If it’s your first time attending YALC (Young Adult Literature Convention) you might be feeling a tad overwhelmed. I won’t lie, there’s a lot of information floating around Instagram and Twitter about the event and it can get quite confusing, especially if you see conflicting information. But don’t fret! I’m here to help.
I have aimed this post specifically towards first time attendees so you have an idea of what to expect when YALC begins, whether you’re just attending for a day or the whole weekend.
Included in this post I also have some exciting information regarding Bloomsbury YA’s booth and what giveaways they’ll be hosting throughout the weekend this year.
Let’s begin, because there’s a lot to cover!
Arriving at the Venue
YALC and LFCC (London Film & Comic Con) have two separate entrances. With a YALC ticket, you can go to LFCC, however, you need to wait an hour after opening.
YALC’s entrance is on Hammersmith road, and people generally start queuing quite early. However, this is completely optional and I’d recommend heading to the entrance around 15 or 30 minutes before opening as YALC workers usually walk along the queue and check tickets. If you have a day ticket, you will get a stamp. If you have a weekend ticket, you will get a wristband which you must wear the whole weekend otherwise you won’t get back in.
YALC also has different opening and closing times depending on the day.
Friday: 10am – 7pm
Saturday: 9am – 7pm
Sunday: 9am – 6pm
If you have a weekend ticket you can pick up your wristbands from the Olympia ticket office (across from the train station) the evening before. This is optional, but by doing this, you’ll save yourself and the YALC worker some time on Friday morning.
Once the queue starts moving, you will make your way inside where your bag will be searched. I believe you can take water in with you as long as the bottle is sealed. I’ve never had any issues with taking water in. Once you’ve had your bag searched, you’re just one elevator ride away from YALC!
Inside YALC
Once you’re inside, it’s really up to you what you do. But, some publishers or vendors may have some promotions for the first group of people at their booth. For example; Last year TeamBKMRK had a limited amount of special YALC paperback Grisha trilogy editions. These were sold to the first visitors at their booth.
To keep up to date on promotions like this make sure your Twitter notifications are turned on for all publishers that have a stall. If any of them have special promotions going on that you’re interested in, definitely check them out first. But if you’re not too fussed about those, take this time to be the first at other booths and explore. See what they have to offer! Browse, take your time and have fun!
Remember, if you have a weekend ticket and you were one of the first 500 people to buy one, you qualify for a free YALC tote bag (you can never have enough tote bags). You can pick this up at any time from the YALC booth.
How do you know if you were one of the first 500 to buy a weekend ticket? You should get an email, or should have already got one, that contains a barcode to collect your YALC goodie bag.
Checking out a panel / workshop
Throughout the weekend, there will be an abundance of panels and workshops that you can attend. You can come and go to these as you please, and I’d recommend planning ahead to see what panels or workshops you’d like to attend.
There are limited spaces for each, especially in the workshops as these take place in smaller locations around the hall. Head to the panels or workshops about ten/fifteen minutes before they start so you have time to get seated, or find the location of your chosen workshop. Duration wise; they last anywhere between 40 minutes to an hour.
You can find the list of scheduled panels and workshops here along with the times for author signings!
Publisher booths & Vendors
It’s no secret that YALC has a plethora of exciting booths for us to check out. Publishers absolutely spoil us with exciting books, giveaways and merch at their stalls.
Generally it’s the same publisher’s who return every year, so you can safely assume the following publishers will have a booth there this year;
And many others!
All booths will have their own exclusive giveaways, so as I said before I can’t stress the importance of having your Twitter notifications turned on so you can keep up to date with everything going on at these booths.
However, I do have some information regarding what will be going on throughout the weekend at Bloomsbury’s booth. Thank you to Bloomsbury for providing this info!
- There will be 5 Bloomsbury authors at YALC; Samantha Shannon, Lex Croucher, Kesia Lupo, Jim Kay and Mary Watson. Make sure you check the YALC schedule to see when they will be on panels and/or signing.
- Bloomsbury will be featuring a brand new backing cloth at their booth which will be absolutely filled with our favourite Bloomsbury YA quotes, and this will be part of one of the giveaways which will run across the entire weekend. It will involve matching up the most quotes to their book titles on a handout that you can grab from the booth. The winner who matches the most quotes with their book titles will receive a signed copy of Kingdom of Ash along with some Sarah J Maas merch.
- To celebrate the upcoming release of Jim Kay’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, there will be a giant roller banner with exclusive Goblet of Fire artwork that you can take pictures in front of with your friends!
- Karen Gregory will be attending the Bloomsbury booth at 3:30pm on the Friday to sign copies of her brand new YA novel, I Hold Your Heart.
- There will be samplers for a new unmissable fantasy coming in 2020, Havenfall by Sara Holland.
- As for proof giveaways, there will be chance to win one of five ARC copies of A Heart so Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer. To win a copy, you have to take a photo of the ARC accompanied by a white rose in a glass dome which will be at their booth. Post your photo to Twitter using the hashtag #CURSEBREAKER and #YALC2019 and at the end of the weekend, five winners will be chose at random.
- Finally, Bloomsbury will have an exclusive booklet at their stall for you to take that includes lots of content such as; Q&A’s, extracts, sneak peeks and even a competition. If you win, you will get £100 worth of Bloomsbury titles.
Thank you again to Bloomsbury for this information! Do not miss out a chance to visit their booth. I know I will definitely be checking it out!
Time to get your book signed
This is where things get busy.
Depending on the author you want to meet, their queue may be on the busier side. If their queue gets too big that it begins blocking people’s way or other booths, it will turn ticketed.
If a queue is ticketed, it means you ask the YALC worker at the queue for a ticket and you return to join the queue when your number is called. This helps keep the queue moving in a smooth and controlled manner! Please know, having a ticket doesn’t guarantee your books getting signed. Each author has an allotted time that they must stick to, so I’d recommend trying to get to the queue as early as you can to avoid disappointment.
How do you know if an author’s queue will be ticketed? It is generally decided on the day as they don’t know how many readers are there to meet that specific author, so as I said, get there early!
Tip: Post it note the title page of your books before you go to YALC, this means your books are prepared in advance for signing.
Food at YALC
Finally, the last nugget of information I have for you all is the food situation. There are food places down in LFCC and one cafe in YALC. However, they can be a bit on the pricy side and I would advise buying your food the night before or at the Sainsbury’s across the road from the venue.
If you’re in need of a beverage? Take a reusable water bottle. If you take it to the Crush Juice Bar and ask them to fill it up for you, they will! I recommend you do take a reusable bottle, because trust me, it’s going to be a hot weekend. You’ll be drinking a lot of water.
Annnnd, that’s it! I hope you guys found this information helpful, especially if you’re a first time attendee.
Again, thank you so much to Bloomsbury for sharing this exciting information about their YALC plans. I’m definitely going to be checking their booth out over the weekend.
Are you going to YALC? Is this your first year going?
Also, if any of you have any additional information you’d like to share or tips and tricks, please put them the comments below. I’d love to read them!
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