Updated Map, Discount Code for Your Readers, Ticket Sales Update, Deadline for Sunday Sign-Ups5/21/2025 What you'll find in this post: Updated Map I need you to check. Code for a discount for your readers that expires at the end of this month. Deadline for the sign-ups for virtual panels, podcast appearances, etc. Hello Friends! First I wanted to let you know that the books have begun arriving at the Bowie Barnes & Noble and they hope to have the display up and filling it as the books come in over Memorial Day Weekend and on. Cardyn and I will run by some time in the near future to take photos to see what all has arrived. Don't forget you can go sign your book! Let them know at information you're there to sign it, then they will put a sticker on it. Don't forget to pick up your book fest tees if you want one, before it's too late! Customized Girl takes a few weeks to ship. BOOK ERAS GRANDE FINALE TEE - BLACK INK BOOK ERAS GRAND FINALE TEE - WHITE INK LINK TO THE STORE TO SEE ALL OTHER TEES   TICKETS & MARKETING We have sold some tickets since last week. We have almost broken 50 sales. In an effort to help out a bit I created a $5 off discount code you can share with all of your readers that expires 5/31. The code is: booklove2025 Here is the ticket link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-write-women-book-fest-2025-tickets-1243638037849?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl Please share the code and link. I have made a graphic below to share to let your readers know about it, one has space to pop your headshot onto it, the other is just ready as-is. Or you can make your own graphic if you know how!   Here is an updated map - I made the text bigger so I had to shuffle things a bit to fit the words. I have put half-tables together in some places that sort of cross over genre areas, but it can't be helped when I have a half table in publishing open but the only other half table is non-fic and so on. Mostly everybody is in the vicinity and close by where they belong, regardless. It's best viewed on a mobile device so you can zoom in. I hope it's all good because my eyes are crossed at this point! LOL!  DEADLINE TO SIGN UP FOR A VIRTUAL PANEL OR PODCAST APPEARANCE IS 5/24 Sunday 7/20 is a hybrid event and runs from 2-4pm with a few panels and a workshop. Please go to the link and fill out your either attendance and/or your participation by this coming Saturday night (5/24) so I can work on getting the marketing and schedule together and finalized on Sunday. This is free to the public at the South Bowie library branch. The featured panel is going to be awesome and the workshop is by the talented and knowledgeable Erin Wright who is an expert in publishing wide. I mean EXPERT. She knows all the tips and tricks. There are 80 slots for that workshop, so if you want to attend it please go over to the Sunday sheet and sign up right now before I start pushing it to the public: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XT33yc6StQg9j7xmdUjiT_6h7L3DUsKehjfPutYxEkE/edit?usp=sharing  We are getting to the last bits of finalizing and everything will be marketing and administrative work from my end. Cardyn and I still have a lot of work to do with swag, bags, notes, flyers, and more, but it's getting there!
Thank you all, Cardyn and I are really looking forward to an amazing Grande Finale, and we're glad you'll be part of that! SOON I will be posting the check-in and author/vendor info for the schedule, parking, check-in time and all of that in a separate post. Best! Heather - and Cardyn too!
