YALC Announcements 2019 (BEDM)

It’s been a big build up to YALC announcements this year. Their usual system of announcing week by week didn’t happen, so we (very stressfully) got all the authors all in one go. I really enjoyed this way of going it, even if my anxiety was at an all time high all day!

I’ve been excited for author announcements this year as they said it was due to be the most diverse and inclusive line-up yet. Not only is it all those things, there’s the biggest mix of genres I’ve seen for a long time, which is incredibly refreshing. In previous years I have found that it’s a little overrun by contemporary authors, so to see some new and big names in fantasy attending this year is incredibly exciting.

I also appreciate the huge focus on authors that haven’t attended before and British YA authors this year! There have always been some big American names and authors that regularly attend, but there’s quite a few authors I’m really excited about seeing for the first time, especially hearing them talk on panels! People such as Sabina Khan and Kate Mallinger should be a lot of fun!

I spent the day at my wonderful friend, Fi’s house to wait for the YALC announcements. It’s so nice to be able to talk to people right away about them and start planning. We all immediately got our notebooks out and started planning our YALC weekend.

I personally split the author announcements in to “Authors I’m interested in”, subcategorised by “authors I’ve met before and have books to be signed” and “authors I’ve met before and have nothing to be signed.” These ultimately are authors that I just want to see in panels or go to workshops with if they’re running them.

I then split my lists in to books that I already own and need to be read before YALC, and books that I need to buy before YALC this year. Surprisingly, I already own most of the books by authors I’m interested in, and the books I need to buy are ones that I have on preorder anyway. So it’s really a win win year for me. I’ve already started my list of books that I want to take to get signed, but obviously this will get bigger as I read more!

Everyone here knows that I’m absolutely crap at TBRs, I never stick to them and I hate making them because it’s so much pressure. However YALC is a time when I really want to read books by the authors attending. Not even necessarily to get signed, just so I understand what’s being talked about over the weekend! I’ve already put my YALC TBR together so I will be uploading a post about that very very soon!

If you haven’t seen the YALC announcements yet, you can view the list of authors on their website, with a load of people including Lauren James, Samantha Shannon, David Owen and V. E. Schwab!

I’m so excited to go this year with loads of friends and have a really nice time meeting new people! There’s about to be a whole host of YALC related posts on here soon! Let me know in the comments if you’re coming to YALC 2019!