The Lit Fest Newsletter
Digital festivals attract the crowds
Director Peter Florence declared the first weekend of the festival a success with events streamed over 210,00 times and visitors from 63 countries. My brother watched a number of the events and I got him to tell me the viewer numbers. The Wordsworth Gala that had a stellar line-up including Margaret Atwood, Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Fry, Tom Hollander and Vanessa Redgrave was watched by 23k; Jon Sopel on Trump 15k; Adam Rutherford 10.5K and Ottolenghi 8k.
The ten events that Charleston put on (via YouTube) attracted between 491 and 3,500 - with the average around 1,000 - more than double the number that they can fit into their lovely tent.
I am sure there is no turning back: livestreaming is here to stay - reaching all these new people is a good thing (and I am sure sponsors will like the extra numbers). However, it does mean every festival will be competing with each other. Literary Festival culture is wonderfully local - it would be sad if this new era meant that more power was consolidated in the hands of the biggest festivals, slowly edging the smaller ones out.
Making Content That Lasts
One of the challenges of this new digital era is making content that will last longer than the livestream. Can festivals continue putting on ‘one off’ events or do they need to package their offering into series or under themed banners? The value of long lasting content is something that the podcast world knows well. A while back I spent a very enjoyable year as the sidekick to John Mitchinson and Andy Miller on their brilliant Backlisted podcast. They started four years ago and have put out 119 episodes. They currently get 70k listens a month - that is almost a million a year. Half of that 70k is people listening to old episodes. I think it shows how good content can build a really considerable audience over time. They have a very clear and simple proposition—‘giving new life to old books’—the presenters have real expertise, they get great guests and, importantly, the show is really entertaining—an seemingly obvious but not-to-be-overlooked point.
Festival of the Week: The Puffin Festival of Big Dreams
Festivals are not just competing with each other but also with publishers. Puffin have announced a week long online festival from June 8 to 14 to celebrate their 80th birthday. Each event is themed around dreams and the festival is being ‘hosted’ by former Blue Peter presenter Radzi Chinyanganya. The events will be streamed on YouTube and Facebook, there is a very cool downloadable pack, a writing competition with National Book Tokens, Nick Sharrat is illustrator-in-residence and there is a really excellent line-up. It feels properly coherent and thought through. Congratulations to those involved in organising it - they have done a really good job.
News from Elsewhere
It is not just in the UK that festivals are busy re-inventing themselves. The New York times reported on Afrolit Sans Frontieres. . .
“Afrolit Sans Frontieres, a series of hourlong readings and question-and-answer sessions held entirely on Facebook and Instagram, kicked off on March 23 and returned for a second edition in April. A third is scheduled to begin on May 25, to coincide with Africa Day, and a fourth is already in the works. In the face of the pandemic, with countless numbers of book fairs, tours and other literary events canceled or postponed, Afrolit stands out as a gathering where readers—for some sessions, hundreds have logged in—can hear from authors and talk to them about sometimes difficult or taboo subjects.
“The South African writer Zukiswa Wanner, who was inspired to create the festival after watching John Legend’s at-home concert on Instagram, is determined to use this moment to center the work of African writers. ‘It’s like a writing master class and a festival in one,’ Wanner, the award-winning author of nine books, said in a phone interview from Nairobi.”
Whilst in India, the Sunday Guardian reported on a new online festival with 91 events…
“The Book Bakers, a well-known literary agency, is bringing its first ever online literature festival from 6 April onwards. A week-long affair, it will see a gathering of around 600 authors represented by the agency and will be spread across 91 sessions. It will be streamed live on the agency’s Facebook group from 10 a.m. to 9.20 p.m. daily.
“According to Sanjeev Mathur, co-founder of the agency: ‘The idea was to give literature lovers a unique array of compelling sessions and fantastic authors during this period of lockdown, and we are happy with the enthusiasm everyone has shown.’
“The lit fest will see participation from bestselling authors, Bollywood and cricketing celebrities, ISKCON preachers, motivational speakers, paranormal experts, business leaders, armed personnel, leading journalists, political analysts and decorated police officers.”
Luke Wright Q&A
The poet Luke Wright has taken a typically individual approach to the cancellation of his live gigs. He has been performing every night on twitter . . .
How many online events have you run this lockdown or have planned? I do my shows on Twitter, using Periscope. I’m doing them everyday - that saves on promo admin, and keeps the message simple - people know I’ll be there everyday at 8pm. It also adds an element of maschoism to it, which I think the British public enjoy. It also gives me a bit of structure to my day. Last night was gig #57 - so I’m well on the way to my first century. I’ve also taken part in a few other online shows, mostly for charity.
How do you let people know these events were happening? I made an e-flyer and shared via my Instagram, Twitter, and FB feeds, plus my mailing list (about 900 people).
How have you charged for these events? They’re free, but I have a ko-fi button with a minimum donation of £5. People can watch for free if they want but lots of people donate.
What have you learned about organising things this way? What has worked? What hasn’t? It’s all worked pretty well to be honest. I think offering free content with a virtual hat for coins is the best model when you’re doing it so frequently. It’s not a massive chore to do a reading every night and it keeps a little bit of money coming in at a time when I have no other way to earn money. I’d be interested in seeing if I can stream to Twitter, FB and Youtube all in one go, but what with home schooling and writing I don’t really have the time to be arsing around with tech I don’t understand - if anyone can help please get in touch! Otherwise I’m quite content.
Thank you for reading!
That’s it for this newsletter. Please follow us on twitter, add us to your press release list and feel free to get in touch if there is anything you would like us to write about: mathew@bookamp.co.uk. You can get your fellow lit festival colleagues to sign up here.