How to start a literary festival
Love Stories Etc is returning to Manchester!
The doorbell rings in the middle of the day.
I run to answer it, but my husband gets there first. The delivery driver has clearly already made numerous trips to and from his van, and is now bringing box after box into our hallway, making it look like a warehouse goods-in.
I’ve seen this expression on my husband before. Infinite patience, let’s call it. It’s the face he had when we saved and sacrificed to get our home in London, and then I decided I wanted to live in Manchester. It’s the face he had when I mistakenly over-ordered some gravel, and a metric tonne of it was delivered on a low-loader right outside our front door.
It’s the face he had during lockdown when I took receipt of 400 book proofs, stacked in oblongs throughout the hallway. And now, it’s because I’m taking in deliveries for our 2025 Love Stories Etc festival VIP goody bags.
If you didn’t make it to Love Stories Etc last year, now’s the time to get your ticket. It’s exactly the kind of thing I’d have loved to see in Manchester when I was growing up.
For readers - panel after panel of amazing authors - more than 30, at all stages of their career - many you know, some new to you. There will be top tips, literary agents, photography sessions, and yes, our amazing friends at Waterstones Arndale are selling books, so you can get copies signed after each talk.
For writers - literary agent panels and workshops to help you on your way.
And for future publishing professionals - industry chats and workshops with some of the most brilliant minds in the industry.
It’s a lot of work for my amazing co-director Sara-Jade Virtue and I, but let me tell you, it’s one of the most fun parts of the year!
If you love women’s fiction, it’s a fabulous weekend - for just about £40, you get two full days of talks, giveaways, and some of the best authors around - Laura Dockrill, Mhairi Macfarlane, Suzan Holder, Mike Gayle and Jenny Colgan, among many others.
Behind the scenes there are two of us planning the day: Sara-Jade and I, who do it for the love of the genre, because Manchester needed a romance festival, and because - well, why not try to do something new?! Manchester Central Library, who host the festival, is where I often revised for my exams, and it has a calming energy. Some of last year’s authors even sloped off upstairs to the glorious reading room to work on their novel after their panel, before coming back for drinks afterwards.
Behind the scenes, there is always something happening - a nervous author, a last-minute panic, a late train, but something magical happens when the panels begin. Our aim is that every person who walks in through the doors on the day of the festival leaves with an idea for a new author to try, a refreshed love of the genre, and a spring in their step (and lots of books, too!).
So what do you need to start a new literary festival? A lot of forward planning, lots of admin, a bunch of fantastic speakers who are willing to give their time even though we’re learning on the job, and a brilliant team at the library who are so generous with their energy and time. And lots of brilliant readers who love the genre as much as we do!
If you’re near Manchester, I would love to see you there on the day, so if you are a romance reader, I think you’ll love this!
I’m also running a workshop with the always-excellent Comma Press on Thursday afternoon this week, at Manchester Writing School.
My session is about publicity and marketing, as part of their Publishing Insights Day. We’ll be building a publicity plan, working out the difference between publicity and marketing, and talking through different types of campaigns. If you’re keen to get into publishing, it’s a great way of gaining further insight.
Until next time… and I hope to see some of you soon!