LitFest 2022
Oakwood Literature Festival celebrates Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022
This year’s festival will be held on 30th April. Venue to be confirmed.
Events for Children
We are planning a full day of children’s events with something for all ages. News will be released over the coming weeks.
Poetry
We aim to include an Open Mic Poetry session. Poets, put the date in your diary and book early once the session is announced.
Platinum Jubilee
We will be hosting a Platinum Jubilee breakfast and a panel will discuss news and events from the papers on June 2nd 1953. The session includes a presentation on ‘Our History Making Queen’, highlighting twenty history making moments from her reign.
Talks & Panels
A full day of author talks and panels to be confirmed
The Rise of the Indie Author (tbc)
This talk will highlight how traditional publishing routes aren’t the only way to get a book published in the modern era.
Workshops
This year we will have a full day of workshops including creative writing, marketing your book and more.
Running the Festival
As you may be aware, Oakwood Literature Festival introduced charges to attend events in 2020. We hope to be running the festival for years to come, and attracting new authors year on year and it’s only right that we pay them for their time. We also want to involve the whole of Oakwood in each festival and are seeking to expand the event in the community. With this in mind, we may add additional talks and workshops throughout the year.
An expanding event incurs more costs and payment will help us to:
- Keep the festival running
- Address issues of declining author earnings
- Provide a high quality event attracting more Oakwood residents
- Market the festival properly
- Hire venues big enough to allow growth
Keeping the Festival Alive
It cost around £3,000 to put on the festival when it was free to enter. These costs were borne by local author, Dawn Brookes, others who kindly contributed, and authors offering their time for free. Whilst some money was recouped through the café, it was not enough to keep the festival going as a free event. Neither is it fair to expect authors and speakers to give their time for free.
Predicted costs for the 2022 festival are around £5,000.
Decline in Author Earnings
You may be surprised to know that many authors earn less than £10,500 per year, falling by 15% in real terms. An All Party Parliamentary Writers Group (APWG) in early 2019 called for action to reverse the decline.
This is not just a problem in the UK that can be blamed on Brexit. It is an international trend.
The APWG called for action to reverse this trend otherwise, they fear that new writers won’t be able to enter the market.
Authors Worth Their Money?
As already stated, we relied on authors giving their time for free and travelling to the event at their own expense. For two years authors did this gladly, but only recouped a small percentage of costs through book sales.
As a committee, we don’t feel comfortable expecting this to continue, and don’t believe it’s fair practice.
In order to continue attracting quality authors from around the country, we now offer them payment for attending subject to ticket sales.
How you can help
We are always looking for sponsors. If you are a local business and would like to get involved, please contact secretary@oakwoodlitfest.com and she will be glad to give you details.
This year we are seeking sponsorship for:
- Sponsor a children’s event as we aim to offer these at lower cost. Each session costs us £150
- Marketing costs – anyone in business knows how expensive it is to advertise
- Printing costs – for leaflets, posters and distribution
- Venue hire
- Food and drink
- Sponsor our website
- Quality prizes for our annual raffle
- Sponsor our writing competition (we aim to offer £100 book vouchers to be used at this year’s festival)
- Photography – if you are a photographer and would be willing to volunteer to take photos at this year’s event, please contact the secretary
- Videographer – to video the sessions throughout the day