Simon Whaley explores the benefit of authors getting involved with their local literary festivals …
Keeping It Local was published in the Autumn 2015 issue of The Author, the Journal of the Society of Authors
Keeping it local
Phyllis Blakemore will always remember her appearance at the Wellington Literary Festival’s ‘Meet the Local Author’ event, in 2014. She sold three copies of her book, Gentlemen of the River: The Last Coraclemen of the Severn Gorge, to the same reader who’d bought a signed copy from her at the 2013 local author event. The reader wanted signed copies to give as gifts and, knowing Phyllis was local, had searched specifically for her in the new festival brochure.Â
