Inside of the First Metropolitan United Church Hall, aspiring authors lined up to pitch their products.
“It’s such a great way to engage with other authors, other publishers, people from different genres,” says local author Lesia Kohut.
The Read Locally Book Fair provides the chance for self-published authors and other aspiring writers to showcase their work to the public and potential businesses.
“I’m a writer and I’ve published a lot of books and I know a lot of other independent writers who have self published books, ” says event organizer Edeana Malcolm.
“People have books and there are only so many friends and families that will buy books, so I thought I have trouble, so I thought other people do too, so let’s do this.”
For Kohut, the fair was the first chance to display her book Soul Excavation to the public.
“For me it’s almost like I’m now part of a club that I wasn’t part of before now that I’m a published author and so having that credibility and that visibility, that really is worth its weight in gold and all of that blood, sweat and tears that went into writing the book,” says Kohut.
It’s also helpful for small publishers like Kyle Hawke, who uses events like this to raise awareness of his business and scout for new talent.
“There’s a lot that small presses and authors have in common,” says Hawke.
“We don’t have the platform of big name publishers or anything or the scale, so we have a lot of the same hurdles to face.”
With the success of the event, there are tentative plans to have a similar book fair this fall.
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Cole Sorenson
