This time tomorrow I’ll be en route for a small town on the border between Wales and England – actually just over the border into Wales, I’m proud to say – to attend a few events at the biggest book festival in the UK.
The Hay-on-Wye Literature Festival has flourished out of all proportion to the size of the town – but since the town itself is famous as a book town, with several dozen used book shops (that’s roughly one for every fifty people who live there), there is a certain logic to it. I love the place (well, several dozen used book shops, what’s not to love?) but this is only my second visit to the festival. If anything remarkable happens, I’ll let you know next week.
Meanwhile – book festivals in general have, for some unaccountable reason, been in my thoughts. A little while ago there was... let’s call it a spirited discussion, about what’s behind them, how they’re funded, and, most significantly, whether authors should be paid for making appearances.
Now, I could be wrong about this, and I’m sure someone will correct me if I am – but isn’t the model for book festivals/conventions/whatever you want to call them in the USA that authors sign up for the event, pay the appropriate fee and book their own accommodation, apply for places on discussion panels, and feel grateful for the opportunity to promote their books? That’s the impression I have. Maybe a few headline names get their expenses and possibly a small fee, but mostly everyone pays their own way.
Over here, the tradition has usually been different. The event is paid for by book enthusiasts’ entry fees and funding from whatever sources the organizers can track down; the authors give talks, and receive expenses and a fee, which varies according to how famous they are. Recently, though, it seems that every village has started its own book festival, and the model has been modified. CrimeFest, the annual event which began in Bristol about nine years ago, laid the foundation for using the American system, and some of the newer events have followed their lead.
When I started to approach publishers with the still-unpublished novel about ftymumble years ago, all the author had to do was produce the book; the publisher took care of the marketing. Now, though, authors are required to play a much bigger role in bringing their work to the attention of potential readers, and attending book festivals is one way they do it. So the question is, to what extent is marketing part of a writer’s job, and hence something s/he should be paid for? Or should the advance on royalties be regarded partly as payment for marketing?
Several fairly well-known authors of my acquaintance have been heard to express the view that they used the advance they received on their first two or three books as their marketing budget: an investment, if you like, in the hope of reaping dividends with useful sales a few years down the line. And a lot of not-especially-well-known but still, in my opinion, brilliant authors regularly attend festivals at their own expense and don’t grumble about it, because it really does help to sell books.
So what’s the verdict, Dead Guy followers? Go to the festivals and bear the expense, fingers crossed for a little consciousness-raising? Or hold out for a fee, or at least expenses, because marketing is part of the job and a job is something you get paid for? In my mind, the jury is well and truly out; there’s logic on both sides. But I suspect the debate will run and run.
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