This years festival has been given the title New Work, New Directions, New Opportunities. With all the doom-saying about the future of the book industry, a major part of this years festival is being dedicated to opportunities for writers in the digital age. The digital age comes with enormous opportunities for new work and new directions. The blurb for the festival proudly declares "But when a door closes, a window opens."
One of this years panels will address;
Independent Publishing
Independent publishers talk about print books, e-publishing, apps, digital publishing and opportunities now and for the future. With Boomerang Books blogger Joel Blacklock, publisher Debbie Higgs, author Karen Robertson (Treasure Kai series) and Sophia Whitfield from New Frontier Publishing.
A second panel will address;
Beyond the Page
Taking your work to the world through Facebook, Twitter, blogs, websites and video-conferencing. In conversation with Jeni Mawter from Literature Live!, and author and blogger William Kostakis.
I'm looking forward to both.
This will be my third festival and I am hoping to catch up with some of my writing friends. I am also looking forward to meeting some of my favourite authors for the first time and introducing myself to some of the editors who are attending. I particularly want to meet Sophia Whitfield from New Frontier Publishing. She currently has my Junior Novel 'Paper Magic' under consideration. I'd like to give her a face to go along with the name on my manuscript. I'm sure that has to help in some small way.
If there are any children's writers out there who haven't been to one of the festivals, please do yourself a favour and come along. It is a great day out and you might just catch that break you've been hoping for.
Festival Link
