Rather, I think reviewers in a city like Seattle should champion the locally-oriented books that the national reviewers are likely to overlook. Otherwise, who else will? If local reviewers don’t care, it’ll be very difficult for local publishers to find audiences for their work. And that will mean that books about issues relating to local concerns by local authors with local audiences in mind just won’t get published.

“… it was our best event financially this year (and we had a presence at Portland’s Wordstock, Chicago’s Assoc. of Writers and Writing Programs Conference, and indirectly, via our friends at Two Dollar Radio, at the Brooklyn Book Festival and elsewhere).” a post titled:
Seattle Bookfest: The Gamble Paid Off

We never expect to make our table fees back at these things, in fact we think of them as “community building” events. We staffed our Floating Bridge Press table as long as we could manage, but didn’t sweat it too much. I think that’s the attitude we must adopt in order to participate in any book festival. Low sales is the chronic situation for poetry presses, nothing new for us.

Bookfest was a success for us, (SPLAB) but we did not have any financial targets in mind. We just wanted to reach readers and writers and unveil our old project in this, our new neighborhood. That’s why I got involved.

I know Copper Canyon and Chin Music press sold WAY more at this Bookfest than at Wordstock in the FIRST DAY. That does not mean everyone made out, but perhaps they’ll choose not to come next year and others will opt in.

The panel “Is Seattle Hostile to Literary Innovation” was quite spirited. I was told it drew the biggest crowd of the event in an out-of-the-way portable. We hope to archive the sound from it at http://www.splab.org quite soon, and we welcome a continuation of the discussion at that website.

Audiences were small for the poetry, but were quality audiences. The last minute decision to have a poetry open mic had an effect on audience size at the poetry stage and I’m told that will be addressed next year.

Ironic that The Stranger, which sells itself as a counter-cultural publication, employs very old-fashioned materialistic definitions about success. Paul Constant was determined to be negative about Bookfest and does not understand what Grass Roots means. Of course the opposite of that is corporate, so choose your poison, eh?

I don’t have official figures, but Jerry said that sales were as good as at Wordstock (but don’t quote him, quote me).  I personally sold 5 “Mantids.” [Ron's most recent novel.]

This is what I posted on Facebook this morning:  ”Two days at the Seattle Bookfest with Black Heron Press. The Georgetown Community Center is a unique, low-tech old grade school–I felt like cleaning erasers and working on my cursive. Good to see bookies (and book readers) prowling the halls and buying. Thanks to all the selfless volunteers who kept pointing the way to the free coffee.”