Greater Austin Book Festival Recap

I’m not sure how it’s been this long and yet no recap of the Greater Austin Book Festival. It might as well be a sin I’ve waited so long to share the details and yet here we are. Mea culpa!

My thoughts? It was a great experience! Of course I loved meeting other local authors of a very wide variety of genres. Sales did feel a bit slower compared to other book events I’ve done but there were also 2 other book fair style events going on the EXACT same day and overlapping at least a little in time. I can’t help to think that had an impact. That being said I did sell 11 books which seemed like a pretty solid number when I was swapping stories with other authors during and after.

I think though one of my favorite things though was the panel. I had the opportunity to be on the “Other Worlds: Science Fiction & Fantasy” panel along with 3 other authors: Kate St. Clair, Ashlee Arita & Rocio Carranza. I’m not sure if you realize this but only 22% of Sci-Fi authors and only 45% of fantasy authors are women. So the fact that we had a panel in these genres all female is pretty amazing.

The panel though was incredible not only because of the gender stats but the attendance was phenomenal. We filled the room (70+ people) and there was standing room only. I am so grateful for everyone who came out to the Greater Austin Book Fest and it was wonderful to see so many eager faces at the panel. Thank you so much for your support!

The only gripe I had, which is no fault of the book fest, were the authors who packed up early. The event ends at 5pm and that means you as the author should plan to be there until 5pm. Packing up early is disrespectful to the event organizers, the other authors and the readers attending, not to mention it’s distracting. If you’re a readre and see that some booths are packed up but others aren’t … don’t be deterred. Please come in and say “hi” to those of us who have stuck around.