Sometimes in marketing, it pays to zig when everyone else is zagging. In this digital age, when authors race to do everything online, it’s easy to forget the magic of face-to-face interactions. Personal connections can transform your relationship with your readers and fellow authors.
A book festival is a fantastic way to meet with readers and writers at the same time in real life.
But what is a book festival, and how can you organize one?
I asked Dave Cohen to talk with us about book festivals. He’s a British comedian and writer with more than four decades of experience writing comedy for the BBC. He’s recently turned his knowledge about humor into a new book called Funny Up Your Fiction: How to Add Light, Shade and Laughs to Your Novel.
What is a book festival?
Thomas: For all the young people listening, I need to ask, “What is a book festival?”
Dave: A book festival can be many things, I suppose. It could be an enormous event like the London Book Festival, which takes place in a huge venue called the Kensington Olympia. Thousands of people attend, and it’s a big marketing event for the big publishing companies.
But as we all know, there’s a new kid on the block: self-publishing. I’ve seen at the London Book Festival over the last two or three years how much bigger self-publishing has become. It used to be that the self-publishing area was in this little corner in the back broom cupboard in Kensington Olympia. But as it’s grown, self-publishing now has a whole floor to itself.
I could feel the difference in atmosphere. Around Simon and Schuster and RandomHouse, there was massive noise. Then I went to this little place where self-publishing happens, and it was almost like a retreat. I thought, “This is the thing I’d be quite interested to try when I bring out my books.”
I then considered the opposite end of the spectrum and thought about my own area in North London. It’s a lovely place with plenty of bookshops and people who love reading, but there wasn’t a local book festival. The reason? No one had taken the initiative to create one. So, I thought, “What the heck? That’s what I’ll do. I’ll set up a local book festival.”
Thomas: This is often the case: authors spend a lot of energy complaining that something doesn’t exist. “Oh, I can’t find a writers group in my area.” Well, start your own! Or “I can’t find a book festival in my area.” Then, create your own book festival! There are significant advantages to being the person who runs the event.
As the organizer, you control who gets to participate in the festival and who doesn’t, and you can always give yourself a spot in it. You’re the one interacting with the media, which means you gain much more promotion and visibility than almost anyone else involved.
There are plenty of benefits to doing the work, but it is work. So, walk us through all the effort you put into making this local book festival happen.
How did you start a book festival?
Dave: As I was considering the idea, I knew I didn’t have a giant publishing company around me. I was afraid that taking on one more thing would be too much. But I’m a regular listener to the Novel Marketing Podcast and a big fan of the Thomas Umstattd version of how to market your book when your time and money are limited. Since I was limited on both counts, I decided to set up something local. Every meeting I had about the book festival was about a hundred-yard walk from my house.
We have a great library that loves interacting with the community. That’s the fantastic thing about hosting a local festival. You start to meet other people who have also wondered why there isn’t a book festival. As soon as you mention the idea, people start offering to do all sorts of things.
At first, I thought it would be too much, but then people became excited and involved. I was expecting it to be a lot of admin work, and it was, but it was such a pleasure to be doing it because it was energizing. The festival was new, and everyone thought it was a fantastic, brilliant idea.
Thomas: Let’s talk about the team. I love that you pointed out you’re not doing all the work yourself. You’re building a team to help. What are some of the key roles you filled when you were organizing and running the book festival?
What roles did you need people to fill to make the book festival happen?
Dave: If you can find a local community building, like a library, build a relationship with the people who work there, and they can help you run the event. Libraries are especially useful, but we also received support from local bookshops. Essentially, anything in your community related to books can be a great resource.
Although I’m speaking from a big city like London, there are book festivals all over England, even in tiny villages. There’s usually at least one community building, and if you can get the people there excited about your event, they’ll be eager to help.
Was this a multi-location book festival?
Thomas: Was this a multi-location event, with activities happening at local bookshops as well as the library, or did everything take place specifically at the local library?
Dave: One other small community bookshop had events. They always put on events, so it was normal for them. Most of what we did was concentrated in the library, which is used by the local schools as well as older people in the community. They come to the library and do activities there. The library was the central place, and everything spread from there. It was great. People came and hung out and had a lovely time.
Thomas: I imagine the library was inexpensive as a venue since their objective is to be a public resource.
If I attended the festival, what would be going on at the library?
Dave: I figured if I was going to run an event in the library, I might as well run some of my own sessions. I did two hour-long sessions based on talks I’ve given about self-publishing and how to write funny books. It was fun.
We had some famous authors in the main room. We had a Booker Prize finalist being interviewed and a popular TV performer who was being interviewed as well. A well-known journalist who happened to live locally did a presentation about politics, and we got our local member of parliament to attend and do an interview. She’s very popular in the area, so having her there helped to define the whole event.
The kids’ library had guest authors and interactive workshops. So, the event covered a range of ages and people. I wanted there to be more activities and sessions. I suppose one takeaway is that when you’re starting and running the event for the first time, you do less.
