An event such as the Bookmarks Festival of Books isn't just a way for the public to find out more about their favorite authors. It's also a way for the authors to meet their readers.
"It validates your work," said Tim Tingle, an Oklahoma Choctaw storyteller and the author of several books, including the recent Saltypie. "You can get good reviews, and you can see book sales numbers, but it doesn't say if people are really appreciating what you write…. At public events, you get to see the people."
He not only got to see people, he made them a part of his performance, encouraging them to interact with hand gestures while he was sharing a classic Choctaw story about how rabbits got their stumpy white tails, and pulling some children from the audience to play percussion instruments while he played a cedar flute.
He was one of more than 40 writers at the festival, which was held yesterday on Trade Street. Tents were set up where audiences could listen to the authors speak, buy their books and get them autographed. Some of the speeches and question-and-answer sessions were also set up indoors at venues including the Millennium Center and the Downtown School, which came in handy when it started raining in the early afternoon.
Charlie Pierce, the author of the best seller Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free and a frequent guest on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, said that he has been touring a lot promoting his book and likes book festivals.
"I enjoy meeting the folks," he said. "So many people are throwing their work out on the Internet and never meeting the people.
"It's nice to look the people who read you in the eye."
Nick Valentino, a writer from Nashville, even came in costume. He was dressed as the lead character from his "steampunk" novel Thomas Riley, a Victorian-era sci-fi novel that is the first of a planned trilogy.
"It's so much fun to get to interact with readers," he said. "You've got to have fun with it, right?"
Trudier Harris, the author of such books as The Scary Mason-Dixon Line: African American Writers and the South, said that meeting the audience directly isn't just fun, it's helpful to writers. "Any writer, whatever they do, wants feedback on his or her work," she said.
Final attendance numbers weren't available Saturday, but organizers said they were pleased with the turnout.
Ginger Hendricks, Bookmarks' executive director, estimated the crowd at between 5,000 and 7,500.
Despite the rain, crowds remained at the festival yesterday afternoon, many of them eager to get autographs from the authors.
Kathleen Williams said she likes to give autographed copies of books to friends and family as presents, so a book festival provides a good way to meet a lot of authors at once.
Linell Miller was one of several dozen of people standing in a long line under a tent to get an autograph from Diana Gabaldon, a New York Times best-selling author.
"Even with the rain, this is really good," Miller said of the festival.
tclodfelter@wsjournal.com
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