Barnes and Noble is launching a new program in all of their bookstores this weekend called B-Fest. This will be the largest teen book festival that will feature more than 1,800 author appearances and will represent the largest-ever weekend of author events in Barnes & Noble history.
The list of authors appearing during this weekend’s teen festival is almost endless, but features the biggest names in the worlds of teen and young adult literature, including Jazz Jennings, David Levithan, Jennifer Niven, Christopher Paolini, Scott Westerfeld, Rick Yancey, Nicola Yoon and many, many more.
B-Fest will also feature many other engaging events and activities for teens, including cosplay, trivia and interactive games, all designed to provide teens with unique and fun experiences that will fuel their love of reading and writing. During B-Fest, teens will get access to free content including chapter samplers, an exciting cover reveal, and more, while supplies last. The three-day B-Fest teen book festival will feature the following four cornerstone events that will take place at all stores:
- B-In the Know – Friday, June 10 at 7PM: Featuring a trivia blast created by Penguin Teen and Random House’s First in Line. One winner per store will be added to Penguin Teen’s Advanced Reader Copy mailing list for one year, and receive between 5 and 6 preselected advance reader’s copies of books that have not yet been released.
- B-First – Saturday, June 11 at 11AM: Customers can get a sneak peak of upcoming new releases and more. Teens at this event will also receive a free ‘Epic Reads’ festival brochure provided by HarperCollins, while supplies last, that includes specially curated content like sneak peeks of upcoming books and fun quizzes, crosswords and more.
- B-Part of the Fun – Saturday June 11 at 2PM: Featuring a spelling showdown and the chance to win exclusive prize packs, swag and more. The event will include interactive games and activities around popular teen book series, with giveaways and prizes based on these leading properties.
- B-Creative – Sunday June 12 at 2PM: Customers can participate in a story development workshop by Adaptive Studios. During the workshop, teen writers will learn how to develop stories, write “log lines” (a one- or two-sentence description that gives the basic concept of a script), create “spark pages” (a one- to two-page synopsis of an idea that includes narrative arc, descriptions of main characters, and tone or themes of the story), and get tips for re-imagining popular characters.
Barnes and Noble is constantly experimenting with new initiatives for their bookstores. They ran a big vinyl day last year and had a ton of success with their Maker Fairs.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