Thomas: When running a small group or event, a good rule of thumb is to set out fewer chairs than you think you’ll need. Bringing out more chairs as people arrive creates a sense of excitement. In contrast, if you set out too many chairs and they remain empty, it makes the space feel empty and lowers the energy in the room.
There’s a lot to be said about being faithful with little things and keeping it small and manageable at first. As people have a good experience with that first festival, you can grow it into something bigger.
Three Kinds of Book Festivals
Local Book Festival
You’re describing a local festival. It’s at your local library, your local member of parliament attends, and local authors can come. One advantage of a local festival is that securing sponsorships is easier. Small businesses love sponsoring local events.
The local bookstore will want to sponsor it, but many local businesses have only one decision-maker, and it’s very easy for them to sponsor and support the organization.
Our local library hosts a big reading event for children every summer. Local hamburger restaurants compete for the chance to give free hamburgers to the children who reach their reading goals. It’s great promotion for the restaurants and creates a strong connection with the community.
Genre Book Festival
A genre festival is less location-dependent and more focused on genre. Imagine a fantasy convention for all the readers of fantasy books. The more specific the genre, the easier it is to pull off. A romance genre festival is probably too broad. Mystery, thriller, suspense is definitely too broad. But if your festival is the military science fiction festival, then people may be willing to travel from some distance to hang out with like-minded readers.
Reader-Focused Book Festival
While the local festival is dependent on the location, and the genre festival is focused on a genre, the third type of festival is focused on a certain reader. A classic example would be a homeschool book fair, which is very popular in the United States. Hundreds of people bring stacks of cash to buy all kinds of books. They can buy books for children and adults, fiction and nonfiction, as well as products those readers love.
I know a fantasy author who sells catapult kits. He offers his book for $10, but for $150, you can buy a wooden kit to build a catapult in your backyard. These kits have been a huge hit, especially with homeschooled boys who have always dreamed of owning their own catapult or trebuchet.
To make a reader-focused festival work, you want to target a reader that already has a tribe, such as people with a certain political or religious affiliation. Not all readers have a tribe, so knowing the focus affects the strategy.
The advantage of a local strategy, like the one you’re describing, is that you get to collaborate with local resources, such as a builder who can create a stage for your event. This is often easier with a local festival because people are excited to see their small town thrive. Most people prefer participating in activities within their suburbs or small towns rather than traveling to the big cities. When events happen locally, the community is more likely to contribute to its success.
Dave: Regardless of the tribe you focus on, it ultimately comes down to human connection. It may have started as a strategy to sell your book, but after COVID, everything changed. We all moved online during the pandemic, and even though COVID has passed, we’ve remained online. Now, with AI, social media, and other technologies, we continue to stay connected digitally. However, that human connection remains invaluable, and I think it’s fantastic.
It was energizing for me. It wasn’t tiring at all. When you think about the amount of time you typically spend on your phone or laptop, you realize that while you’re using your brain, you’re not physically active or interacting with people. What I enjoyed about this experience was the opportunity to interact with people.
Thomas: That’s a great way to think of it. We’re choosing to do this festival instead of spending that time on our phones for the month or two leading up to the festival. We’re choosing to have real-life conversations rather than tapping “like” on someone’s post. That’s really fulfilling, and I suspect it will also be helpful for reaching young people because a big generational shift is happening.
When I was growing up watching Star Trek, the idea of talking to a computer felt magical. For my children, though, things like talking to a computer or making a video call are completely normal and not magical at all. What is magical for my five-year-old is her CD player. She loves interacting with the physical media—pushing the buttons, turning the knobs, and adjusting the dials to play audio. For her, that’s a much more magical experience.
We see this trend with young people returning to vinyl records and paper books. This return to in-person interactions will be very effective, especially now, as many of the old book festivals have faded away.
Some of the big book festivals have survived, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a 1920s issue of your local newspaper had an announcement about a book festival back then. Many of these small areas used to have a vibrant local scene that got stamped out by the media, the big city, or something else.
With so much of our interaction now being artificial—especially on social media, where we often interact with bots or can’t be certain if a stranger is a real person or an artificial construct—the ability to connect in real life has become even more valuable.
It might take some time to figure out how to sell a lot of copies of your book, but I suspect genre-focused festivals will sell more books than local area festivals. Local readers may love the idea of books but may not be interested in the genre you write. No amount of exposure to a genre they’ve never read will make them want to suddenly dive in.
On the other hand, if you host the military science fiction event and half the people are in space armor, then other military sci-fi readers will be interested. They have already bought into the concept of military science fiction. Now it’s a matter of whether they’ll buy your military science fiction book or not.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this still drives sales in some interesting ways for authors who are able to crack the code.
Dave: I spent a lot of time getting to know the local bookshop. It was the big chain in Britain, Waterstones, which is the equivalent of Barnes and Noble in the States. Before this festival, I didn’t know or understand their business model, and spending time with them helped me learn a lot about how the business works. I got to see all the people who work in bookshops and how much they love books.
I love being in a bookshop.
Thomas: An interesting aspect of local book festivals is that they serve as a promotion for reading as an activity. They invite people to turn off the TV and pick up a book. In fact, this was a major motivation behind the book festival Laura Bush created when she was the First Lady of Texas before George W. Bush became President. Her campaign focused on literacy, and she established a large book festival at the Texas Capitol to promote reading.
