Image Credits:-
A huge thank you to Janet Williams for taking pictures of me at this event. Many thanks to Richard Hardie for taking some of me too. Always tricky doing your own for things like this! Many thanks to Vie Portland for the Book Fair poster image. Other photos are from me, Allison Symes. A real co-operative effort on the picture front this week! Some images created in Book Brush using one of my photos.
It was fabulous taking part in the Book Fair at the Hilt on 8th July. It was great to catch up with authors I know and to meet up with others for the first time. I was delighted there was a great turn out for this inaugural event.
The organisers counted 125 (and there were more. The organisers were sometimes supervising talks by some of the writers so literally could not count everyone!). I hope this bodes well for there being future events like this.
So Much Hard Work Behind the Scenes…
I see the count as promising. There was a constant flow of people with no big gaps. Even towards the end of the afternoon there were people still coming in. This is a good sign.
The worst thing about book events is you can’t know who’s going to come and, despite this being an indoor event, the weather can put people off too. But this size of turnout, I thought, was excellent. I also thought The Hilt was a great venue to host the event and a huge thank you must go to the volunteers here who kept writers and readers well supplied with tea and coffee. That was appreciated by all.
Many thanks also for the lovely range of cakes on offer. (If my Slimming World consultant is reading this, I limited myself to two small cakes, honest!).
My congratulations must go to the organisers. I can imagine the hard work behind the scenes. I am about to step down from a Committee where I’ve worked for a few years. I know something of how much work goes in to events that most don’t see. So well done, everyone behind the Book Fair, and especially to Vie Portland. It was lovely to meet in person finally!
The Chandler’s Ford Today Contingent
As I mentioned in my post last week, it was wonderful having books come to us here in Hiltingbury when our nearest book shops are several miles away. I was impressed with the range of books on offer at the fair. There was something for most people. It was also encouraging there was a good “footfall” flow.
It was great to see Martin Kyrle and Richard Hardie also taking part. Martin was selling various books including his Railway chronicles (Jottings from the Trans-Siberian Railway, which I interviewed him about for CFT, and Jottings from Russia and the Baltic States: Part 1: Russia and Estonia).
I loved his leaflet headed “Do you like travel stories?” which started with the wonderful line “Martin Kyrle was at Agincourt – not the battle, but the official opening of the museum”. That did make me smile. I hope it did so for others too. Encouraging interest is not an easy thing to do. Giving people something to smile about is a good way to do it though.
It was lovely to say hello to fellow CFT scribe, Mike Sedgwick, and Janet was having a lovely time catching up with people too! It was also great to meet and chat with Christine Clark and Stuart Allen.
What impressed many was that Chandler’s Ford and the immediate surroundings has produced so many writers. Well done, all.
Networking
Almost inevitably between people coming to your table, you get chatting to the other authors. This is where connections can form and useful information shared. I discovered more about the benefits of having a card reader, for example. That’s something to go on my To Do list. Not everyone carries cash these days. Many thanks to N.A. Shaw and Sheila Starr for their tips here.
As well as the writers at the tables, some authors gave talks in a separate room. There was a colouring table for younger visitors.
The writing world can be small at times. I met two ladies manning a table who both know a fellow writing friend of mine, Paula Readman, who is also a Bridge House Publishing author.
Spreading The Word About What You Do
When I’m at an event like this, I like to get chatting to people who come over to see what I do, explain what flash fiction is, and sometimes I get to read some examples. I didn’t get to do that at this event but it was fabulous meeting others who are either flash fiction writers now or have written in the form. That was encouraging. I mentioned a few times when chatting to various people flash teaches you to write “tight”, to edit well, and those skills transfer over well to every other form of writing too.
This was the first book fair I’d been involved in since 2019. I’ve been to the Scottish Association of Writers’ Conference in 2022 (where I ran a workshop and judged a competition), I’ve run workshops online and in person, but a book fair, well that had been off the table so to speak thanks to the pandemic. It was so cheering to have an event of this kind back again.
I thought the timing of the event worked well too. The Hiltingbury Schools were having their summer fete so some footfall would have come over from that but to have the fair from 1 pm to 5 pm was sensible. Another good time for a book event is in October/November for the Christmas market but having this event in July meant people had a chance to come in and add to their holiday reading titles! They did too.
Conclusion
Getting the word out about events like this vital. Chandler’s Ford Today has played a role of course but I had fun during the last week or so spotting the posters for the Book Fair in different places in the area. Writers encouraging friends to come along and support matters too. You still can’t beat word of mouth recommendation.
I was impressed with the range of books on offer – there was something for most ages and most tastes. There was a good combination of traditionally published, self published, and indie press published. Indeed it was a pleasure having a chat about how supportive CafeLit and Bridge House Publishing are to writers.
I didn’t get to go to any of the talks. You can’t really leave your table for long but I do hope the talks were well supported and it was a great idea having those on for attendees. I talked to a few writers who were taking first steps into the writing world and the talks would have been great for them. These can give a good taster of different aspects of writing and are always useful just due to that.
For an inaugural event, I thought this was a great success and all of the writers I chatted to (everybody basically!) were pleased to have book fairs back. The pandemic may well have scuppered these things for a bit but they’re back, as they should be. Book fairs celebrate the world of books. That’s never a bad thing. And readers get to explore books new to them and get signed copies by their authors. Win-win there I say.
I hope there will be another Book Fair at The Hilt in due course. Naturally, I’ll keep you posted if there is.
Related Posts:-
The Trans-Siberian Railway: Martin Kyrle and Michael Roberts
Jottings from the Trans-Siberian Railway – Part 2: Martin Kyrle interview
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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It was an enjoyable event, and I was sorry not to spend longer there. Good to see Claire Gradidge. She and I were once in the same creative writing class. I was surprised to learn that Dr Mark Rickenbach is nearly as good a poet as a GP. I never thought Air Embolism, often a fatal condition, could be poetic until I read his book.
I look forward to the next book fair.
It was great to see you, Mike. Many thanks for your kind comments. I too look forward to the next Book Fair. This one was fun, well organised, and a great advert for books generally.
Thank you Allison for promoting the event and writing this. It was such a wonderful event and I’ve met so many writers on that day. I bought some books for gifts too. We have a lot of talents in this area! It was also wonderful to see several children there. It’s brilliant and I hope this will happen again!
Many thanks, Janet. People loved the event. I hope it will be a regular one too.