A number of author events have been rescheduled as a result of the upcoming general election on 4th July, with Headline cancelling its showcase and a number of publicists and festival organisers also telling The Bookseller of impacts to their plans.
Headline’s non-fiction author showcase had been scheduled for 26th June. However, a spokesperson said that that would no longer be possible owing to the election. “Unfortunately, owing to the recent announcement of the election and the commitments of some of our authors we will no longer be going ahead with our non-fiction showcase on the 26th June. We are looking to move the event to the autumn and will be in touch with further details as soon as we have them,” they said.
Its upcoming non-fiction titles include Circle of Hope by Eliza Griswold; Murder in the Gulag: The Life and Death of Alexei Navalny by John Sweeney; and Power to the People: Use Your Voice and Change The World by Danny Sriskandarajah.
Rosalind Green, director of the Essex Book Festival – taking place on the 31st May to 30th June – told The Bookseller it has also been impacted by the snap election. “Unfortunately John Crace, one of our flagship authors, has had to pull out owing to his campaign commitments,” she said. “We’re obviously gutted about this — John is an amazing journalist and speaker — but we 100% understand his decision. Hopefully we will be able to reschedule his event for later in the year.”
Sara Bullimore, artistic director of the Newark Book Festival, taking place on the 11th July to 14th July, said: “We haven’t had any implications currently that are affecting us. Of course time will tell around election time, whether this impact is less marketing ’airwaves’ or whether the outcomes affect either audiences or authors. I guess time will tell and we will need to ride it out. We will see.”
On the impact on publicity staff, book publicist Ruth Killick said: “Snap elections, or any unexpected events, can play havoc with publicity campaigns. In the two weeks post-Brexit I remember as my interview schedule for an author who’d flown in from South Korea fell apart piece by piece. No one wanted to talk about her memoir – only Article 50. Sometimes I’ve been lucky. If the late Queen had passed away 24 hours earlier my top author would have lost a major newspaper serial – with knock-on effects on the associated embargoes and follow-up coverage we’d arranged.”
She predicts “a squeeze on column inches and airtime in the mainstream media, in particular for non-fiction”, as a result of the election, adding: “Author events will sail on pretty well as normal I would think – though MPs probably have to focus on campaigning in their constituencies rather than giving talks about their books. I’d be concerned about any events lined up for 4th July itself though.”
Last week, The Bookseller reported that some publishers were rearranging the publication dates of upcoming titles in response to the election, with books by Profile, Manchester University Press and others being pushed back.
Olivia Le Maistre, marketing manager at Legend Times Group told The Bookseller: “While we haven’t had to rearrange too much since the announcement of the election date, we are very aware of any launches or publications happening around the time. We have an academic title, Cry Freedom by James Tooley, that was recently released but the in-person launch was meant to be the day before the election and we thought it best to postpone until later in the month. We are also planning a possible July event with the Small Press Alliance and the election has definitely been a part of the discussion in terms of a date for the event.”
