Leslie and John Norris, owners of Booked on Main, are hosting the first Sumiton BookFest this Saturday, Oct. 14.
Booked on Main is an independent bookstore selling new and used books.
“There was a time when you had to go all the way to Birmingham to buy books,” Leslie Norris said. “I remember that. I don’t know why I didn’t think to open a bookstore sooner.”
The BookFest will feature approximately 40 authors and bookish craft vendors, and will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“We all love the Scholastic Book Fair,” Norris laughed, “and this is like that, for adults.”
“So many people have jumped on board with this. We’ve really been surprised,” Norris said.
Norris hopes that this will be a helpful event both for readers and authors.
“One of the hardest parts of publishing a book, especially independently publishing, is marketing it to readers. Hopefully this will be an event that can help authors find readers.”
Year two is already in the works, Norris said. “We have a lot of plans and ideas. We certainly want this to be an annual thing.”
For Norris, reading and writing are personal loves.
“Once I found what I was interested in reading, I never stopped,” she said.
Norris hopes that people who come to BookFest will find books that inspire them to read.
“Sometimes people think they don’t like to read, but really they just haven’t found a book that’s interesting to them yet,” she said. “People have to find what they want to read. I think people who come to BookFest will find something that interests them — they’ll see a cool cover, or a cool title.”
Norris is also an independent author.
“I write a lot of kid lit, basically,” she said. “I have a young adult novel published under a pen name and several picture books under my real name. I’m also working on some other books right now. I’ll sit down and get back to writing after BookFest.”
Norris expects the BookFest to be a success.
“The Book Fair was always one of my favorite days.”
Below is a list of authors expected to attend BookFest.
