Book Fest at the Library

In the last few months I’ve had the privilege of visiting several libraries to share about my books with readers there. Last Saturday, it was fun to be able to have one of those book events right here in my hometown. Along with about thirty other authors I got to be part of the first annual Anderson Public Library Book Fest. So what is a book fest or festival.

This is how it’s defined on Wikipedia. A literary festival, also known as a book festival or writers’ festival, is a regular gathering of writers and readers, typically on an annual basis in a particular city. A literary festival usually features a variety of presentations and readings by authors, as well as other events, delivered over a period of several days, with the primary objectives of promoting the authors’ books and fostering a love of literature and writing.

That’s not exactly how the Anderson Public Library Fest was, although I’m sure they were happy to foster a love of books and writing. The authors gathered there to talk about their books to readers on one day only. There were no scheduled readings or presentations. You will find those at some book fests such as the Southern Kentucky Book Festival and the Kentucky Book Festival. The first one happened in April this year and is scheduled for March next year and the Kentucky Book Festival is coming up in November with several literary events planned and then book talks at the Book Fair on  Saturday, November 16, 2019 at the Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park.

I love being part of Book Fairs because I get to meet readers and writers. So I especially enjoyed the opportunity to meet and talk with readers and writers here in my hometown of Lawrenceburg, KY. Two of my favorite readers showed up to take a picture with me. My granddaughters are always happy to go to the library and they both left carrying library books they checked out and were excited to read. We are such blessed people to have a library full of books just waiting for us to pick one to read. I’ve been researching the lack of libraries in many parts of Kentucky in the 1930’s. So, it’s wonderful to see how that has changed and how many towns have beautiful libraries now with many services available and sometimes host a book event like the APL Book Fest.

I discovered our town has many authors sharing stories between the covers of a book. Nine hometown authors were joined by about twenty more writers from around the area. Here I am with with fellow hometown author, Karen Cox. The library staff did a great job of promoting their first book fest. They even invited one of the Lexington news stations over to do a four minute promo piece on one of their news programs. Justin Silverman, the event coordinator at the library, invited three writers to come be there with him to talk to the news people. I was one of the three. That was interesting. First we stood around and waited a long time for the camera man and on camera reporter to come.

Then we stood around and waited a long time for the exact moment the filming would happen since it was a live feed. You said the wrong thing, then it was too bad. No second chances or edits. But we all did okay in the one minute or less each of us had time to talk.  I started to say you couldn’t mess up too much in that time, but I suppose a minute is long enough to say something you might wish back. We didn’t do that. We talked about our books and the Book Fest. So it turned out okay. Here’s the YouTube link if you want to watch it.  I worked up my courage to watch it after the library posted a link on their Facebook page. It’s one thing to talk in front of a camera. It’s a whole different thing to watch yourself talk in front of a camera. LOL.

I was happy to see books and authors celebrated in my little town. I hope they do make it an annual event and more and more readers come to celebrate books and a love of reading. I sat next to a young man with two books published. He was seventeen. I was writing when I was seventeen, but I was almost twice that age before I had my first book published. Then a person had little choice except to follow the traditional path to publication by submitting your manuscript to agents and editors by mail. Things have changed with the electronic age. Book proposals and manuscripts zip through the internet in minutes, even seconds instead of making a slow round of publishing companies in brown manila envelopes. If writers choose to not go the traditional route, they can use the internet to find ways to publish their book on their own.

Times have changed and are still changing, but one thing doesn’t change. That’s the love of stories and how much we all need books and those great libraries.

Have you ever been to a book event at a library or somewhere else? Talked to an author face to face? Took a chance on his or her book even if you had never read a book by him or her before? Or maybe you’re an author yourself? If so, do you enjoy book festivals?

Thank you for reading.