Spiderwize's Self Publishing Blog

The Inverness Book Festival has been running for eight years and is now a fixture of summer in the Highlands of Scotland. This year’s Festival kicks off on the 10^th of August and runs until the 14^th, making it a five day event which will be well worth the time to attend for readers or writers, be they in the self publishing industry or otherwise. Local literary buff Brid McKibben is in charge of this year’s activities, which will contain the now expected array of both local, Scottish and general United Kingdom writers, plus a few surprise guests.

The little ones won’t miss out either, with special events designed to keep them suitably entertained such as Bookbug Rhymetimes and the daily activities that are organised by the Festival’s Arts Ed group.

The Inverness Book Festival has never struggled to attract top cream writing talent, with the likes of GP Taylor, Iain Banks, Katie Grant, AL Kennedy, Kenneth White, Tom Devine, Cameron McNeish, Scoular Anderson (do you think he scowls a lot, then?), Emma Wood, Ewan Morrison, Des Dillon, Lance Price, Lin Anderson, Stuart MacBride, Melvin Burgess and Shirley Spear all having attended the event in previous years. This year’s guest list includes such names as Christopher Brookmyre, John Eunson, Tom Renouf, Louise Welsh, and Andy Wightman.

p.s. The Inverness Book Festival will be worth taking the time to visit.

One festival that literary types of all kinds, not just in the self publishing field, might want to take a look at if they have the time next month is the West Meon Festival of Books. The West Meon Festival of Books runs from the eighth to the tenth of July, and is a small but intimate literary festival that takes place in the small village setting of South Downs Country Park in West Meon (fairly obviously). West Meon itself is apparently located somewhere between Winchester and Petersfield in Hampshire on the A32.

Ticket prices tend to vary, though they were 55 pounds last year, which might seem a bit steep to some, but on the other hand, like I said, it is a very intimate festival and lets you get up close and personal (but not that personal) with some respected authors. This year those names include the likes of Michelle Magorian, Jake Wallis Simons, Nigel Farndale, Jane Shilling, Leo Benedictus, Anthony Quinn, Nick Hayes, Julie Hill, and Allan Mallinson. Previous years’ guest lists have included such names as Poppy Adams, Gillian Tindall, Wendy Cope, Natasha Solomons, Maureen Duke, Jack Sheffield, Jane Gardam, Rebecca Shaw, Sophie Hannah and many more besides.

As well as all the visiting authors, other events at the festival include bookbinding, activities for the rugrats, and all the usual literary festival stuff, I would imagine.

p.s. Those fancying a more intimate literary festival should check out The West Meon Festival of Books.

Those interested in self publishing, literature should absolutely check out the Buxton Festival Literature Series. The Buxton Festival Literature Series kicks off on July 9th and carries on until the 27th July – no fly by night weekend festival this one – and consists of a wide range of activities and a multitude of well-known guests.

The event features a morning literary series, concerts in the afternoon and evenings with operas being performed with themes such as exploration, modern politics and espionage all being taken on, while the ‘big name’ guests this year include the likes of Dame Ellen MacArthur, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Esther Freud, Colin Thubron, Robin Hanbury-Tenison, Will Hutton, Michael Broadbent, Salley Vickers, Miranda Seymour, Richard Miles, Professor Christopher Andrew, Virginia Nicholson and many more besides. Guests in previous years have included the likes of Patrick Gale, Melvyn Bragg, Cherie Blair, Kate Atkinson, Prue Leith, Joan Bakewell, Vince Cable, award-winning journalist Kate Adie and former Liberal Democrats leader Paddy Ashdown.

Entry to the Buxton Festival Literature Series is not free I’m afraid, but if you’re under 30 seats cost just five pounds a head and under 16s, pensioners and students can get in for half price, so it’s not too bad at all really.

p.s. The Buxton Festival Literature Series has a lot to offer.

