Not that long ago; well, last weekend (was when I wrote this but I think it would be easier to say on the weekend of the 1st May 2010!); I went to a book festival called Booktown in Clunes.
It was a great experience, to walk around the streets of Clunes to find so many other book enthusiasts! There was so many people there to participate in the event, it was quite exciting!
One stall set up at the town hall was quite interesting and stands out to me. There was a table set up with bookmarks and paper with alphabet letters on them, as a header. They were beautiful pieces of art but when the man came up to tell us that the paper was made from goat skin, I was absolutely amazed! They were beautiful! I wish I could have bought one!
Although I wasn't able to stay for the entire day, I had quite a productive time, when I was there. I didn't buy a huge number of books because of budget reasons but would have loved to have had an extra hundred dollars to take advantage of this unique opportunity.
A few other students from my course were also able to make it to the event and used the experience as a chance to network. Specifically at the Publishers Tent, which held the Melbourne PEN and the Australian Publishers Association(APA). It was really good to chat to one of the women in the APA about what to expect from publishers when trying to 'sell' your book to them. It was a great opportunity!
If you want to have a look, their websites are listed below.
http://www.publishers.asn.au/
http://pen.org.au/
To sum up, I had a very good time at the Booktown Festival, and look forward to when it is on next year!
~ Adelle
It was excellent! I wish I had seen the publishers tent but next year looks like the go!
ReplyDeleteI did however think that the free talks by published authors was fantastic. I also purchased the Ghost's Child by Sonya Hartnett: the best bit was meeting her and getting her to sign it! The whole day was fun!