2022 Book Fairs - Harrogate

Two book fairs have been arranged for 2022, both in Harrogate. The first will be at the Victoria Shopping Centre on May 14th, featuring Children's and Young Adult books. The second at St Peter's Church is on 29th October, in good time for Christmas. Keep an eye on the blog which will be updated as the planning gets underway. Thank you to Jane Clack for Organising the events.

A Guide to Participating in a Promoting Yorkshire Authors (PYA) Book Fair

PYA supports writers who have a strong connection to Yorkshire and arranges events that help our members improve their work, gain exposure and reach their readership – a Book Fair is one of these activities.

 At a book fair, members are given the opportunity to display and sell their work, gain exposure and promote PYA by collaborating with other writers.

PYA see these events as cooperative, allowing us to be stronger together.

At our book fairs there will be tables categorised by genre and possibly age group rather than favouring an individual author’s work.

This guide is intended for participants – what’s required before the event, on the day and afterwards.

Thank you for participating.

Before the Event

The dates of book fairs will be advertised in advance using one of PYA’s communications channels, our closed Facebook group, our Blog (accessible from the home page of our website) and via the PYA Espresso Newsletter. To cover PYA’s costs, there will usually be a charge for participating and we’ll keep this to as little as is practicable.

 To confirm your place you’ll need to pay the fees due by the date set by the organiser and the fee is usually non-refundable unless an external situation cause the fair to be cancelled.

Bear in mind that you don’t need to attend to be involved in the book fair, provided the organiser has sufficient participants to staff the tables on the day of the event but you’ll need to arrange for your books to be delivered and collected. If this is of interest to you, contact the organiser – places like these are limited.

Also bear in mind that tables will be organised by genre or age group. If you’re manning a table you may well be selling books that are not your own. To cater for this we’ll need each participant to…

 Provide the organiser with a list of books to be sold by you, including title, author name, your name (if not the same as the author), genre, price. If you’re offering a special offer for the day – bring along a flyer no larger than A5 advertising the offer to be included with the book display.

 Prepare a small slip of paper and place it in the title page of each book to be offered, detailing the same information as above. When a book is being sold this slip will be removed to allow us to reconcile payments with books so it’s important that you include it.

To allow member payments to be made afterwards, do provide the organiser with the Bank Account details including name, sort-code and account number where you’d like payments to be made,

The venue for the event plus start and end times will be advertised by the organiser. Ensure that you know how to find the location, where to park, that you can arrive on time and have sufficient free time such that you don’t depart before the end time.

If you’re not attending in person, arrange drop off and collection of your books.

 The organiser will create a rota for the day to ensure that tables are staffed at all times and to allow comfort breaks for participants – do volunteer for the rota. The organiser will also arrange for a PYA branded generic flyer to be available – generic meaning promoting a book fair but not giving a date and time to allow us to reuse flyers at different events. When you’re not manning a table or having a break – do volunteer to distribute flyers to passing shoppers to tell them about the book fair.

At the Event

PYA wants our book fairs to be successful in promoting PYA, giving our members exposure and allowing the sale of books. We can’t do this without the active participation of our members.

 We ask that you arrive at the event in good time and stayfor the whole day – unless you can’t attend in person and have made arrangements with the organiser for your books to be delivered and collected.

Ensure that you know what you’re doing at the event and when you’re doing it – the times that you’ll be staffing a table, your break times and when you’ll be distributing leaflets.

Arrive in good time and bring with you your stock of books – only as many as you think you can sell in boxes to be stored under a table with a few on display – your advertising for special offers and your display stands to allow books to be presented vertically on the table.

Staff the table at the times specified on the rota and try to remain there during your scheduled time – we’ll have a couple of floating organisers who can step in if unscheduled breaks are required.

 Familiarise yourself with the books on your table – especially the genre, age group, story, price and any special offer – smile a lot and be welcoming to anyone who drifts to your table.

W e’ll provide an organiser who will take payments for all books sold either in cash or via debit/credit card – you won’t be expected to deal with the payment process. We’ll reconcile payment with the book owner after the event.

When you’re not manning a table or having a well earned break you’ll be distributing PYA’s A5 book fair flyers to passers by and trying to attract them in by telling them about the event and what’s on offer.

At the end of the day, retrieve your unsold stock and if you can – help the organisers clear up.

Most of all – enjoy the day and try to encourage the sale of as many books as possible – less to carry home – and do try to tell everyone about Promoting Yorkshire Authors, our wonderful group of unselfish people who see the benefit of helping each other.

After the Event

After the book fair we’ll all breathe a sigh of relief and leave reconciliation of payments to the organiser who took payments on the day.

Payments for debit/credit cards are normally paid one working day after the transaction so it will be two working days before payments are made to participants, who’ll be sent a statement detailing books sold and amount to be paid into their account.

Queries are inevitable and can be addressed to the organiser of the book fair.

Thank you for participating.