On Halloween morning with the moon still in the sky, I got into a car heading to the Newcastle International Airport for my flight to London. The annual Young Adult Literature Convention, also known as YALC, was taking place from the 31st October to the 1st November at the London Hilton Metropole Hotel. With its first iteration dating back to 2014, YALC has become an exciting event promising two days of heavily discounted books, exciting panels and workshops, and the opportunity to mingle with fellow YA enthusiasts. After two days of dragging my bags around the Hilton Metropole, here are my impressions of YALC and whether you should take a trip down to London next October.
For the average reader, YALC would be limited to a fun afternoon. An adult day ticket was £31, and weekend tickets were £62.70 (with unlimited re-entry). As a specialised event instead of a typical “book fair”, while the YALC program takes place over three floors and other small rooms, the actual shopping space is confined to two comfortable convention rooms on the first and third floor. The first floor specialises in indie and artistic offerings (with the exception of a Waterstones stall) and the third featured retail and publisher stands. As such, the time required to browse is limited – two or three hours is all you need to comfortably look through book displays and chat with stall owners.
While cheaper overall, deals on books were also varied in exactly how much they saved. At some stalls you could find absolute steals, such as two books for £10, while at others you received no actual immediate discount and could only redeem double points if you had a membership card for the publisher. There were also lotteries where luck decided exactly how much you paid. In short, this is not necessarily the type of event you go to just to stock up on cheap books. I paid anywhere from £6 to £23 per book at YALC.
YALC also has a focus on spotlighting emerging and independent authors, which means the book selection may be unfamiliar to the average reader. This year’s most known attending author was likely Alice Oseman (creator of Heartstopper and Durham alumni), who stopped by on Saturday afternoon.
However, YALC is worth the trip if you are not only a reader, but a book lover interested in the UK bookish community as a whole.
While the actual book stock wasn’t overwhelming or especially cheap, the offerings were diverse and interesting for a YA convention. From Book Tok favourites (like Holly Black’s the Cruel Prince) to independently published offerings, the table spreads at YALC were absolutely unique from a typical franchise bookstore’s display. There were also plentiful opportunities to win proofs or advanced reader copies of upcoming books at practically every stall, resulting in twisting queues running across the convention room made of excited readers towing their pastel sticker-adorned book carts. Even as a reader wary of contemporary YA, I went home with nine books from seven stalls, a massive testament to the variety of books sold and the patience of booksellers tasked with recommending me a book after I disavowed every offering I’ve read from the genre.
I personally did not attend the author panels or workshops, but YALC’s industry and arena workshops were also immensely interesting. Taking place on the Hilton Metropole’s ground floor in small seminar rooms, attendees were able to sit in on talks ranging from the responsibilities of a Publishing Director, to the difficulties of BIPOCs working in the industry, and the stocking considerations of your local Waterstones. Each room had the space for around thirty attendees, so the seminars were warm, informative, and engaging, whether in the form of quippy banter between presenters and audience members on author rivalries, or everyone trying to guess which covers made it to print and why. Learning about how the publishing industry works was educational and fascinating as a book lover, and would likely be even more rewarding for a young professional hoping to work with books. After each seminar, aspiring teenaged booksellers, librarians and budding authors alike would chat with each other, with the occasional portfolio piece or contact information being exchanged.
YALC’s ultimate draw is its concentration of book lovers, and the joyful environment that creates. For two days, in the background of stalls and seminars were a flurry of cat headbands on heads, handmade pins being traded, doors being opened without asking, and the excited tone of getting to talk to someone passionate in the same thing you are. Strangers pointed to each other’s purchases going “…oh my gosh, I loved that one!” and professionals cheerily rubbed shoulders “…seeing what they could do.” In a strange way, the books came second at YALC – rather it was through them book lovers connected, and the community celebrated itself.
On Sunday night, it was with the pleasant memory of the attendees and energy of YALC I boarded the Elizabeth line, ready to head back to Durham. The new books I had purchased lay dormant in my suitcase, temporarily forgotten.
For anyone swayed, YALC’s dates for next year will be announced on their website next autumn!
Featured image: Photography by Maddy Hui