Thanks To All 2009 Bookfest Authors

Dear Authors:

We wanted to thank you again for participating last October in Wellsboro’s very first BookFest. You all helped make this new event a big success and a great launching point for the years to come. We have big plans for this year’s event, and even bigger dreams for the future, and we hope you will join us along the way.

BookFest 2010 will be held on Saturday, October 16th at the Wellsboro high school. We will have full access to the high school library, cafeteria, and gymnasium, all of which connect together at one end of the building. Both the cafeteria and the gym as individual spaces are bigger than the Wellsboro Fireman’s Annex, where BookFest was last year, so with all three spaces available to us, we will have exponentially more room, facilities, and traffic flow than last year. Since we learned so much from last year, we are excited to be able to be that much more organized in the entire layout and process of this year’s festival.

Wellsboro’s BookFest provides authors with the chance to sell their own books; market to a large, willing crowd who are all interested in books, writing, literacy, and reading; network with other authors and publishers, as well as with teachers, parents, librarians, and store owners. We expect most authors who come to BookFest to be in charge of their own cash boxes for sales: you sell your own book; you collect the money and sales tax; you keep all of your own profits. We will not take a cut of your sales. If you cannot sell your own book as a result of contractual terms, or prefer to make other arrangements with the bookstore regarding the sales of your book(s) for BookFest, please let us know.

This year we will add the chance for authors to do readings of their work or demonstrations/talks about a relevant topic, in 15 to 30 minute sessions, scheduled to take place in a section of the library, which will be away from the general roar of the crowds. Let us know if you are interested in giving one of these sessions.

Other activities and attractions for this event will include lunch foods and baked goods for sale (sponsored by student groups and/or local nonprofits); a large used book sale; a ticket-raffle for a variety of beautiful items donated by local businesses and crafters; story-time for young children; 4 to 5 hours of live radio broadcasts, including interviews with many of you authors. Our offer to you is this: we’ll bring the crowds; you sell your books!

The cost of registering this year is $30, which gets you months of pre-advertising and PR, including ads and articles on www.booksalefinder.com, facebook, twitter, our monthly newsletters, local newspapers (including the Wellsboro Gazette, the Potter Leader, the Elmira Star Gazette, and the Williamsport Sun Gazette), the state websites for both the PA teachers’ union and the educational support staff union, at least two local radio stations, and more. Your registration fee also provides you with a large rectangular table just for you (no sharing this year, I promise), folding chairs, bottled water, reserved parking, plastic bags for your customers, access to a “bank”, and a volunteer assistant for the day. If you donate a copy of one of your books (must be a real book, not an ARC) to the ticket-raffle, then your registration fee is $20. Please make checks payable to “From My Shelf” and mail your check (and book, if you choose) to us at: From My Shelf, 87 Main St, Wellsboro, PA 16901.

Authors (plus family or other willing assistants) can arrive Friday, and/or stay Saturday, if they like, to make a nice weekend of the event. We will gladly help authors find appropriate lodging, although in order to accommodate everyone’s needs, the sooner you make these plans, the better, since October is a very popular time of year for tourism in Wellsboro. We can help you find great deals on motel/hotel/camping/B&B’s, who may offer incentives for the authors in this event. We may also be able to find “host families” for a single author or a couple, where you might stay the night with a local family, but again we’d need to know several months in advance if you would like us to make these arrangements for you. These kinds of lodging arrangements are the modus operandi for the Endless Mountain Music Festival in August, and both musicians and locals have really enjoyed this way of meeting people and talking about common interests in the arts.

Meals will not be provided, although we will have volunteers available to you all day on Saturday, who can run to get you the food of your choice. There will also be food for sale at the high school, as a part of BookFest. As for meals for Friday, or for Saturday evening, I may be able to arrange for discounts or “prix fixe” menus for participating authors, once I know how many people would want to participate. We want to make this a wonderful experience for everyone involved, and you authors are a key part of what makes this event so special.

Please let us know if you can join us this fall, to make the second annual Wellsboro BookFest THE regional literary event of the year!

Warmly yours,


Kevin Coolidge & Kasey Cox,
The staff at From My Shelf,
Hobo the cat,
and the educators of the Wellsboro Area School District.