UK Indie Lit Fest 2017: They Came To A City

Yorkshire city's grass roots festival offered bookworms their independence day

It's often a struggle for indie authors and small presses to gain attention, writes Mark Cantrell, but the second annual UK Indie Lit Fest held in Bradford offered them the perfect opportunity to flog their books – if they weren't too busy just chatting with readers, that is

Author and playwright J. B. Priestley in the foyer of the Kala Sangam Arts Centre, Bradford. Copyright (C) Mark Cantrell

MOST authors are not exactly flush with cash, but if there's one thing that's as elusive as making money, then it's the opportunity to catch the eye of the book-loving public.

Readers may not necessarily translate into the 'readies', of course, but they are an essential element in the alchemy that –some day – published authors hope will transform their fortunes. The trick is to find them. But that's easier said than done.

Most authors wrestle with the realities of obscurity. Raising and maintaining awareness is critical. That's true even for those that have the machinery of a big publisher behind them. Established names must strive to ensure they don't 'fall off the radar'; newcomers struggle to draw attention to themselves and maybe become a 'name' some day.

Author Joshua Sutton. Copyright (C) Mark Cantrell

For indies and self-published authors, or indeed small press publishing houses, it's harder still to find the space to make themselves heard. In a publishing landscape dominated by the big players, there's little room left in the events and retail eco-system for the 'small mammals' running through the grass roots. That's where the UK Indie Lit Fest comes in.

The festival was launched last year in Bradford, West Yorkshire: the brainchild of local author Dawn Singh and a team of volunteers. Now established as a non-profit community interest company, the event returned in August 2017 – by all accounts bigger and better – promising to become a regular fixture in the county's literary calendar.

“A lot of the literature festivals are very exclusive, and the ones that aren't cost a fortune for authors to come along,” said Singh, who is also the managing director of small press Follow This Publishing. “I applied for one and was accepted. They wanted £70 for a table. Now, to have to travel to another part of England, pay for travel and then possibly stay overnight, and then pay £70 for a table when you're an indie author and don't have much money – it's ridiculous, really. So we wanted a festival that was going to be affordable for indie authors and free for the public.”

So that's precisely what Singh and her team did. This year, the UK Indie Lit Fest was held at the Kala Sangam Arts Centre in the heart of the city. The event hosted 40 authors from across the country, with an international contingent skyping in to talk to visitors about their work and the craft of writing. During the day, it offered members of the public a series of readings, workshops, and the opportunity to chat with authors. Oh yes, they could also buy some books.

Curiously, perhaps, selling books wasn't necessarily as high up the agenda as one might expect; more valued was the chance to meet and talk. Actually, it's not all that curious. Nobody likes a hard sell, but as a literary event it's a fairly safe bet that everyone there was a bibliophile, so it's only natural they'd want to natter about their mutual affection.

In that sense, the event was a great forum for readers and authors alike to shoot the breeze, get to know each other, and see where it all leads. Selling a book or two there and then, well that just serves to make a social occasion all the sweeter.

“Obviously I hope to sell books, but if I don't, I don't,” said paranormal fiction author Joshua Sutton. “For me it's more about meeting authors, finding books I like, and developing more friendships, really. It's not just about the selling: it's also about the meeting people. Really there's no better way for a book nerd to spend a weekend.”

For Irene Lofthouse, author of Strange Tales in the Dales, events such as the Indie Lit Fest are good venues to “have a chat” and “meet people I haven't seen in ages”.

“I never expect to sell. It's always a bonus if I do,” she added. “It's a way of upping your profile; it's a way of talking to people; it's a way for people to find out what you do.”

Author Razwan Ul-Haq. Copyright (C) Mark Cantrell

Razwan Ul-Haq, artist and author of Sultan vs Dracula, explained he was looking for “inspiration and some friendly natter”. He added: “I came along to meet authors and other publishers and just talk and see what's going on.”

For indie authors, then, the value of festivals isn't necessarily found so much in cash sales, but rather in a more elusively defined social capital. As Singh pointed out, however, the wider festival circuit tends to be geared towards the requirements of the major league publishing industry, meaning indie authors and small presses often face being squeezed out.

Events such as the Indie Lit Fest are “critical”, according to Ul-Haq, and not simply because it creates a little space for indies to do their thing. There's a matter of diversity too – the chance to find fresh voices, new ideas, a different take on life and living, beyond the confines of a corporate monoculture.

“Sometimes, if you go to the commercial [festivals], it's not the authors that you are meeting; it's not the publishers – it's the reps,” he added. “If we just leave things to companies and corporations who are doing things for a profit, then we're only going to have a very narrow set of views that people can read.”

Author Irene Lofthouse. Copyright (C) Mark Cantrell

Lofthouse said: “It's difficult for people to get published, by the big publishers or by small, independent presses, because there's such hoops to jump through these days. And of course they're all looking for the big blockbusters, [or] they're looking for a series of different things, so this is a way to network with people, to see what they're doing, and to see books that I wouldn't normally see in a bookshop and I can go, 'actually I really like that'.”

At the end of the day, it's in the human connections born of a shared love of literature where the seeds of literary success are sown. Down at the grass roots, then, the UK Indie Lit Fest offered authors and reader alike some much-needed fertile ground to flourish. 

This article was first posted on Medium, 18 September 2017.