The Humber Mouth Literature Festival is an annual event that occurs in Hull. Granted, Hull isn’t the first name that might spring to mind when you think about either great literature or literary festivals. However, it appears that might be a rather ignorant response, given that in previous years the festival has attracted names such as Germaine Greer, best selling writers such as Louis de Bernieres and Jonathan Coe, and noted poets such as David Wheatley and Carol Rumens and has been running successfully now for 18 years, since its inception way back in 1993.

This year’s festival kicks off on the 25th June 2011, but will carry on until the tenth of July, so there’s plenty of time for you to get your affairs in order to ensure that you can be there. As in past years, there are plenty of name guests that those in the writing field, be it self publishing or otherwise, will recognise, such as George Monbiot, Simon Garfield, Adam Mars-Jones, John Hegley, Jon Ronson, Jenni Murray and several others besides. In addition to the guests, there will also be some events such as a celebration of literature in Hull throughout history, which will be presented by famed singer and songwriter Jack Underwood, workshops, stuff for children, and all the things you expect from a literary festival.

p.s. The Humber Mouth Literature Festival should be well worth a visit.

It seems to be festival month all around, with yet another literary event taking place near our shores in June – namely, the Belfast Book Festival 2011. The Festival kicks off on the thirteenth June (so that’s next Monday for the date illiterate among you) and unlike some other three day literary festivals being held this month, this one carries on for just under a week, not concluding until the following Sunday (the nineteenth, in other words).

There’s plenty to appeal to all writers and those with a literary eye, too, (whether in the self publishing field or not), with plenty of big name guests such as John Banville, David Peace, and Maurice Leitch. There will also be appearances by poets such as Leontia Flynn, Ben Maier, and Martin Mooney, as well as performing artists such as Owen O’Neill and Larry Lamb. Writers Jo Baker and Lucy Caldwell will also be on hand to appear in the Festival, conveniently timed to allow them to bang on about their new books.

There’s loads of other stuff going on in the Festival too, including the sort of things you expect such as workshops in creative writing and similar activities, while one of the highlights of the entire event will almost certainly be readings from a book taken from eye witness accounts of the Belfast Blitz, entitled “The Belfast Blitz: The People’s Story”.

If you’re a poet and you do know it, then whether you are a part of the self publishinggame or otherwise, if you’re living in Bridlington no doubt you will be interested in a new grant that is up for grabs from the Arts Council. The grant money – which adds up to a not undesirable amount of nine and a half thousand quid – has been handed over to the Bridlington Poetry Festival. The festival kicks off on Friday and runs for three days until the end of the weekend – 10th to 12 of June 2011.

Even if you don’t think getting a chunk of nine and a half thousand pounds is your cup of tea, if you’re into poetry the Festival should still be well worth a look, with some big name guests (as big as names can be in the poetry field anyway) attending, including the likes of Carol Ann Duffy and Christopher Reid, winner of the Costa Book of the Year Award. The festival is using the money in order to try to get established poets to set up shop in local schools over the next 12 months so if you are one of those, you might want to get your skates on before it all goes to someone less talented. Likewise, if you’re the head of a Birmingham school and fancy getting your own resident poet, let the Festival know.

p.s. Who says poetry and cash don’t mix?

More info at: http://www.bridlington-poetry-festival.com/

A literature festival is set to be held at Stonyhurst College later this month and anyone with an interest in the literary arts (that’s supposed to be you, you know), be they in the self publishing industry or otherwise, will have plenty to enjoy should they be able to attend.

The weekend festival is being held from the 23^rd to the 26^th of June in the College’s Top Refectory. It will feature everything from book signings and readings to talks and workshops with some premier guests attending the event will include:

• Jo Baker, the writer of “Offcomer” who has won no less than three Arts Council of Northern Ireland Awards (despite having been born in Lancashire).
• Diran Adebayo, the acclaimed author of “Some Kind of Black”.
• Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award winner Conor O’Callaghan.

Those who do attend should turn up at reception once they get there. Cheapskates with an interest in the literary arts (I’d say that’s probably all of us, you know) will no doubt be relieved and really rather delighted actually to find out that entry into the Stonyhurst College Literature Festival is completely free of charge. As a result, there really is no excuse for not doing your bit and turning up to support festivals such as these. Further information for those who want it can be obtained from Paul Ellis, the head of English at the College.

p.s. Entry to this event is free so there really is no excuse for not attending. Those of us who are starting in the self publishing area may well pick up some useful pointers.

