The inaugural online ‘Self-Pub Fest’ festival was held on Sunday 25th January 2026 between 10am and 6pm UK time via individual hourly Zoom genre panels with up to six participating authors on each panel. See below for timings and the embedded intro at the bottom of this page. This version of the festival was listed on EventBrite.
If you missed the live events, click on the panel links below for further details and to watch our chats with authors from across the globe on YouTube. Alternatively, if you watch the intro below on YouTube you can watch the other sessions at your leisure.
Sunday 25th January 2026 (genre panels)
- 10am: Children’s/YA panel: Lee Benson (moderator) and Sumaira Ahmed.
- 11am: Crime panel: AA Abbott, Alison Morton, Denise Beddows, Donna Morfett (moderator), Morgen Bailey (festival founder), Nikki Copleston.
- 12pm: Historical panel: Alison Morton, John Lynch, Patricia M Osborne, Ronan Beckman.
- 1pm: Ideas Panel: Alan Meredith, David Wake (moderating with Morgen), Eric Goebelbecker, Graeme Cumming, Paul Gitsham, Tony Forder.
- 2pm: Non-fiction panel: Cleonie McLean, Denise Beddows (moderator), Jacqueline Lambert
- 3pm: Poetry and Short Story panel: Lee Benson (poetry), Alan Meredith (short stories), Esther Chilton (short stories), Morgen Bailey (festival founder, short stories – moderator)
- 4pm: Romance / Women’s fiction: Kerry Manning, Morgen Bailey (festival founder – moderator), Patricia M Osborne.
- 5pm: Science-fiction (SF), fantasy (F) and horror (H) panel: BB Elsin (F) (moderator), David Wake (SF/F), Duncan Brockwell (H), Lee Benson (SF), Pete Williams, Shaun Allan (H).
Rather than wait until July, there is now the opportunity to appear at the single-panel events ~ see the Monday Mini-Fest page for details.
Sunday 5th July 2026 (nuts and bolts of publishing)
The July/October festivals differ from the January/April festival (which consists of seven author panels) where we concentrate on the nuts and bolts of publishing rather than genres with:
- 9am: expert talk – up to six cover designers, illustrators and formatters etc. taking part
- 10am: mixed authors panel – up to six authors taking part (yes, an extra session!)
- 11am: expert talk – up to six editors (SPBF founder Morgen) taking part
- 12pm: mixed authors panel – up to six authors taking part
- 1pm: Morgen will be hosting a short workshop (topic tba but an aspect of publishing) followed by a mixed panel Q&A session
- 2pm: expert talk – up to six experts (marketeers, website designers etc.) taking part
- 3pm: mixed authors panel – up to six authors taking part
- 4pm: expert talk – up to six publishers taking part
- 5pm: mixed authors panel – up to six authors taking part
If you are a self-published author or provide any of the services above (or another!) to self-published authors, please see the Participate page.
Future dates
- Sunday 31st January 2027
- Sunday 5th July 2027
- then the last Sunday in January
- then the first Sunday in July
If you’d like to take part in another way, e.g. moderate a panel, provide your expertise for the July or October events, or volunteer at our in-person festivals ~ see the Participate page.
If you’d like to simply watch ~ see the Tickets page.