There aren’t many things in life that are certain, but there are a few. Death and taxes, as the old saying goes. The fact that my dog loves food more than life itself. That stubbing your toe in the middle of the night when you only wanted to get up for a pee is painful and soul-destroying enough to make anyone cry. And that after seeing how much fun everyone had at this year’s event, I’ll definitely be attending the UK Indie Lit Fest 2018!
The Indie Lit Fest on Saturday, which was held at the Kala Sangham centre in Bradford, was a huge success thanks to a dedicated and hard-working team of people, as well as almost 40 indie authors, a handful of international authors talking through Skype, and of course all the wonderful attendees! The event featured readings, workshops, children’s events, and the chance to meet some of our favourite indie authors including (but far from limited to) Maria Gibbs, Elaine Chissick, Rose English, and Chris Turnbull.
What’s even better is that it was all for free! That’s right, the UK Indie Lit Fest is a non-profit organisation that debuted in 2016, and whose aim is to promote indie authors and small publishing houses, helping them to reach new readers. Founder and director Dawn Singh (who you may know as indie author DM Singh) said that this year, the event has got bigger and better thanks to sponsorship by Ingram Spark, and the organisers plan to make next year’s even better again. Showcasing authors from all over the UK, they also had international hubs from which authors from France, America, Canada, and elsewhere got a chance to talk to fans.
I’m lucky enough to be friends with some of those authors and I can tell they all had a great day – and I was left writhing with jealousy as they did live videos on Facebook and shared photos of the event. So yeah, I’ll definitely be attending next year’s event – although whether that will be as an author or visitor, I’m not quite sure yet! Check out these videos that author and UK Indie Lit Fest social media director Rose English did live from the event:
