Sep. 8th, 2023 at 8:00 AM
Speaking at a book festival: 10 Top Packing Tips
So you're an author, or an illustrator, or a translator, or possibly something else, and you've had your book published. A festival or a school wants you to come present your book on stage! You're rushing around packing, and you wonder if there's anything you really ought to know, or a checklist you can look at before you head out the door. I've been doing book-related events for about twenty years, so I've picked up a few tips to share!
When people see what I wear at book festivals, occasionally they remark, 'Wow, you must have a BIG suitcase!'. Which is true, and most authors do not wear big hats and frocks. Perhaps you travel light, you go for simplicity, maybe your shtick is a classic beatnik black turtleneck and jeans. When people say, 'Just dress for comfort', this is only partly true: you also want to make an impression, sell books, meet people, be remembered. But you also don't want to be sabotaged so badly by your clothing that you can't put on a good show! It's a fine balance, and if you're anything like me, you'll often get it wrong. I could write a whole other blog on wardrobe malfunctions.
But one thing worth keeping in mind, particularly if you're appearing on a traditional theatre or big stage: they may have a black background, and if you're also wearing solid black, you may look chic at the book signing afterward, but on stage, you're a floating head. A bit of contrasting colour could be your friend.
You won't need all the items I mention in this checklist, but it might be worth noting them, just in case:
1. Don't forget the essentials. I recall one year, racing around getting some quite complicated prop items ready for Edinburgh Book Festival, but forgetting to pack... pants and a toothbrush. (Do you know how hard it is to find those items on the Royal Mile on a Friday night?)
2. Signing pens. Your hosts will probably provide some pens (possibly Sharpies), but if you have special pens you like using, it's worth bringing several along. Ideally something with quick-drying ink, particularly if you're signing semi-shiny picture book pages.
3. Black thread. Many events with good tech will have hands-free headset microphones. But these come with a little battery pack that needs to attach somewhere on your person. If you have a belt or a sash on your dress, the hook can slip neatly over that. But if you don't, you may end up having to ask some poor technician to hang it off the back of your bra, which makes an unpleasant-looking bump at your back. (One tech guy told me that many of the stars get pockets sewn into their Spanx for this purpose!) If you carry a bobbin of black thread, you won't have to worry about this because, in a pinch, you can tie it around your waist (maybe go twice around, for strength), hang the mic pack off that, and it will be almost invisible over your dress.
4. Spare clicker. Most hosts will provide you with a clicker to advance slides in an on-screen (usually Powerpoint) presentation. But not everyone will have them, or the batteries won't be working because the last person who used it left it switched on. The worst-case scenario is when they assign a teacher or a child to advance slides for you, and that person isn't very attentive, which means a lot of the focus of your event is on changing slides, when really, you want to be focusing on your audience. Buy your own clicker, a spare set of batteries, and keep it quietly in your Event Utility Bag, just in case it's needed. It has a little USB stick that slips out of the bottom and will plug into most computers, and doesn't needed your host to download any software or drivers to make it work. They cost about £25 and are well worth it, especially if you remember to reclaim it at the end of your event.
5. Events Utility Bag. Besides the clicker, mine contains breath mints (stressy coffee breath is NOT attractive!), paracetemol, plasters, hankerchief, spare flipchart markers. Possibly carry a pack of Post-it notes; your host should provide these, but if you're doing a school signing, it's SO helpful to have someone in the signing queue taking names and sticking them to books; then you can spend the time with each child chatting with them in a friendly way, not trying to work out the spelling of their name as they slowly and painfully spell it out to you phonetically, possibly with very heavily accented vowels. You should probably have a backup of your Powerpoint on a USB stick, too; hopefully you'll have sent it in advance, but occasionally presentations get lost.
6. Spare Flipchart Markers: Let me just pick up on markers again: especially if you're an illustrator, and much of your event is based around drawing, you NEED these to work. I specify that I want a new pack of markers, but sometimes a teacher will have a quick run-around the school for whatever they can find; the too-thin markers in random colours will work for the first few test marks, but run out immediately after. Or they'll be dry-erase markers and not good on paper. Best to have some working markers in your bag. But don't use them unless you have to; most likely you very much need to make money from doing this event, and if you spend a lot of your fee on markers, that can cut badly into your budget. Your host should be able to provide these.