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Happy Monday Everybody! Since Sunday changed, the old graphics don't work anymore, so I've made some new ones! Thank you for all the messages of appreciation and support. It's a spoonful of sugar for the medicine. I will be working on a few marketing things tonight beyond what is below. And I wanted to answer some of the questions I've been getting. Thank you to the folks who have been marketing and those who have stepped up marketing. We are trying our best to make the hybrid event nice and worthwhile to make up for it not being the way we envisioned it initially. We may not be able to live up to the letter of what we wanted to do for Sunday, but we are definitely living up to the spirit of it. We have added opportunities for virtual participation in the way of virtual panels and podcast appearances. We hope you'll participate, come to panels, attend the workshop, and have a nice writely day communing with each other. I have not posted yet about when check-in is or the full day's schedule from the author/vendor side. So, don't worry, you didn't miss check-in info yet. I will have a blog post fully dedicated to that you can refer back to easily. The most basic info is that Saturday 7/19 is a signing from 12-5pm at Bowie Comfort Inn and requires and Eventbrite ticket for attendees HERE (share far and wide): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-write-women-book-fest-2025-tickets-1243638037849?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl There will be coffee/tea/light breakfast type pastries and yogurt during load-in. There will be a boxed lunch. There will be an after/goodbye party immediately following the signing event with Golden Angel's keynote address. Also, here is a Facebook Event page you can share if you're a FB person and have a lot of places you can share it on FB. https://www.facebook.com/share/1E8wB9x1NM/ Sunday 7/20 is a hybrid event now and runs from 2-4pm with a few panels and a workshop. This is free to the public and I am about to put up a sign-up sheet tonight on the website for people from the public who want to attend. The library wants me to provide a projected number of attendees. The featured panel is going to be awesome and the workshop is by the talented and knowledgeable Erin Wright who is an expert in publishing wide. I mean EXPERT. She knows all the tips and tricks. There are 80 slots for that workshop, so if you want to attend it please go over to the Sunday sheet and sign up right now before I start pushing it to the public: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XT33yc6StQg9j7xmdUjiT_6h7L3DUsKehjfPutYxEkE/edit?usp=sharing This graphic below will be on the program page soon. Once the virtual panels are full, I will list info about those under Sunday as well.  Here are some graphics you can use for socials and newsletters. I left a big space in the middle of one of them to drop your photo into if you want. Please tag us on Instagram @thewritewomenbookfest and if you want you can tag me on TikTok and IG at @hlbrookswrites and I will share your post as a story. Instagram 4:5      Instagram Square Instagram story or you could use these in a reel or TikTok.      Happy Mother's Day to anybody who celebrates! I'm trying to get this whole post and the new Sunday schedule and sign-ups up before my daughter comes over this evening for a movie and mother-daughter time. She doesn't get off work until 8pm though, so I may actually be able to hit "post" before she gets here. I hope ALL of you are having a nice day because man that weather is lovely! First, thank you SO MUCH to those of you who sent lovely, thoughtful, kind, validating notes to us. It means the world to us. Yes, it was a hard decision, but YES we are so glad we get to spend the last WWBF with you! Cardyn and I are a bit salty that the bad event got so much attention from the press while we keep waving our arms for a little bit of that time! I digress! As you have heard by now, we have moved to the Bowie Library for day two. This means a lot of changes to the in-person schedule, and it means going hybrid. We are sorry to have to adjust your expectations for the change, but it has a lot of advantages. If you want to learn more about the expenses and costs and such scroll down. I know there are a lot of folks who just don't understand how it works, so we will do our best to explain it to those who want the information. Otherwise just hop over to this doc and fill it out as soon as you can so we can get the info sorted and the schedule up. The options have changed, and because we've added virtual it means more panel opportunities, so please have a look as soon as you can. Day two was always planned as a panel and workshop day, all day. We designed the event this way because authors and vendors are tired and keep having to leave their tables to do panels during signings. Our concept was to have the second day as relaxing and talking publishing and connecting. We had planned on coffee & pastries, and a boxed lunch. Due to the shortened in-person schedule because of library hours, and the fact that we eliminated the higher tiered tickets that were meant to pay for day two, we won't be having those things. Our priority was to lower the prices to attract as many readers as possible to your tabling day, feeling that was what was best all the way around. GO SIGN UP AND LOOK OVER THE 7/20 SCHEDULE Please note I wrote this blog, and that schedule in about five hours without anybody to be able to proof it, so if you see a mistake, lemme know. I just want to get it up and out there! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XT33yc6StQg9j7xmdUjiT_6h7L3DUsKehjfPutYxEkE/edit?usp=sharing   For those who want a bit more info on how planning an event like this works for us, here you go.
