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Revision as of 13:44, 3 March 2018
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|title= Jim Dean Talks To Bookbag About The UK's First Ever YA Literature Convention
|summary=The weekend of Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th July saw the UK's first ever YA Literature Convention, held as part of the established London Film and Comic Con. Curated by Malorie Blackman, Children's Laureate and author of many of our favourite books, including [[Noble Conflict by Malorie Blackman|Noble Conflict]], and organised with the help of Booktrust, LFCC organisers Showmasters, and many of the top YA publishers around, the event, held in Earls' Court 2, was a staggering success.
|date=14 July 2014
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385610424</amazonuk>
There were also plenty of opportunities to get books signed by authors (and I have to say that, looking at the prices being paid for autographs from guests at the main part of LFCC, it was great that they were free at YALC!) although I was so busy and slightly overwhelmed by the amount of people I wanted to talk to that I didn't take the chance to do so myself. Lots of my friends did, though, and were thrilled to get books signed and have photos taken with authors. I know the Rainbow Rowell queue was so massive that it had to be closed, and I believe [[:Category:Marcus Sedgwick|Marcus Sedgwick]] was unable to sign due to illness; I think signings for the other 50 or so authors went really smoothly, though - an impressive success rate!
Lots of publishers had stalls with swag to be grabbed, and many were selling discounted books while Waterstones seemed to be doing a roaring trade - in unsurprisingly as they had some cases ones amazing books which aren't on general release are yetto be released in the UK! Hachette Books They had [[:Category:Robert Muchamore|Robert Muchamore's]] upcoming ''CHERUB: Lone Wolf'' , from the fabulous Hachette Children's Books a few weeks early, the paperback of along with ''I Am The MissionMemory Keepers'' by Allen ZadoffNatasha Ngan from Hot Key. Most excitingly for me, and Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston's ''Frozen ''nearly three months before its UK releasefrom Usborne, while Waterstones had were also stocking Holly Bourne's ''Manifesto On How To Be Interesting'', which I grabbed as I'm a huge fan of her debut ''Soulmates''. Even more impressively, Meanwhile Hot Key were selling books themselves, and had two hotly anticipated sequels - , ''An English Boy in New York'', follow-up to TS Easton's staggeringly funny [[Boys Don't Knit by T S Easton|Boys Don't Knit]], and ''Vivian Versus America'', Katie Coyle's second novel about Vivian, as well as Natasha Nganwhile Hachette's new stand-alone fabulous Books With Bite team were selling their own books, including the yet to be released ''The Memory KeepersMission'' by Allen Zadoff and Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston's ''Frozen'' nearly three months before it gets to bookshops in the UK! As an added bonus, both these publishers were giving gorgeous tote bags away with purchases. Hot Key also ran a book swap which was fantastic, starting off with a great selection of their own books which people could swap for anything they wanted. I grabbed some amazing books at various points, including ''Prisoner of Night and Fog'' by Anne Blankman, and was able to clear some space by giving them slightly more than I took away. Sadly, the space didn't last as YALC ended with a Great Book Giveaway to hand out books from the massive book wall which had been much admired, and I may have got talked into queueing several times... well worth it to come away with Raymond E Feist's ''The Magician'', Elizabeth May's The Falconer, and [[:Category:Tanya Landman|Tanya Landman's]] Buffalo Soldier, as well as spares of books from two of my favourite series to share the love with friends, [[I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls) by Ally Carter]] and [[Flora in Love: The Diaries of Bluebell Gadsby by Natasha Farrant]].
As great as the panels were, and as valuable as I found the workshops despite the issues, I think my favourite part of the weekend was simply the amount of YA fans in one place. I managed to get introduced to [[:Category:Lucy Ivison|Lucy Ivison]] who signed my copy of [[Lobsters by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison|Lobsters]], and talk to dozens of other YA authors and even more bloggers, some of whom are old friends and others who I met for the first - but hopefully not the last - time. It was also superb to see the event get mainstream media coverage with a really positive article from Martin Chilton in the Telegraph and brilliant build-up to it from the Guardian in the days prior to the convention.
A huge thank you to Malorie Blackman for curating and to the committee - Jenny Hayes of Egmont, Hot Key's Rosi Crawley, Little, Brown's Steph-Elise Melrose, Macmillan's Kat McKenna, Katherine Woodfine of Booktrust, Harriet Venn from Random House, Nina Douglas of Orion, Paul Black of Walker - for their amazing organisation of the event, Showmasters - especially Gemma and Taran, Mike and Lauren from Waterstones and Claire Shanahan from Booktrust - and, of course, to all the incredibly hard-working publicists who made the event so enjoyable!
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[[Category:Reviewed by Robert James]]
