Festivals

The dream is, isn't it, to be invited to a festival, be really well looked after whilst there, be wined and dined and put up in a swanky hotel. Of course they'll pay you for attending, cover your travel costs and yes they'll help you to sell loads of books.

Sadly only the latter may be true and then it may not be all that many. Even if you do sell a lot it may not cover all of your expenses. Not many festivals pay authors to attend though this is beginning to change after some campaigning by authors.

It's often also difficult to get much attention if you're an indie author or published by an indie publisher. You can look out for competitions run by festivals because they'll often invite the winners. Check out my opportunities list for details:

 http://www.gilljameswriter.eu/p/opporutnites-list.html  

And then there are fringe festivals. It's worth following https://www.facebook.com/UKFringe as they constantly update about fringe festivals- perhaps more from the visitors' point of view- but they provide useful links.   

Three I have personal experience of are:

·         Ilkley http://www.ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk/whats-on/fringe-festival (even though I live in Lancashire!)

·         Manchester http://www.greatermanchesterfringe.co.uk/

·         Buxton https://www.buxtonfringe.org.uk/

 

I've offered a kind of value-added win/win event at these. I offer readings and a workshop that includes a free copy of my book. I have copies of other books for sale that can go through the festival's till – often you can take them to the bookshop and collect unsold copies a short while later. This would be a good situation for using our Author Kit books. We can invoice the shop / festival later. 

Or you can simply handle the sales yourself.  

I provide a creative workshop on writing similar to what is in the book I'm featuring.

It's all costed so that I break even with ten attendees. The festival looks after the admin and also makes a small profit on my event. I usually sell a few copies of my books, gain a few fans and also make a small profit. 

It's hard work, but it's also great fun.