We have not, until our last blog, talked so publicly about how much work and money it takes to run these events because we don't want anybody to feel bad or like we're trying to curry sympathy or seek out a bunch of accolades. We're both not super comfortable with that, but we absolutely 100% appreciate all of the kind and supportive words that have come in since our last post. We just want to put on a good event and everybody to have a nice time and make you feel like a star. I think maybe it would be helpful moving forward for authors to have an idea how planning these book events work. And it maybe helps resolve any hard feelings you have ever had towards an event that didn't refund you. There is no one way to do this. There are MANY ways to do this, but this is how we do it. We don't charge authors what it costs to run the event in hopes of being more accessible than some other events. We split the cost between authors and ticket-holders while taking on a huge financial risk if the tickets don't sell. Some events mitigate costs by requiring you get a hotel room, that means they can get the venue space for free (again, this varies). We don't do it that way, we know not everybody can afford or needs to stay in a hotel room. Again, accessibility is always on our minds. It's also why we chose a hotel with ample free parking! We have thrived on the faith that if we build it, the readers will come. It's hard every single year to get people to notice us, and it's scary and stressful on a normal year, but this year it's extra hard for obvious reasons. People are afraid to leave their houses, they're afraid to spend money. We have a very inclusive event and because of that it probably has more of an impact on us than some others. The outstanding amount for 2025, if we don't sell the tickets, falls to Cardyn and me to pay. At this point it's a pretty significant amount to us. If we sell all of the 450 tickets at $29, we will gross enough to cover our expenses and pay taxes. We would love to sell as many of those as possible. Please tell your readers, friends, family and co-workers about this beautiful buy small, buy local, DEI event. Some of you did reach out already! Thank you! We are moving ahead with a hard marketing push starting tomorrow. And we will be getting back to those of you who have come up with some marketing ideas. Also, I noticed an uptick in posts about us, including a lovely post from Kait Disney-Leugers, and Calla Claire! Thanks all! THANK YOU FOR FIVE WONDERFUL EVENTS - can't wait to do year six with you! The below is authored by Heather, but comes from both Heather & Cardyn. Hello LOVELY Book Fest Family! We have some really important updates for you, as well as the final list from Barnes & Nobel in terms of the books they will be able to carry for their in-store display. Please remember we have no control over who's books are published in a way that B&N can order them. We don't make any decisions on this. We partner with them to get as many of our author's books on the display as possible. B&N management has been very helpful and accommodating since our first year. That list will be at the end of this post. We know our dream was always to have our books in stores, so we worked towards this to make that a reality for others. Ok, I want to talk about the elephant in the room--the recent unfortunate situation in Baltimore for an event that did not deliver and I want you to know that Cardyn and I always do our very best to live up to every promise we make. That event seemed to go way beyond slow ticket sales and "things happen" into a situation I could only describe as neglectful. Some of the authors at that event will be at our event and Cardyn and I are feeling extra responsible this year to make sure everybody has a nice time and feels seen. It really sucks to have to make some changes to The Write Women Book Fest on the heels of that catastrophe, because we don't want people to be nervous and think things are going to be like that event. So here is an update, some changes, and some very important news. SATURDAY, JULY 19 This day's planning is almost finished. We upped our Children's Room game and the lovely Kim C. Lee came on board for this year to organize that portion of the event. We have some craft takeaways for the kiddos. There will be two balloon arches this year, one similar to the last time and a rainbow one in the kid's room. Live poetry all day with EC Poetry and Prose with Patti "little pi" Ross as the MC as we have had every year. And we have more authors this year than ever! WOO HOO! Full transparency - ticket sales are slow. This current economic environment we are in has people holding tight to their dollars. We decided to do away with the tiered tickets for a few reasons, and this was one of them. We kept the lowest tier ticket, which is at $29 (plus Eventbrite fee) in the hopes that it would mean generating more ticket sales. We will keep you posted. This falls under the "out of our control" category. I did do some ads and boosts over a month ago, but they didn't get much traction. I will be doing heavy social media and newsletter blasting starting right after Mother's Day. Anybody that can do the same, much appreciated. Other than the slow ticket sales, everything is going great. We have plenty of volunteers this year - the first year we've really had enough sign up. We've got the event manager booked, and we have about ten influencers this year! We recommend if you're on Instagram that you look for their highlights on our account and follow them. We have several hundred free books to giveaway for the "scavenger hunt." We've got some raffle baskets for I Support the Girls, and overall things look good. SUNDAY, JULY 20 We have made the decision to move day two of the book fest, Sunday, July 20th, to the South Bowie Library. This was not my original vision of a two-day event at the hotel, but we believe it's actually an improvement. With slow ticket sales our priorities are two-fold, 1 - To keep the tabling day completely intact so authors could meet new readers and SELL BOOKS. 