WHY BIRMINGHAM??

Birmingham. 

The second biggest city in England, and yet, commonly missed out on signing and talk tours by authors (and other things like concerts, but that's another thing). 

I'm 14 in 2 months time, and I've lived in Birmingham since I was 3 and a half years old... so about 10 years. In that time, I have been to only 4 different book events. A Jacqueline Wilson talk, a Jacqueline Wilson signing, a Cathy Cassidy signing and the TFiOS fan party. 

Obviously that's not all there has ever been in the city, but for someone who has been a book lover all their life, it isn't that much. A lot of Birmingham book lovers have similar stories. 

So... why is Birmingham missed out? Particularly for YA. I mean, whenever there is an event there is a big turn out, and people who live in neighbouring cities with little events always like to come too. 

And I mean, Waterstones High Street is MASSIVE. Look at all that space for signings and talks and fan parties and launches and meets and just ANYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF. Come on. IT'S SO BIG THERE IS A COSTA IN IT. It has floors and floors of impeccably organised shelves of books, manga and non fiction and fiction and YA and classics and everything else. 

I find it really weird that on author tours, they go to small cities (which I have NO ISSUE with, don't accuse me of that) but not to one of the biggest cities.

There's another point. When an "author tour" consists of... London. And maybe like Manchester. That's a tour? A signing in the capital? Sure, it's a big city, but that doesn't mean it has all the book lovers in it! 

There are flaws in my logic; you may ask "oh but you have LAUREN OLIVER in store in August". BECAUSE, Gem has spent agesss securing that for us. We probably wouldn't have got it otherwise.

Now, some reasons why you should come to us!

1. As previously mentioned, massive city, massive bookshop. 

2. LOADS OF BOOK LOVERS. Look at this site! 

3. This will sound irrelevant about books, but it's not. We're a massively cultural city! So your book can be set anywhere about anything with any issue, and we'll love it. 

4. Gem and Bex are like the loveliest people that work in bookshops ever (also Dani from the Sutton Coldfield branch) :D

5. They are also just awesome and organise awesome things. Like fan parties, which I think are fairly unique to us. 

So there you are. Publishers and authors, come see us! We're trying to raise our profile as a city and you should come and help us do that!

(Quick note: this is not meant to offend anyone. Just raise awareness etc etc) :)

- Charli