Seeking Writing Festivals

LWS member Miguel Carbonell sent me the email below giving an update on how his book signing went and his desire to do more of them. He has one coming up this month on June 5th.

If anyone knows of a writer's festival other than the four he mentioned here -  Words Alive, GritLit, Eden Mills and Bookfest - please leave the info in a comment.

Hi Clyo,

I have a signing Saturday, June 5th from 1-3 p.m. at the Chapters in Ajax. My next signing in London will be at Chapters North (opposite Masonville Place) on Saturday, June 26th from 1-4 p.m.

    I thought the signing at Chapters London South went fine. I sold a few books and got to talk to a bunch of people.Also important, the salespeople at the store now know what the book is about.

    Often, people ask them for suggestions, so it's good to have them on your side. Because the children's section of the store was curtained off for remodelling, they placed me across the main aisle on the wrong side of the store. I had to explain to everybody that my book was a children's book.The store manager decided to keep my book and suggested another signing event some time in the Fall. That's good news.

    On another subject, I was going to ask you if you have a list of festivals in Ontario where writers can go and sell their books. I got some locations from Brian Henry, but maybe other members of the LWS know of promising opportunities. This might be useful information for the LWS website or your newsletter. This is the list from B. Henry:

    Words Alive, north of Toronto: www.wordsalive.ca/news/

    GritLit in Hamilton: www.gritlit.ca/

    Eden Mills festival: www.edenmillswritersfestival.ca/

    Bookfest in Windsor: www.bookfestwindsor.ca

I've looked into these four, and the one at Eden Mills in September appears to be the most promising. It costs $25 to rent a table and two chairs for the main day. I've asked them if they want me to present my book at one of the festival sessions, but I think I'll be running against some major writers for a spot.

    Cheers,
    Miguel