2 - To make the decision early enough that people could change their hotel bookings, or other plans if they needed to without incurring any cancelation penalties. It's actually a better situation for us and for the library, which WE LOVE. The more we do at the library, the more they can show need, which in this climate is important. This is great for all of us. The schedule will look different due to the difference in hours the library is open, and the size of it, and the fact that entry must be free, so we're going to figure out a hybrid situation for Sunday that means everybody gets some kind of highlight/spotlight, if not on Sunday at the library, then in virtual panels, blog interviews, on Erin's podcast or on our podcast (Heather & Cardyn's) The Bitchy Quill. The updated schedule, sign-up options, and information will be coming soon. WE ARE GRATEFUL IMPORTANT NEWS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF TWWBF We want thank you all for being a part of our event. Some of you have been with us since the first year and have come back time and again, and I can't tell you how proud that makes us. To know you put so much trust and good energy into us and our little event that could. It's grown from hard work, love, and the joy of reading and writing books we all share. For those of you who don't know, I started The Write Women Book Fest in 2019 when I couldn't find a woman-centered diverse event to participate with as an author. The first year was so great! Better than we expected. Then 2020 threw us a curve ball, but not wanting to lose momentum Cardyn and I worked on a virtual option. Then the next year was hybrid. Then the year after that was hybrid. Then in 2023 I felt we'd grown so much and were also pushing our luck at another year outdoors. When I tell you I got hives every time we set the date because I was worried people would make a bunch of plans and it would be cancelled due to rain, I'm not exaggerating. We moved inside to the Comfort Inn for the first day of the event. It turns out it poured that day, so we were grateful we made that call! We would have been rained out! We have pivoted, shuffled, fox-trotted, and pirouetted our way for six years through so many challenges, with the help of some amazing authors, vendors and volunteers. With all of that said, Cardyn and I have made the decision that this will be our Grande Finale. Honestly, I did cry. Cardyn let me talk for almost three hours straight at her on Zoom about it, bless her. It was a hard decision, but we think it's the right one. This will be a final celebration of six years of the book fest, ending our curtain call on a high note. And while we made this decision about three weeks ago, and finalized it two weeks ago, the disaster that was the Million Lives book event has been hard for me to watch and casts a pall on all book events. Disappointing people scares the hell out of me and the bigger this event gets, the more risks are involved. Cardyn and I have always tried to be respectful, helpful, and resourceful in our efforts, we hope you all can see that. I know there will be questions as to all of the whys, so here are some of the main reasons besides those already alluded to: We still have to fight every year to get people to notice us. Flyers, boosts, ads, postcards, social media, newsletters, we've done it all. Cardyn has spent time reaching out to local council members, the lieutenant governor, local papers, radio, tv--all six years, and nobody has taken her up on a visit to our event. That starts to feel ... erm ... not great. Finding sponsors is hard and a lot of work. It would be one thing if our team was bigger and there was a dedicated sponsors person who could spend time looking for a lot of sponsors, but that just has not worked out. The economic climate in our area is bleak. People are not feeling celebratory. I would say a lot of people are even scared and stressed--me included. When you've got this much job loss and economic instability, people don't feel free to spend money on extras. Cardyn and I are on the hook personally for any financial shortfalls if tickets and sponsorships don't cover the remaining costs. Neither of us are feeling like taking that risk on for a seventh year. In addition to that, we are still a small team with most of the administrative work on me. Back in October I had to start working a lot more hours for my day job. I don't have the same amount of time to dedicate as I did before, AND it's taking more time than ever to organize this event because of how much it has grown. Plus each year new expenses are added on. The to-do list has gotten so long I ignore my own writing and sometimes housework just to keep up with the administrative tasks of the book fest that lay mostly on my shoulders. Cardyn also has a lot on her shoulders as well. If it wasn't for her outreach efforts we would not have partnered as quickly with the library! Also, she's just generally an amazing, balancing force full of good ideas who does most of the thank-you gifts, media outreach, ambassadorship, and a lot of "Heather calming" duties. In short, we are tired and there is too much uncertainty, too much work, and too much stress. We are in good company though. A very large book fest, Book Bonanza, which was organized by the well known author Colleen Hoover and was attended by some BIG name authors, tapped out after seven years (2024 was their last year) for some of the same reasons we