The Canton Book Festival will attract lots of readers, publishers, and local authors to celebrate the value of literature together.
People in Canton will be able to enjoy buying new books and meeting local authors at the book festival next Friday, with a variety of free events.
The Festival aimed at boosting the profile of authors in Cardiff is due to take place at the Chapter Art Centre from 29 November to 1 December.
“Throughout the festival, there’s going to be a Christmas event at Chapter on the same weekend,” said Rosie Johns, the director of Canton Book Festival. “We’ve got a big market and lots of stores and we will have a bookstore all weekend.”
“The standard discount would be three for two, but there may be different offers… Most publishers taking part have at least one published book so we will be selling copies of all the books and their backlists.”
Apart from selling books, Ms Johns said that the main purpose of the festival was raising the profile of local authors and getting people in the community interested in and engaged in literature.
“In print industries, there was a lot worry a few years ago about people just buying e-books because they are cheaper,” said Ms Johns, who previously worked in book marketing for six years.
“But then the sales of print actually rose. So, there is definitely a market for books.”
Then she said the main problem was if people’s expectation was buying books in bookstore chains, such as Waterstone, the choices and types of literature they have would be limited due to the selective genre.
Visiting second-hand bookstores and markets at the festival would be a greater chance to explore diverse works of literature and get to know more local authors.
“There are many literature people might not be aware of. That’s what we’re trying to show in this festival. These local authors from Cardiff are kind of on their doorsteps but they might never hear of them.”
This is the first time Canton has held its own book festival as part of the Christmas event, which will take place at three different places at the same time including Chapter, Canton Library, and St. Canna’s.
There will be a variety of events to make visitors have an opportunity to meet and interact with local authors through the conversation, story sharing and a book launch.
All the events are free but some will require participants to reserve tickets in advance.
“We want this event to be as accessible as possible so if it’s popular and people really enjoy it then absolutely, it would be back next year,” said Ms Johns.
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