YALC 2017 – Round Up, Tips and Tricks
YALC 2017
What an amazing three days YALC has been. Surrounded by my kind of people of the book community for three days straight is definitely needed at least once a year, especially considering Benedict Cumberbatch kept on walking through the YALC floor!
Below is my book/swag haul from the entire weekend, I got my boyfriend to carry most of it…
What is YALC
For those of you who don’t know, YALC is the Young Adult Literary Convention which is put on by the BookTrust and is held at the London Film and Comic Con. There were awesome panels with YA authors, signings, games and of course: BOOKS.
Top Tips for YALC
So most of the tips I made last year still stand:
- Bring bags with wheels, because no matter what you say you will buy ALL OF THE BOOKS (or get given them for FREEEE)
- Bring food and water. The cafe is SUPER expensive and the days are long, you need to stay hydrated!
- BE BRAVE! Authors LOVE their fans. See an author wandering about? Pluck up the courage to say hi! (If they look super busy though maybe hold off for a bit)
- Bring a few books with you that you want signed – I ended up buying duplicates of books I had so I could get the authors to sign them!
- Take the freebies! Don’t be shy, they’re there to get taken!
- On Sunday there are giveaways ALL THE TIME and everything is either drastically reduced or given away for free so keep an eye out!
- HAVE AN AMAZING TIME!
However I wanted to add some new things I learnt this year, especially if you’re after proofs/arcs.
- Plan what you want and have a list. I was SO lucky to stumble across a reddit thread detailing all the publishers and what proofs they had! So I was super prepared and knew who to ask for what.
- Follow all the publishers stalls on twitter and turn notifications on. They will do proof drops and giveaways and people will run to get them. I made a list on twitter (which you should subscribe to if you ever plan on going to YALC) and I was constantly refreshing it all day and checking my notifications.
- Get there early. This is easier said than done, but if you can get in for 9am, do. Then run to all the stalls before anyone has time to form a queue.
- Find out what you’re queuing for. The British love to queue, and YALC is no exception. Wherever there was a queue for more than a few people, others just joined in on the off chance, so make sure it’s actually for something and not just a group of friends having a chat!
- Ask stalls if they have proofs/when they’ll be giving them out. They’ll often tell you a vague-ish time. Set an alarm on your phone for slightly before.
That’s the most of it for now, it definitely helped me over the weekend.
Cumberwatch
What was extra brilliant about YALC this yeas was Benedict Cumberbatch and his constant appearances. He even turned up in the middle of Non Pratt’s head shaving, which was amazing. It even became a twitter moment.
Proofs
I managed to snag a few proofs so thought I’d share with you. I am super excited to get my teeth into these and share my thoughts.
- Everless by Sara Holland
- There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins
- The Hazelwood by Melissa Albert
- The Fandom by Anna Day
- Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings
- Otherworld by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller
- This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada
- Moonrise by Sara Crossan
- The Sacrifice Box by Martin Stewart
- The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven
- The Treatment by C.L. Taylor
- Blackbird by ND Gomes
- Fireblood by Elly Blake
- The Extinction Trials by S.M. Wilson
- The Truth and Lies of Ella Blake by Emily Barr
- Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu
- The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty
- Book of Fire by Michelle Kenney
And a whole host of signed books and early releases, such as The Loneliest Girl in the Universe which I’ve reviewed here and you can enter to win a copy here.
Below is an example of what the publishers do when announcing their proofs, so I reiterate the importance of following them on Twitter and turning notifications on!
I didn’t manage to catch many panels – I was in quite a bit of pain this weekend so was often resting. However here are some of my favourite bits I picked up on twitter:
.@martinjstewart described reading genre fiction (e.g. Pratchett) as being like a “warm hug” compared to literary fiction.
— Rachel M (@montfelisky) July 29, 2017
And now @zenaldehyde is pointing out that non-white authors often get classified as “literary” when genre could equally well apply. #YALC
— Rachel M (@montfelisky) July 29, 2017
Like for example Helen Oyeyemi gets classified as “literary” even when a lot of her work could be equally well labelled as horror. #YALC
— Rachel M (@montfelisky) July 29, 2017
‘I read 3 Discworld books in 3 days and it was like a cuddle’ @martinjstewart on #Pratchett & #genrebending at #YALC
— Harriet Venn (@harrietvenn) July 29, 2017
My goal when I sit down with a book is I want to come away a slightly different person after reading it – @veschwab #YALC pic.twitter.com/fRvA6Rf5a6
— Gollancz (@Gollancz) July 29, 2017
Pictures
What is YALC without pictures? Here are some of the ones I snagged.
Authors and Fairyloot!
Some Stalls
Random other YALC goodness
Thanks for reading! Please subscribe for more bookish scribbles and reviews. Also follow me on Twitter, @jenniely!
11 Comments
Glad you had such a lovely time Jenn xx
This sounds like such a fun time! Glad you enjoyed yourself!
This looked like such a fun festival! Glad you had a good time and scored some awesome books!
It is amazing! Thank you, I’m loving them so far, got me out of my reading slump!
I was already an annoyed mess the days before YALC, during YALC and now.. once again am. I’m so *** at myself for not finding out about it sooner. I’ll probably buy my train tickets and YALC ticket months in advance next year. No way I’m missing out AGAIN, haha!
Yeah definitely do it in advance! And plan what you want from it. I got myself a little stressed trying to get ARCs 🙈
I’ll probably be like that as well, haha. Bringing powerbanks probably won’t be a bad idea either if I’m going to be refreshing Twitter every two minutes.. *Should make a to-bring-list already*
Yes make your list now! I funnily forgot to check my own tips before going and was like oh yeah!
I have an iPhone 7+ and the battery is amazing and didn’t die! But power banks are a must. Also tempted to take my own fold up chair next year haha
Haha, lists are everything when it comes to conventions and events!
My battery is ok, but since I’ll be taking plenty of pictures – knowing myself – and adding Twitter to that.. Powerbanks yay!
I recently bought a little table for my road trip that has four little chairs in it. They’re tiny but weigh close to nothing, so I might take one of them with me, ha.
[And even though my boyfriend is not keen on joining me to YALC at all, he’ll have to. I’m so not dragging everything around myself.]
Which publishers would you recommend following on twitter for YALC? I can’t seem to locate your list of publishers.
I’m so sorry I only just saw this! Did you find it?