7. Travel in something that, if you had to, you could wear on stage. Sometimes bags goes missing. Maybe you can brave it out: I remember Mel Giedroyc leaving her nice jacket and shoes on a train on the way to host an award ceremony. And she was so clever, she turned it into a running joke, which both explained why she was dressed in casual clothing AND kept us wildly entertained. But I at least try to have something in my carry-on bag that I could wear, in a pinch.
8. Your featured book. Usually there will be LOADS of your books at the event: after all, it's a book event. But on a rare occasion, you won't be able to get to the book table in time to borrow one. Or, on one of my trips to Wigtown on the wettest day in recorded Scottish history, the roads were flooded and the delivery person couldn't get any of my books to the bookshop. It was supposed to be an event about Morris the Mankiest Monster, but we just sat around and did a general monster-drawing workshop because there was no book to read from or look at. Bring at least one copy. You might even want to mark it, if you're doing a live reading. It's nice to have it on display on stage; people are far more likely to buy it if they've spent 50 minutes looking at it. Also, it can be a handy gift for someone at the end of your trip.
9. A printed itinerary. If your phone runs out of power, you don't want to lose all your timings and contacts. And often it's easier to look at a piece of paper than have to track down a long series of emails. I use mine to set up events from the start, so everything's on one sheet of paper: names, contact details, timings, bookseller, who's giving me a lift from A to B, travel and accommodation details. It's also a handy place to have your event setup requirements listed, so the host can see it as you both refer to this one-stop-shop document.
10. Spare specs. Oh my goodness, if I broke my glasses, I would be BLIND! I couldn't even get to my event, much less do it. You might have some object like this: bring a spare, don't leave it to chance!!
And of course, all the other stuff: power cable, sunscreen (I got so burned once in Thurso on a lunch break between school events!), wallet, tickets, passport, etc. If you're going abroad and you're British, you might even want to pack a few teabags and slippers for the evening when you're utterly exhausted. Don't feel bad if you're very tired the next day, too. Sometimes I even get tired a day in advance, knowing how much energy I'll need for a trip. Be good to yourself afterward, have a rest if you can!
When people see what I wear at book festivals, occasionally they remark, 'Wow, you must have a BIG suitcase!'. Which is true, and most authors do not wear big hats and frocks. Perhaps you travel light, you go for simplicity, maybe your shtick is a classic beatnik black turtleneck and jeans. When people say, 'Just dress for comfort', this is only partly true: you also want to make an impression, sell books, meet people, be remembered. But you also don't want to be sabotaged so badly by your clothing that you can't put on a good show! It's a fine balance, and if you're anything like me, you'll often get it wrong. I could write a whole other blog on wardrobe malfunctions.
But one thing worth keeping in mind, particularly if you're appearing on a traditional theatre or big stage: they may have a black background, and if you're also wearing solid black, you may look chic at the book signing afterward, but on stage, you're a floating head. A bit of contrasting colour could be your friend.
You won't need all the items I mention in this checklist, but it might be worth noting them, just in case:
1. Don't forget the essentials. I recall one year, racing around getting some quite complicated prop items ready for Edinburgh Book Festival, but forgetting to pack... pants and a toothbrush. (Do you know how hard it is to find those items on the Royal Mile on a Friday night?)
2. Signing pens. Your hosts will probably provide some pens (possibly Sharpies), but if you have special pens you like using, it's worth bringing several along. Ideally something with quick-drying ink, particularly if you're signing semi-shiny picture book pages.
3. Black thread. Many events with good tech will have hands-free headset microphones. But these come with a little battery pack that needs to attach somewhere on your person. If you have a belt or a sash on your dress, the hook can slip neatly over that. But if you don't, you may end up having to ask some poor technician to hang it off the back of your bra, which makes an unpleasant-looking bump at your back. (One tech guy told me that many of the stars get pockets sewn into their Spanx for this purpose!) If you carry a bobbin of black thread, you won't have to worry about this because, in a pinch, you can tie it around your waist (maybe go twice around, for strength), hang the mic pack off that, and it will be almost invisible over your dress.
