Around the country there are a variety of book festivals which bring authors and readers together. Book festivals are different than literary festivals which are intended for writers instead of readers. They are opportunities for authors to promote and market their book directly to their audience. Readers find them celebrations of their favorite books and authors with readings, signings, presentations, special events, and performances.

While some have prematurely declared the book is dead, there is little doubt book festivals are alive and thriving. From the Atlanta Journal Constitution Decatur Book Festival in Georgia to Wordstock in Oregon, there are plenty of festivals for an author to consider in their marketing plans.

Ann Marie Ackermann was featured at the Gaithersburg Book Festival in May this year. She received an invitation from the mayor of Gaithersburg after she had contacted him in her efforts to find the descendants of the German immigrant who helped solve the murder case in her new book, Death of an Assassin. Jud Ashman, the mayor of Gaithersburg, also started the local book festival in 2010. When Ashman learned Ackermann had published a book with a connection to Gaithersburg, he invited her to present at the festival. The mayor of Bonnigheim, the German town where the murder occurred, accompanied Ackermann to Gaithersburg for the book festival.

You can find a book festival near you at the American Writers Museum site here. The BookReporter also has a list of book festivals organized by month.

There are children’s book festivals, teen book festivals, antiquarian fairs, state-wide and regional festivals. Schools often host children’s book festivals in local communities. At professional and academic conferences, you may also find book fairs.

The Library of Congress sponsors the National Book Festival which will be held on September 1 this year at the Washington Convention Center in the District of Columbia. More than 100,000 people attended last year.

I’ve served on the board of directors of The Fox Cities Book Festival the past two years and I’m looking forward to the more than 60 events scheduled for October 8-14. Carolyn Porter, author of Marcel’s Letters, and Larry Scheckel, author of I Always Wondered About That, will be featured this fall at Fox Cities Book Festival 2018. Last year, Ann Marie Ackermann and Elizabeth Rynecki, author of Chasing Portraits had presentations here in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Celebrate books with readers at a festival near you!

Writing and Listening — an Interview with Brooke Randel

2 weeks ago

As a young girl Brooke Randel knew little about the Holocaust—just that it was a catastrophe in which millions were murdered, and that her grandma Golda Indig barely escaped that fate. But her Bubbie never spoke about what happened, and the two spent most of their time together making pleasant memories: baking crescent roll cookies, playing gin rummy, and watching Baywatch. Until an unexpected phone call when Golda said, out of the blue: “You should write about my life. What happened in the war.” What results is a fascinating memoir—about one woman’s harrowing survival, and another’s struggle to excavate theRead more…