Anyone living in or around Witney with an interest in reading, writing or self publishing might want to check out the Witney Book Festival, which is set to kick off two weeks on Friday on the seventeenth of this month (Fri 17th June 2011). The Festival, which will take place over three days, is the first such book festival to take place in Witney, though organisers are hoping it could be the beginning of a regular event.

There’s plenty to engage just about anyone with any kind of literary interest, such as the presence of local writers, poets, thinkers (or so they say. What is a “thinker”, anyway? Do they just sit there all day thinking? Do they actually get paid for this? Why wasn’t I told about this as a career option when I was a lad?), publishers and even agents, so it’s a good place to be around and potentially even make a few contacts. In addition to this, there’s also book signings, events designed to keep the little ones entertained, competitions and so forth, as well as plenty of nice things to eat and drink.

There are some pretty impressive guests at the event too, with the likes of crime writers David Wiseman and Malcolm Pryce, children’s fantasy writer Katherine Langrish and science fiction author Ben Jeapes set to attend, along with many others. Overall, it looks like being an impressive first book Festival for Witney.

p.s. If you want there to be more Witney Book Festivals, you’d better show up to the first one!

More info can be found at: http://witneybookfestival.wordpress.com/

The first ever Boswell Book Festival (BSF) is set to be held toward the end of this week, from the 20th to the 22nd of the month (May). Named after the celebrated writer James Boswell, who essentially created the notion of the biography for the modern age with his work “Life of Samuel Johnson”, which was published in 1791 (so maybe my use of the word ‘modern’ is somewhat open to question!), the Boswell Book Festival will celebrate the achievements of its namesake by staging both the memoir and the art of biography with a show featuring some of the best loved performers and writers in the United Kingdom. These will include performers such as Kate Adie, Diana Athill, Selina Hastings, and world-renowned actor Bill Paterson. The Boswell Book Festival will be the very first such literary festival to ever take place in the late author’s own home, in Auchinleck House in Ayrshire, Scotland.

Diana Athill knows more than a little about the art of biography herself, having penned more than a couple of bestselling memoirs, while Bill Paterson will be regaling audiences with tales of everything from his career on stage and screen to his childhood and youth growing up on the streets of Glasgow. One can only hope there weren’t as many murders as there are in “Taggart”.

Also on hand will be literary gossips Selina Hastings and James Knox, two authors who will discuss what it’s like in the memoir writing business of today.

p.s. Anyone interested in Boswell, or is thinking of possibly self publishing their own biography, should check out this festival.

More info can be found at: http://www.boswellbookfestival.co.uk/

One event that writers, whether interested in self publishing or otherwise, should be thinking of attending this year is the Word Festival at the University of Aberdeen (13 – 15 May 2011). First held in May 1999, the Word Festival is now one of the most celebrated and illustrious literary events in the UK calendar.

This year’s event is being run over three days from the thirteenth to the fifteenth of this month (yes, I know it’s short notice). Some of the big and not so big name guests at this year’s Festival include the celebrated Margaret Attwood (new tickets have actually been released to see her, so you could still get in there, if you get a move on), Chris Smith, Christian Wolmar, Tim Dowling, Catriona Lexy Campbell, Dermot Healy and Kevin McNeil, Meaghan Delahunt and Lesley Glaister, and Stephen Robertson.

Margaret Attwood is of course likely to be the star attraction of this year’s Word Festival for, in all probability, the great majority of people, being widely regarded as one of the world’s top writing talents with more than 30 books to her name. Given that it costs just eight pounds to see her (and the others as well), down to six pounds if you are eligible for the concessionary rate, it would seem to be rather cheap for an opportunity to spend some time with someone with a literary talent as notable as hers.

p.s. Spread the word about the Word Festival – definitely the place to be!

More info at: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/word/