4. Spare clicker. Most hosts will provide you with a clicker to advance slides in an on-screen (usually Powerpoint) presentation. But not everyone will have them, or the batteries won't be working because the last person who used it left it switched on. The worst-case scenario is when they assign a teacher or a child to advance slides for you, and that person isn't very attentive, which means a lot of the focus of your event is on changing slides, when really, you want to be focusing on your audience. Buy your own clicker, a spare set of batteries, and keep it quietly in your Event Utility Bag, just in case it's needed. It has a little USB stick that slips out of the bottom and will plug into most computers, and doesn't needed your host to download any software or drivers to make it work. They cost about £25 and are well worth it, especially if you remember to reclaim it at the end of your event.
5. Events Utility Bag. Besides the clicker, mine contains breath mints (stressy coffee breath is NOT attractive!), paracetemol, plasters, hankerchief, spare flipchart markers. Possibly carry a pack of Post-it notes; your host should provide these, but if you're doing a school signing, it's SO helpful to have someone in the signing queue taking names and sticking them to books; then you can spend the time with each child chatting with them in a friendly way, not trying to work out the spelling of their name as they slowly and painfully spell it out to you phonetically, possibly with very heavily accented vowels. You should probably have a backup of your Powerpoint on a USB stick, too; hopefully you'll have sent it in advance, but occasionally presentations get lost.
6. Spare Flipchart Markers: Let me just pick up on markers again: especially if you're an illustrator, and much of your event is based around drawing, you NEED these to work. I specify that I want a new pack of markers, but sometimes a teacher will have a quick run-around the school for whatever they can find; the too-thin markers in random colours will work for the first few test marks, but run out immediately after. Or they'll be dry-erase markers and not good on paper. Best to have some working markers in your bag. But don't use them unless you have to; most likely you very much need to make money from doing this event, and if you spend a lot of your fee on markers, that can cut badly into your budget. Your host should be able to provide these.
7. Travel in something that, if you had to, you could wear on stage. Sometimes bags goes missing. Maybe you can brave it out: I remember Mel Giedroyc leaving her nice jacket and shoes on a train on the way to host an award ceremony. And she was so clever, she turned it into a running joke, which both explained why she was dressed in casual clothing AND kept us wildly entertained. But I at least try to have something in my carry-on bag that I could wear, in a pinch.
8. Your featured book. Usually there will be LOADS of your books at the event: after all, it's a book event. But on a rare occasion, you won't be able to get to the book table in time to borrow one. Or, on one of my trips to Wigtown on the wettest day in recorded Scottish history, the roads were flooded and the delivery person couldn't get any of my books to the bookshop. It was supposed to be an event about Morris the Mankiest Monster, but we just sat around and did a general monster-drawing workshop because there was no book to read from or look at. Bring at least one copy. You might even want to mark it, if you're doing a live reading. It's nice to have it on display on stage; people are far more likely to buy it if they've spent 50 minutes looking at it. Also, it can be a handy gift for someone at the end of your trip.
9. A printed itinerary. If your phone runs out of power, you don't want to lose all your timings and contacts. And often it's easier to look at a piece of paper than have to track down a long series of emails. I use mine to set up events from the start, so everything's on one sheet of paper: names, contact details, timings, bookseller, who's giving me a lift from A to B, travel and accommodation details. It's also a handy place to have your event setup requirements listed, so the host can see it as you both refer to this one-stop-shop document.
10. Spare specs. Oh my goodness, if I broke my glasses, I would be BLIND! I couldn't even get to my event, much less do it. You might have some object like this: bring a spare, don't leave it to chance!!
And of course, all the other stuff: power cable, sunscreen (I got so burned once in Thurso on a lunch break between school events!), wallet, tickets, passport, etc. If you're going abroad and you're British, you might even want to pack a few teabags and slippers for the evening when you're utterly exhausted. Don't feel bad if you're very tired the next day, too. Sometimes I even get tired a day in advance, knowing how much energy I'll need for a trip. Be good to yourself afterward, have a rest if you can!