Have you got a book in you?
Then come along to our latest inspirational events for writers!
The Leeds Big Bookend is proud to present our Indie Writers’ Fest in partnership with Leeds Trinity University on Saturday 21st February 2015. The day will offer a series of workshops, talks and panels, as well as opportunities to meet and mingle with writers, book-designers and publishers, and browse our pop-up indie bookshop. We’ll have some writing challenges too, so pens and imaginations at the ready!
Bookings open now : http://fortheloveofwords.eventbrite.co.uk
We’re celebrating our love of words with a day full of inspiration and activity alongside input from acclaimed and best-selling self-published authors who will share their journeys with you, to help you build a personal roadmap for indie success.
You can choose to attend in person and participate in full, or follow the conference before, during and after online only with our virtual conference ticket. Discounts for concessions.
We hope this event will be the start of many collaborations and writing adventures. You are warmly invited to join us for our inaugural indie writing event.
Our line-up is subject to change but currently you can expect to see (and hear!):
Tricia Walker started as an indie writer and made a big splash with her first book Benedict’s Brother. It was the second biggest launch in York Borders that year, second only to JK Rowling. That same year she made it onto Publishing News’s Top Ten Books of the Year – the only indie book to feature, and is currently shooting as a feature film in Thailand. Tricia has always had a really clear vision of her book and has a great story to share about the machinations of agents, film finances, conversion of book to scripts and her self-publishing journey.
Ann Victoria Roberts is a best-selling author with experience of both “sides” of the industry – as a mainstream author publishing with Chatto and Windus, and making things happen for herself. She will talk about this and her experience of how a book is produced and how she has taken that knowledge through to her own Indie publishing. Ann was published in the UK and then taken up by the US, Australia and some countries in Europe with her first novel of a series set in Yorkshire, Louisa Elliott. Her latest book, The Masters Tale, is a Titanic ghost story.
Facebook.com/AnnVictoriaRoberts
Dee Blick is a successful author and marketer, raised in Horsforth (Hello Dee’s Mum!), her fourth number 1 bestseller is aptly entitled The Ultimate Guide to Writing and Marketing a Bestselling Book on a Shoestring Budget. She is a multi award winning writer and marketer with 5 awards for her books and 10 marketing awards. Her new book just got into the Bookbag’s Top 10 Self Published Books of 2014. Dee has a wealth of knowledge of epublishing, marketing and writing for market which she shares generously.
Dan Ingram-Brown is a Yorkshire based author and theatre producer involved in a wide range of work, ranging from writing for children to community theatre and contemporary performance. Author of The Firebird Chronicles, Rise of the Shadow Stealers,he has over 15 years’ experience of writing and directing plays and novels, and is chair of The Leeds Big Bookend. He will be running an imaginative workshop for us reflecting his current creative writing project – Stories from the Forests of Leeds.
Martyn Bedford is the author of five novels for adults and two for teenagers and young adults, including Flip (Walker Books, 2011), which was shortlisted for the Costa Book Award. Between them, his books have been translated into fifteen languages. He has also written numerous short stories, several of which have been included in anthologies by the Manchester-based independent publisher Comma Press. He is currently working on a solo collection for Comma. He is a senior lecturer in creative writing at Leeds Trinity University. You can attend his popular workshop – Stepping into Character – as part of the festival. <NEWS FLASH> Martyn’s latest book Never Ending has been shortlisted for the teen section of the James Reckitt Hull Children’s Book Awards 2015, following in the footsteps of Flip in 2012.
Ned Hoste is a York-based designer with extensive experience in design for book publishing including cover design, book design, print buying, project management, publicity, advertising and point-of-sale. He has designed in excess of 100 complete books and 2,500 book covers. He will be running a workshop on how to establish your brand identity as an author, and make all the right impressions. He is co-founder of the Big Ideas Collective, and an all-round nice guy.
Breaking out of the English Department at Trinity University are writing-partnership Paul Hardwick and Amina Alyal who will be setting us this year’s on-the-spot writing challenge. I’ll give you a clue, it’s not haiku. Their first co-authored book is Close as Second Skins and will be published by Indigo Dreams Publishing in the Spring of 2015. Oz Hardwick is a York-based writer, photographer and musician, who has been published extensively worldwide, and has read everywhere from Glastonbury Festival to New York, via countless back rooms of pubs. His latest poetry collection (his fifth) is The Ringmaster’s Apprentice (Valley Press, 2014). Amina has published widely in journals and anthologies and her first collection, The Ordinariness of Parrots, will be out with Stairwell Books in 2015. She specialises in Creative Writing and Renaissance Literature at LTU.
Our conference extends online, and we are hoping to have some special guests create some useful resources for indie authors through our online community – as well as opportunities for you to showcase your own work – so stay tuned!:
You can book online.
TICKET PRICES:
£45 Day pass: includes lunch, all materials, and workshops, all online resources and access to our online community
£30 Concessions: retired, unemployed & students (as above)
£15 Virtual pass: includes all online resources and access to our online community
IF YOU WOULD LIKE A STALL OR TO SELL YOUR BOOK
£10 Pedlars license – with your latest book featured in our pop-up indie bookshop and online – or have a stall of your own.
Pay and book online – it’s easy.