Event Recording
Members Only
May 3, 2024
What makes a great event for a children’s book? Launch parties, bookstore appearances, off-site events, school visits, and festivals are all wonderful opportunities for authors to reach readers and book buyers, and to connect with other authors on panels and in conversation. In this discussion, we’ll address how authors should approach event organizers and what authors should know about preparing successful, engaging events that move the needle.
Moderated by justin a. reynolds, award-winning author and a book festival founder, this conversation will feature Amy and Maggie from the popular indie store East City Bookshop in Washington, D.C., offering insights and tips for children’s and YA authors of forthcoming books.
Amy Andrews (she/her) joined East City Bookshop as the Children’s Book Buyer in 2023, but has been working in bookselling since 2016. She loves emotionally devastating (but ultimately hopeful) middle grade, young adult, and adult fiction, and is especially passionate about representations of disability in kidlit. In her free time, Amy enjoys musical theatre, crossword puzzles, and playing and watching soccer.
Maggie Parrish (she/her) is a former elementary school teacher and East City Bookshop’s Marketing and Outreach Manager. She loves getting lost in romances where dating apps don’t exist, thrillers with female leads who make it to the epilogue, and heartfelt coming-of-age sagas (especially involving messy 20-somethings). When not reading, she can be found overanalyzing reality shows, begging her friends to attend concerts for bands they haven’t heard of, and making incredibly specific Google sheets to “organize” her life.
justin a. reynolds has always wanted to be a writer. Opposite of Always, his debut YA novel, was an Indies Introduce Top Ten Debut, a School Library Journal Best Book of 2019, translated into 19 languages, is being developed for film by Paramount Players, and was recently adapted into a popular Webtoon. His second YA novel, Early Departures, published to critical acclaim and was a Kirkus Reviews Best of 2020. His Marvel graphic novel debut featuring Brooklyn’s Spider-Man, Miles Morales: Shock Waves, was an ABA Indie Bestseller. justin is also the co-founder of the CLE Reads Book Festival, a Cleveland Book Festival for middle-grade and young adult readers and writers.
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