YALC – Day one!

After an action-packed day, the 2024 Young Adult Literature Convention (YALC) is officially halfway over! It’s been a lovely, welcoming experience. Having people come over because they’d heard about Venom and Blaze was incredible.

Getting to YALC

My day started at 6am, even though I’d laid out all my items the night before and was fully prepped. I caught the train from where I was staying to Earls Court, where it was simple and easy to catch a direct train to Kensington Olympia.

I arrived early, so the train was quiet. However, the queue for YALC was much longer than I expected. I had done my research beforehand and most of what I heard and read suggested it wasn’t a long wait. Based on my experience, I’d recommend getting there around half an hour early.

Immediately after getting inside, I opened my bag up for a quick search. This took around five minutes and then I joined the large queue for YALC.

London Comicon is held in the same area. There are two different queues for YALC and Comicon, as each has a different entrance. YALC is held upstairs.

The #InspiringIndies zone

Our #InspiringIndies zone is located in a large corner space, near the author signing zones. My books are on sale there, and it was lovely to meet and sign several copies for readers.

Later in the afternoon, I had my own stand.

Because spiders are a common theme in the book, I sourced an enormous curtain of cobwebs and some plastic spiders. As YALC is quite soon after Hallowe’en, these were easy to get hold of.

My stand included:

• free bookmarks! I have bookmarks for the first three books in the series and it was lovely to give these away to anyone who wanted them.
• free stickers! I had some stickers made up especially to commemorate my appearance at YALC.
• a trailer showcasing my YA series, The Mirrordom Legends, introducing the first book in the series and letting people know how they can win themselves a copy of Fable and Legend when it comes out in December.
• flyers
• the books themselves! My handwriting got progressively worse as the day wore on, but I signed and personalised several copies of Venom and Blaze and it was so lovely to meet and chat with YA readers.

Along with the other indie authors in the zone, we also had our own panel where we discussed all things indie. Chaired by Helen of LiterallyPR, we explored topics like marketing yourself, earning money from being an indie author and our top tips and advice for other aspiring authors.

Missed it? Come and see us tomorrow (Sunday 17 November) at 16:00, as we’ll be holding a second panel.

YALC – as a reader

I was a YA reader before I was an author, so going through the various stands and zones was very exciting. I found so much in the way of lovely merch to keep as souvenirs and books on my TBR that I couldn’t turn down the chance to buy. Whilst I was very good today and limited myself to two purchases, I will be doing the rounds again tomorrow when I have slightly more time to spare (I won’t be having a stall tomorrow) and I’m sure my bank balance is already cowering in dismay.

The venue shuts down at 18:00 and that was when I dismantled my stand and went back to my hotel for a well-earned rest.

Heading to YALC tomorrow? Come and find me. I’ll be periodically popping in to the #InspiringIndies zone where I’ll be signing the remainder of my books.