{"id":99786,"date":"2025-10-02T20:33:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T20:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/99786\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T20:33:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T20:33:11","slug":"fredericksburg-festival-showcases-authors-who-dont-play-by-the-book-when-it-comes-to-publishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/99786\/","title":{"rendered":"Fredericksburg festival showcases authors who don’t play by the book when it comes to publishing"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Noll\u2019s author bio on Amazon<\/a> lists his background as\u00a0a sandwich maker, a yogurt dispenser, a day care provider, a video store clerk, a day care provider (again), a summer camp counselor, a waiter, a prep. cook, a sandwich maker (again), a line cook, a security guard, a line cook (again), a waiter (again), a bartender, a librarian, and a teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomewhere in there, he played drums in punk rock bands, recorded several albums and wrote dozens of short stories and a handful of novels,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n

But Noll\u2019s passion for writing horror has outlasted all those other pursuits, and it led him to found the Fredericksburg Independent Book Festival<\/a> as a way of opening up the literary world to others.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s festival, which will be held on Saturday at Riverfront Park, features over 60 authors and booksellers.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

His desire to publish the stories he wrote eventually led him down the winding path of self-publishing, after he realized that the traditional route was complicated and he liked the challenge of a \u201cdo-it-yourself\u201d enterprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt never made sense to me why people would have to get permission from a publisher or agent \u2014 to get a middle man \u2014 to do it, except for the cost,\u201d Noll said.<\/p>\n

One early lesson he learned was that writing a book and selling a book are very different things.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re two completely different animals,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He started building a mailing list and attending live events. It was at the Gaithersburg Book Festival that he realized Fredericksburg needed something similar \u2014 but with an important distinction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He partnered with Amy Dane and Chris Jones to launch the FIBF in 2016 to help independent authors like himself showcase their work and connect with readers.<\/p>\n

Participating authors hail from all over the region, and Noll said he never has to go searching for someone to fill a spot. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more local than not, though,\u201d he noted. \u201cOur wait list is crazy this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supporting local authors is important to local bookstores, too. Tales & Tails, which opened in May, is one of the festival sponsors, along with the Fredericksburg Arts Commission, Central Rappahannock Regional Library, The Book Market FXBG and Noll\u2019s company Silverhammer Studios.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re an indie bookstore, so we support indies,\u201d said Christine Bowman, who owns the store with her husband Hunter Bufkin. This may be their first year to sponsor an event this size but it\u2019s a mission they stand behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe carry several local authors \u2014 a few that weren\u2019t able to grab a booth at the festival, so we will be sharing our booth with a few of them,\u201d Bowman said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kate Cunningham and Justin Marlowe, local authors whose books can be found at Tales, are expected to visit the festival and the bookstore will have several signed copies of books by local authors.<\/p>\n

While women are more likely to be readers, Noll said men tend to gravitate toward indie authors. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s our main focus, because the Big Three or the Big Five publishers are no longer really marketing for men who read. You can just go look at the book covers in Barnes & Noble. Agents are not interested in talking to any men of whatever race because they feel like it\u2019s not economically viable\u2026 I write horror and sci-fi, and a lot of my readers are men.\u201d<\/p>\n

Authors of a variety of genres will be on site: Horror, sci-fi, fiction, romance, fantasy, history, poetry, children\u2019s books and more. <\/p>\n

Noll encourages visitors to seek out the genres they know they like, talk to the authors and then \u2014 read a few pages of the books on display.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He later added that his wife Angie is a big fan of Rysa Walker from North Carolina, while their daughter Taylor (who is Lead Staff for the festival) enjoys Fredericksburg author Meredith Stoddard. Both authors will speak at the festival\u2019s opening.<\/p>\n

There will be a panel with the Riverside Writers and another on the writing process, plus an awards ceremony and gift-card giveaways throughout the event. Admission is free.<\/p>\n

The goal of the festival is to get more eyes on books and authors that may get overlooked and to create a community of indie publishers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think right now, in the world that we\u2019re in, we could really use a lot more of people talking to one another,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cAnd here are people who live in our community and are writing about our community. And I think here\u2019s an opportunity to get out there and talk to people. Talk to people who are writing books and I think we honestly can\u2019t have enough of that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMany authors are introverted, but that doesn\u2019t mean that they don\u2019t want to be part of a community\u2026 some people felt like they were imposters if they were doing it themselves,\u201d Noll said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He stressed that creative expression is just that and doesn\u2019t have to be profitable to be valuable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean that you can\u2019t do it just because some agent you\u2019ve never met before or somebody reading through a slush pile in New York approves or doesn\u2019t approve of what you\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But if numbers are a measure of approval, then the FIBF has earned it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get 1,000 to 2,000 people coming out every year,\u201d Noll said. \u201cAnd that makes me happy. I want more. I want 10,000.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Noll\u2019s author bio on Amazon lists his background as\u00a0a sandwich maker, a yogurt dispenser, a day care…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[20129,28991,359,18,117,4870,63446,19,6082,17,63447,2459,63448,27138],"class_list":{"0":"post-99786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-authors","9":"tag-book-festival","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-fiction","14":"tag-fredericksburg-independent-book-festival","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-indie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-james-noll","19":"tag-reading","20":"tag-tales-tails","21":"tag-writing"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}