are. They had a large team, and a lot more money to work with, but still found it too difficult to do the way they wanted to. Knowing that made us feel less alone in our decision. I also was told that HEA Reader Event is having its last year, too. Venues are expensive. It's a lot of work. And you don't want to be the person who ruins somebody's fun day. So we are going to have a fun, celebratory, amazing last Write Women Book Fest and be glad we got to have this experience with you. One last thing. We aren't completely shutting the door. We will be getting back to our roots and back to Marietta to help them organize a very small (20 authors), free-to-attend, PG Parks funded book fair in 2026. Our goal has always been to amplify the voices of women and marginalized authors in an accessible way, and this is a way we can serve that mission in a more sustainable, less labor-intensive, and less risky way. OH! I almost forgot! Because Cardyn talked to Bowie South Library about Sunday 7/20, they offered for us to host other events if we like. We don't know if we will, but it's nice to know we can. As I said, we will be doing a big marketing push to make sure every booklover we can find can come find you at TWWBF2025 and maybe make you their favorite "auto-buy" author. If there is a person with $29 for a ticket, that loves books and lives in the DMV we are going to find them! We are so thankful for all of your kind words over the years. Let's not be sad! Let's celebrate! LOVE! Heather & Cardyn B&N SHEET BELOW You should be able to save the below graphic and look at it closer. The writing is tiny. Please note, do not despair if you are not eligible. You've learned something! They've put notes in there telling you why they can't order your book. Mostly books that didn't make it are non-returnable. You've learned that B&N can't carry your book the way it is published, which means you can work on fixing that. Also of note, B&N has had a number of small author events. They've always been nice and cooperative with us. If you don't know what to do next you could either consult a publishing pro about what you're doing wrong, or you can reach out to B&N through their website.  UPDATE 6:51PM 5/4 - I AM ADDING THE ADJUSTED MAP BELOW AFTER FEEDBACK I GOT TODAY! THANKS! Just to clarify, changes to the map are for errors only at this point. If we've made a mistake please let us know. I think we've got it all sorted. The map and some info about the event is now on the 2025 PROGRAM page! I will continue to update that page as info becomes finalized. _______________________________________________________________ HELLO TWWBF FAM! Thank you for hopping over to check out this blog post. Today's update is the latest map. Thank you to those who sent me their corrections. As always, mistakes are not meant as disrespect. We value each and every one of you. Before we hop down to the map I want to let you know that we should have Barnes & Noble's final list this week and I will be posting it on the blog here when I get it. The deadline to apply for that has long passed, and B&N makes the decisions on that based on the books they are able to order through their system. We simply partner with them to help enable any of our authors who ARE able to be carried in a B&N will get at least one of their books on the display. It's hard to get your book in a B&N brick and mortar and it's a dream many of us have, so we have done all we are able to try and make that happen for authors. Please look over the previous couple of blog entries if you've not had the chance, everything you need to be aware of is in there! Don't forget we have these fun tees to show your TWWBF pride! They take a few weeks to arrive. They come in a variety of styles, colors, and sizes. https://www.customizedgirl.com/s/thewritewomen  Please share the Eventbrite link that emphasizes the Saturday signing. We want you to sell lots of books! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-write-women-book-fest-2025-tickets-1243638037849?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl Please share this flyer in the teacher lounge, in the work breakroom, with the parents at your kid's drama club or sports team meet, at the grocery store, and with your book-loving friends. It's two per page to make it extra easy and economical. Plus it's an opportunity to let folks in your life know you're an author or small business, if you want that. Cut it in half and share please! Did you know that PGCMLS allows for ten free copies per day? Below is the jpg, I recommend the downloadable pdf, though, just beneath the jpg.  
OK - now the MAP! THE MAP! After a few fixes (thank you to those who sent in your corrections), this is what we have. Do you see an issue? Let me know as soon as you can at [email protected]. This is the "final" map if there are no changes. Please keep in mind this map can change at the last minute because unexpected things happen sometimes!  One year the tent folks set our big tent up the day before about 20 feet away from where I had mapped it, which kind of made the set-up not match the map. People sometimes have last minute emergencies and can't come and we might alter things a bit. I've learned this is just how things work when you have so many components out of your control. Fortunately we have lovely authors and vendors who are good at managing a few changes and we ALWAYS try to communicate with you to keep things running smoothly. How about let's just imagine this is how it's going to look and we'll all manifest a lovely, un-problematic event together celebrating women and marginalized authors and BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS!    As always, we are looking forward to seeing you!
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