Category: Writing Events
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Arts Festival Reading Brings Rewards
Having been a public speaking instructor for over 20 years, I don’t find the idea of addressing a live audience to be frightening. So when the organizers of the 2026 Columbus Arts Festival offered writers the opportunity to share their work on stage, I quickly applied. The Secrets We Carry: Journal of a Girl in…
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Grove City Book Fair Brings Most-Ever Sales
Book fairs and festivals can be hit or miss. A lot depends on where they are held and who attends them. Last year, I participated in a book fair in Massillon where I didn’t make a single sale. That’s the only time that’s ever happened to me, and it may have been because the fair…
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Bellaire Public Library Holds Author Festival in the Dead of Winter
Each summer for the past twelve years or so, my wife and I have taken children and grandchildren to Oglebay Park near Wheeling for several days of fun and leisure. Shortly before crossing the Ohio River, we pass an exit sign for Route 7 and Bellaire, Ohio. This past Saturday, Bellaire — not Oglebay Park…
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Bookstore Signings Offer New Opportunities for Sales
If you are a not-well-known author (like me), you need to be alert to new venues through which you can promote and sell your books. Book fairs and festivals are perhaps the most common way non-famous authors can get their books sold. I’ve now been to no fewer than 10 book fairs or festivals. But…
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Books Fairs in Logan and Dover Bring Different Results
According to Forrest Gump’s mother, “life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Mrs. Gump could also have been talking about book fairs. You can’t be sure what will happen before you arrive there. Having now been to nine book fairs, I know how different one can be from…
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Book Fairs at Newark and Lithopolis Bring More Sales
The “bold beginning” taken at the launching of The Secrets We Carry: Journal of a Girl in Trouble last month was just that — a beginning. And unless follow-up initiatives occurred in the wake of that beginning, the potential impact of my novel would diminish rapidly. Fortunately, two events have helped me maintain the momentum:…
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“Bold Beginning” Taken with Book Launch
“Be favorable to bold beginnings,” a wise man (Ben Franklin, I think) once said. On May 10, I took a “bold beginning” with the launch of my YA novel, The Secrets We Carry: Journal of a Girl in Trouble. The book had actually been on the market since the end of March, but this “launch”…
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Columbus Book Festival Provides Multiple Outlets for Creativity and Learning
Let’s take a break from rules on capitalization and focus on a recent literary event in central Ohio that apparently made quite an impact. The Columbus Book Festival took place on July 15 and 16 inside the main Columbus Metropolitan Library, and in the plaza and topiary garden east of the library. I have been…
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Canal Town Book Festival Makes for a Good Weekend
Dover is a small town located about 65 miles south of Cleveland along the Tuscarawas River. Once a key point on the Ohio and Erie Canal, Dover hosted the Canal Town Book Festival this past Saturday. I was fortunate enough to be among the 30 authors who were featured at this event, which took place…