Surviving A Book Convention: Tips & Tricks

How To Survive YALC 2016!

I have attended YALC for the last two years and am so excited to be attending again this year. For anyone who doesn't know, and has clearly been living under a rock, YALC is the UKs first ever YA literary convention. AND IT WAS AWESOME! I love every single second of it, despite the sweating and the queuing and how my money disappears from my account quicker than I can blink. It's an amazing day, but I learnt a lot after my first year there and definitely did things differently on the second year. So I am here to share my tips with you guys!

1. Be Prepared For Endless Queuing 

No one likes queuing, it's just a known fact. So you need to know that you will spend a lot of your day queuing. You will queue for EVERYTHING! You will queue for a long time to get in, then you'll queue to get tickers to events, then queue to get your books signed. Not to mention that you will queue for the toilet and for food too, where you will be charged an extortionate amount. So make sure you either have someone with you to keep you entertained, or bring something with you to keep you entertained whilst you queue. And maybe learn to sit randomly on the floor like a weirdo, because otherwise your legs will ache like crazy by the end of the day.

My Weekly Recap: YALC Edition

The last week has been very hectic because I spent three days attending YALC, which was crazy and wonderful, and totally wiped out my bank balance!!! YALC is the UKs first Young Adult Literary Convention and it is amazing and I will be sure to attend every year they do it. It's filled with amazing panels, great workshops and more authors than I can name, who all signed their books whilst there.

I attended all three days. Friday is where I had to bring the most books with me, then ended up buying the most books whilst there. Getting it all home was hard as hell and I really struggled. I attended some great panels that day and had my books signed by some of my favourite authors. You can read my recap of that day here/

Saturday didn't go as well because I was so exhausted after the day before. I lasted about 2 hours and then decided to go home. I did pick up all the Harry Potter POP! Vinyls though, so it was worth it. I then went home and got some much needed sleep, as I had to be up again at 5am the following day. Sunday was much more successful, as I had finally got a decent nights sleep. I went to two workshops, which I will do individual posts on. I went to a few of the panels, and then I managed to get all the books signed that I had planned to. A SUCCESSFUL DAY!!!

Then I had only two days to recover from my YALC filled weekend until it was time to return to work. It was not fun! I work in a college library now and it is far too quiet right now as it's the summer holidays, and I will be working by my own. I might end up going a little bit crazy, which is worrying. I hope to get some reading done starting from next week, right now I am piled under with trying to write up posts, be a social human being for once (doesn't go well for me!) and see family.

YALC Recap: Friday

The second Young Adult Literary Convention (YALC) took place on the 17th, 18th and 19th July, as part of the London Film and Comic Con. I attended last year and had such an amazing time, I knew I would have to go again this year. I bought my YALC tickets as soon as the announcement was made, and then spent months and months impatiently waiting for July to roll around. 

All the books I took with me
over the 3 days to get signed.

The preparation for YALC actually started way before the event even took place. It started with me ordering the books I wanted to get signed, but didn't already own, in advance before I attended YALC. This was to save me money and also to curb my spending over the weekend while I was there (HAHAHAHAHA!!! Yeah, that did not work!) And then I had to look at the schedules for all the days and decide on what signing, workshops and talks I wanted to attend - it's impossible to do everything, so you have to plan in advance. Then the night before, which just so happened to be my birthday, was when I packed up my suitcase filled with books, got my packed lunch ready and got everything charged and ready to go for the morning.

How To Survive YALC: Advice and Tips

How To Survive YALC 2015!

Last year I was lucky enough to be able to attend all two days of the YALC event at the LFCC. For anyone who doesn't know, and has clearly been living under a rock, YALC was the UKs first ever YA literary convention. AND IT WAS AWESOME! I loved every single second of it, despite the sweating and the queueing and how much of my money disappeared from my account quicker than I could blink. It was an amazing two days, but I do wish I had gotten some more information before going, just simple tips that could have really helped me out. So I am here to share them with you guys!

1. Be Prepared For Endless Queueing 

No one likes queueing, it's just a known fact. So you need to know that you will spend a lot of your day queuing. You will queue for EVERYTHING! You will queue for a long time to get in, then you'll queue to get tickers to events, then queue to get your books signed. Not to mention that you will queue for the toilet and for food too, where you will be charged an extortionate amount. So make sure you either have someone with you to keep you entertained, or bring something with you to keep you entertained whilst you queue. And maybe learn to sit randomly on the floor like a weirdo, because otherwise your legs will ache like crazy by the end of the day.