Our Festival Peculiarities

We do not pay our participating authors (with the exception of our workshop leaders and special program authors), though we do treat authors with good small town hospitality during their stay.

In 2007, we are pursuing offering discounted rates at local commercial B&Bs and Inns for author accommodations.

Authors are not tied down to a table all day, but are free to roam the town, attend other sessions, or gab with other authors in more sequestered areas.  Some 2006 authors spent a full two days attending others’ readings.  As festival planners, we thoroughly enjoy this contribution.  However, some chose to leave after their sessions, which is equally acceptable. 

Our events are spread all over our small town— in galleries, small stores, the Town Center, library, nearby churches, and other various venues.  Only one is not within walking distance.

Events are scheduled simultaneously.  As many as nine different events may be occurring at any one time.

We have a festival bookseller who sells all festival author books – authors do not sell their books on their own.  (Therefore, if books sales are high on your list of priorities or you enjoy pitching your books, you will not find this event to your liking—and vice versa.)

Authors gather for morning and afternoon-session book-signings as a group.  No individual authors will have their own signings.

We expect our participating authors to carefully read our communications with them in order to best serve the needs of the authors, festival attendees, and planners.  Information we send will include the program schedule as well as arrangements pertaining to lodging, meals, and other important accommodations.

How We Will Develop Our 2007 Programs

First, we will seek authors who are a good match with the peculiarities of our festival. 

We hope to have a fraternal twin to the 2006 festival (not an identical twin).  To retain attendees, as well as attract new ones we must “make it new” without reinventing the wheel.  We will seek to add new voices and offer new sessions each year while never losing sight of those who helped put us on the map. 

Sessions and readings are not restricted to, but will be guided by this year’s theme:  Roots & Wings. 

We intend to model ourselves after the Sundance Film Festival, but in a literary fashion.  In a chain-book-store market which is glutted with publications (only a few of which actually get major promotional dollars behind them), one of our goals is to raise awareness of works of literary merit from smaller presses.  We do focus on regional writers, though not exclusively.  And yes, we do like an occasional feather in our cap.  But overall, our goal is to create a little literary community which is in dialog with readers, aspiring writers, and established authors about craft and ideas of sustaining merit.

The Author Recruitment Ambassador will extend invitations to authors as we build to an enticing, but manageable number of participants.

We do keep an on-going list of authors who express interest in participating.