After 3 (maybe it’s been 4. I’m so busy I can’t keep track of time) weeks of my insane schedule, I have finally found time to finish this review. I don’t typically review book events, but after the most recent one I really felt that I should voice my opinion, in the hopes that it will help the planners with the next endeavor.

Every year, around the same time, I journey to different places across Texas for two major book events. Those events being, TLA (where I’m fortunate enough to receive ARCs of all the upcoming Young Adult book releases) and North Texas Teen Book Festival (which is hosted by the Irving Public Library and its main attraction is having big name authors come and sign your books). I’ve always been a fan of the Irving Libraries book events (this coming from a Grand Prairie library worker). I’ve been going to their launch parties and author signings for about 4 years now and until now they’ve never disappointed me and I’ve never not thoroughly enjoyed my time there. However, North Texas Teen Book Festival was so bad this year I almost left early. And so did half the other serious book bloggers and regular attendees. The Irving Public Library (from hereon out I will refer to as IPL) has always managed to host awesome book events because until now they’ve always kept the atmosphere of the occasion feeling very intimate for the readers/fans. They are usually organized and timely, and well prepared for a decent amount of people. They’ve brought in smaller, local authors, as well as more popular authors who have to travel farther, but either way, the events are done right. So now, here is a long list of complaints I have after attending NTTBF16 (in the hopes that the IPL will see this and take into account what they could do better next year).

My biggest complaint about the whole event (but more specifically what they lacked in the panels) was the same feeling of intimacy. Usually after a panel readers have the opportunity to go up to the authors and take pictures, engage in small conversation about whatever, and ask questions one on one. At every book event I’ve ever gone to that is the norm (that includes all of Irving’s past endeavors, as well as Texas (Austin) Teen Book Fest, and YAK Fest). And unless you are hosting Veronica Roth, John Green, Suzanne Collins, and or J. K. Rowling then there is no need for the readers to not be able to have that experience. The authors don’t mind, in fact they understand it because they know that they would be nothing without the teens that frequent these festivals. At Texas Teen in Austin the authors don’t necessarily stay in their seats at the panels but they do stand to the side and wait a few minutes before they exit so people can take pics with them and they can interact with their fans. So NTTBF, you don’t need to “escort” the authors out, they are grownups who should know when and where they are supposed to be and who can make the decision for themselves if they want to use 10 of their 15 minutes in between panels spending time chatting with the awestruck teens. Because people like me who wait all year for this event, and who starts planning my visit as best I can a week in advance, and then sup at 4:30am the day of and travel an hour to get there (for some people they traveled the length of three states to get there) and then wait in line for 4 hours at different intervals, I should be able to secure A SINGLE PICTURE WITH MY FAVORITE AUTHOR!!!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I say that as lovingly as is possible.

I sat through the Small Town Girl panel which was pretty good. I think everyone was still waking up and that’s why it lacked the energy of all the other panels. I was most excited for the second panel I went to, titled “The Pawn,” which seated some of my ALL TIME FAVORITE authors and not ONCE did the moderator ask the authors to discuss the topic of the panel. The moderator asked very bland, general questions that nobody really cares about. I went in there to hear my favorite authors speak about the subject of the panel because it obviously plays a huge role in all of their books, and instead I was bored to tears. If you’re going to be in control of a panel can you PLEASE ask at least one question that involves WHY I AM SITTING IN THERE. Thanks, I’d really appreciate it. Also, I don’t really care to hear what the moderator has to say. Someone needed to kindly tell her to shut up because the audience wasn’t their to listen to her but rather the important people sitting next to her. I’m not trying to be rude or picky. It’s just that there is a fine balance between asking the authors questions and putting in a good word or two, and acting like you’re one of the authors and you think anybody in the room wants your input. So let’s just be more aware of that next time.

I did however enjoy the Book Boyfriend panel because a. Ally Carter was in it and b. because Ally Carter was in it and c. because Ally Carter was in it. I’m possibly a huge Ally Carter fangirl. Just a little bit of a huge one. Just slightly. Or maybe a whole lot. I’ve only read the Gallagher Girl series like 12 times. And I only think about it and reference it about a billion times a day. My friends and I, who are friends because of this series, only discuss it maybe all the time. Zach is definitely my forever crush. Okay I’m going to move on now. I liked that panel because a. they stayed on subject, b. by that point everyone was fully awake and the energy levels were high, and c. the moderator asked good questions but she also didn’t talk too much but instead let the authors take off with the topic. It was GREAT! EVERYONE rocked that panel!

I also had an issue with the fact that the volunteers didn’t know anything. Many times I tried to ask a person that was working there a question and they pointed me in the direction of someone else because they didn’t the answer. A couple of times I made my way to 3 different people for one question because none of them knew the answer. Seriously, why do you insist on having volunteers that don’t know anything? I don’t think it would be a huge deal to have a meeting prior to the start of the event. Whether it’s days before or an hour before, a meeting where you assign the volunteers their posts and give them information on even the most basic questions (because I was asking simple questions, it wasn’t like I was asking anything ridiculous) is necessary. and if the volunteers can’t make it to the meeting send it out in an email, otherwise they just can’t work there! It’s POINTLESS and frustrating.

Okay, here is the reason I almost left. The traffic control was non existent. You could tell the very few rent-a-guards on duty were not equipped to handle the amount of people that were there. And I don’t blame them, or the police officer who finally showed up to yell at people for the safety hazards the masses were causing. And obviously there were MANY safety hazards as a result of the large crowds. Like, I’m pretty positive escalators have a weight limit just like elevators do. And I can guarantee that whatever the weight limit is, we were passing it. You could practically feel the escalators sagging under every person and their books combined weight. It was a little scary to say the least. The people I blame for this are the IPL workers. Because they are the ones in charge, they planned this, and they should have handled and readied all of this before the 23rd. If that means having better security guards that are specifically tasked with the job of doing crowd control and following safety regulations then the event coordinators should have taken care of that. And I want to say I remember seeing on the NTTBF website that it said they were expecting close to 7,000 people, but in no areas during the day did it appear they were prepared for that amount of people, and one would assume if you have any sort of expectation then you’d be ready for it. Before I finish this most important rant, I would like to express that I UNDERSTAND the book signing started at 3:30! Everybody understood that was the time you were opening the doors! However, that DOES NOT MEAN that people aren’t going to start lining up early for that!!! Obviously people want to be first in line (especially when you’ve got Ally Carter, Gayle Forman, Sarah Dessen, and James Forman…..but mostly Ally Carter)!! For people like me, who do not go as pert of school, but rather for pure enjoyment, this is basically Black Friday. I’m serious about seeing these authors, because, for me at least, it’s the equivalent of meeting your favorite childhood star, or the attractive actor/actress you’re convinced is actually your soul mate (they just don’t know it yet), or meeting the Queen of England! It’s all the same.

I also didn’t appreciate the fact that I spent a decent amount of money on a fast pass and it didn’t prevent me from standing in line for a long time because I had to wait for a worker to find the time to escort me to each author. And there wasn’t very good communication between the workers because I was handed to several different escorts, each of which seemed confused and didn’t know how it worked. I was at the point of asking for my money back because the pass was useless.

For the most part, this was all I had to say. There were a few other nitpicks I had, like I preferred the first years setup, when they had authors split into different rooms/levels. The most popular authors were setup in one giant room, while everyone else had booths spread out amongst the building. That made the crowds easier to navigate and it gave you time to chat and take pictures with the authors because nobody generated any outrageous lines. It also seemed that last year when the attendees started their own lines early, without any direction or help from workers, that went smoother. We all sat down in front of the author we were visiting first and then moved between lines quickly and efficiently as the day went on. Nobody was telling us we couldn’t line up, or that we had to line up in a specific portion of the hallway outside of the signing room. No, we lined ourselves up in the room and waited patiently while causing no problems.

In the end, I got what I needed done that day, but I definitely didn’t have a good time. Let’s hope next year is done better!

Cheers,

Bex (The one who was crying in Ally Carter’s line because, you know, it’s Ally Carter)