The goal wasn’t to sell books or support corporate interests; it was to encourage literacy. However, the festival still boosted book sales because as people became readers, they started buying or borrowing books, which benefits all authors.
Ultimately, we are competing more with streaming services like Netflix than with other authors because most people don’t read. Many authors overlook this reality and focus on fighting for the attention of existing readers rather than encouraging non-readers to pick up books. Festivals, especially local ones, are a great way to inspire this shift. The more fun and engaging the festival, the better. It’s like saying, “Hey, here’s a great party, but you only get to join if you’re a reader—or come and learn how to become one.” It’s a positive way to support the entire industry.
Dave: We also tried to organize things with the local schools, but we didn’t have the time. My main advice is to allow a lot of time because everything always takes longer than you think it will.
If you want to organize a festival, choose a date and then add six months to it because it will likely take longer than you expect. We ended up holding our festival about eight or nine months later than planned. This is especially important if you want to involve schools. Even if you already have connections with schools and administrators, give yourself plenty of time to organize everything properly.
Thomas: There’s a rule in business that says you can only choose two out of three options: fast, cheap, and good. If you’re on a budget and want to maintain quality, you must be prepared for things to move slowly, which means planning for a long timeline. If you decide to move quickly, it will either be expensive, or you’ll have to compromise on quality because you can’t have all three. These factors are in tension with each other, and sometimes, you may only achieve one of the three. So, aiming for two out of three is the best you can expect, and giving yourself a long timeline is a smart strategy.
For an ongoing festival, it’s best to start planning the next event the day after the previous one ends. Starting early allows you to manage the planning process without feeling overwhelmed, rather than rushing at the last minute. Locking in the date as early as possible is also important, as it helps everyone coordinate their schedules around your festival. If people don’t know the date well in advance, it becomes much more challenging for them to plan.
Here in Austin, we have a major event called South by Southwest (SXSW), a massive film, media, and music festival that takes over the entire city for about three weeks. During this time, all the hotels in the city are fully booked. Many events related to SXSW or targeting its attendees take place, even if they aren’t officially connected to the festival. For example, there might be a meetup for people interested in a specific technology because so many of those enthusiasts are already in town for SXSW. This is why locking in your event date well in advance is so important.
What are some mistakes you could warn us about in trying to organize a book festival?
Dave: I wouldn’t necessarily call them mistakes because some things worked, and some didn’t as a matter of chance. I knew I was trying to do too much, but I also figured that at least one thing would fall through, and I didn’t want to end up with nothing. However, I believe in the “less is more” approach. Focus on the absolute minimum number of events you want to host. Start with two or three major events and build everything else around them.
For example, if you can secure a well-known author or a local celebrity, confirm them first and then plan additional activities around their appearance. We had three key events: one on Saturday afternoon, one on Sunday afternoon, and another on Sunday evening. We knew these would be the big draws, so we structured the rest of the festival around them. The key takeaway is not to try to do too much.
Thomas: Start small, be faithful in the little things, build on your successes, prune your failures, and do it again next year. The first year is always rough because you’re figuring out how to host a festival while hosting a festival. The second year is usually much smoother.
I’m hoping the same will be true for my own conference. We held the first Novel Marketing Conference in 2024, and we received a lot of valuable feedback from attendees. People really enjoyed it, but they also shared suggestions for improvements and what they’d like to see if they return in the future.
Dave: I had a real FOMO feeling about that because I thought if there was ever an event I would like to go to, it would be the Novel Marketing Conference. But I live in London, and I’ve got three kids.
If you have something established, like a podcast, a successful book in a specific genre, or expertise in a specialized area like homeschooling, build your event around that. Leverage the knowledge you already have. For me, it was the local connection. Having lived here for 30 years, I knew many people, which was a big advantage. I could call in favors and get support from those connections.
Thomas: It’s interesting because, with the Novel Marketing Conference, the attendees are primarily from an online community that has been interacting through courses, webinars, and on platforms like Author Media Social. The conference allows them to connect in person. In contrast, a local festival brings together people who would typically interact in person but have shifted their interactions online. It provides a chance for them to reconnect offline and interact with their neighbors around a shared interest.
Tell us about your new book and your podcast.
Dave: My podcast is called the Wright Funny Podcast. It covers all aspects of writing funny stuff. When people think about writing humorous novels, they often hear that no one is interested in comedy. However, you can incorporate humor into any genre, even darker ones like murder mysteries. You can add comedic elements to enhance the story. That’s the focus of my new book, Funny Up Your Fiction: How to Add Light, Shade and Laughs to Your Novel.
Featured Patrons
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Senator Jackson Piper lost reelection and assumed his political career was over. But when the U.S. President appears to be rigging reelection, Piper is convinced he must run to stop it. Resurrecting the Bull Moose Party of Teddy Roosevelt, Piper mounts a popular third-party run. Election Day presents no clear winner, and the arcane Contingent Election procedure of the Constitution threatens peace in an already fragile nation.
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