What’s next in person?

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The first in-person event takes place on Sunday 26th April (yes a week tomorrow!) in Aylesbury, Bucks, England.

The doors open to the public at 9am and the first panel (of children’s authors) at 10am then running on the hour every hour until the final (science-fiction, fantasy and horror) panel at 5pm, with a wrapping up at 6pm.

All-day tickets (BOOKED IN ADVANCE PLEASE) are just £20 or £10 for the morning (three panels and lunchtime workshop/moderator Q&A) or afternoon (lunchtime workshop/moderator Q&A) half-day.

There are currently just 29* tickets left so head over to Eventbrite before it’s too late!

*this number will be updated regularly

T&T#9 – Amazon Exclusive or Go Wide?

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Following on from the first T&T panel which took place on Thursday 12th March…

On Tuesday 14th April the panel below talked about staying with Amazon’s KDP Select exclusive or go wide?

The recording from this session is below.

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If you’d like to take part in any of these sessions, do take a look at the other topics on The T&T Panels page, and there’s also the weekly Monday Mini-fests. The Participate page outlines the process of getting involved.

These are free events but we’re raising money for book charities local to the Aylesbury (Buckinghamshire, England) area and we’d be really grateful if you would donate whatever you afford via the Charities & Donate page. Thank you so much.

The Saggy Middle that wasn’t saggy!

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On Monday 13th April 2026, the panel listed below talked about the saggy middle of a novel. The recording is at the end of this page.

  • Historical fantasy novelist and short story author BB Elsin
  • Crime; science-fiction; fantasy author David Wake
  • Crime/thriller novelist Jill Todd
  • Suspense thriller novelist, poet and children’s author Karl W Newton
  • Children’s author, speaker and beekeeper! Meriet Duncan
  • Crime/women’s novelist and non-fiction author and Self-Pub Fest founder Morgen with an ‘E’ (host)

We talked about what the middle of a novel should look like, how to avoid a ‘saggy’ middle, what to do if you find yourself with one (or without a middle!), whether genre affects the middle of novels, published novels that feel like they still have a saggy middle… and anything else we could think of.

These are free events but we’re raising money for local book-related charities and we’d be really grateful if you would donate whatever you afford via the Charities & Donate page. Thank you so much.

Ideas revisited

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Following on from the first T&T panel which took place on Thursday 12th March…

On Tuesday 7th April I, crime/women’s novelist and non-fiction author and Self-Pub Fest founder Morgen with an ‘E’, talked about ideas.

The recording from this session is below.

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If you’d like to take part in any of these sessions, do take a look at the other topics on The T&T Panels page, and there’s also the weekly Monday Mini-fests. The Participate page outlines the process of getting involved.

These are free events but we’re raising money for book charities local to the Aylesbury (Buckinghamshire, England) area and we’d be really grateful if you would donate whatever you afford via the Charities & Donate page. Thank you so much.

The 9th MMF is on YouTube

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On Monday 6th April 2026, the panel listed below talked about beginnings:

  • Historical fantasy novelist and short story author BB Elsin
  • Crime fiction/non-fiction author and festival committee member Denise Beddows
  • Children’s (as Esther Moonstomp) and short story author Esther Chilton

The discussion included:

  • what should a beginning do and not do?
  • how you start/ed writing your book/s once you had your idea
  • what do you think of prologues?
  • do beginnings differ depending on the genre/format (i.e. novels vs short stories, non-fiction, poetry if you write it)?
  • your favourite openings
  • anything else we could think of…

These are free events but we’re raising money for local book-related charities and we’d be really grateful if you would donate whatever you afford via the Charities & Donate page. Thank you so much.