or want to travel is to do an Internet search. Use keywords, “book festival” or “book fair” and the name of the city/state of your choice. When I did this just now, I quickly located book festivals in Seattle, Baltimore, Dallas and Gaithersburg.
Also watch the calendar pages of your local newspaper. Subscribe to and read writers/publishing magazines and newsletters. Ask at your local bookstores, libraries, art centers and writing groups.
Why should you take your book to book festivals? Tomorrow let me answer that question. In the meantime, order your copy of “Talk Up Your Book.” There is a large section in there about book festivals, how to sell books at book festivals, how to prepare, what to bring, how to communicate with booth visitors and more. You only have an ebook–you, too, can participate at book festivals. This book explains how. Available at Amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores.