{"id":2363,"date":"2024-12-06T11:26:51","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T11:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/?p=2363"},"modified":"2024-12-06T11:26:51","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T11:26:51","slug":"amy-mccaws-yalc-2024-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/amy-mccaws-yalc-2024-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Amy McCaw’s YALC 2024 Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

YALC is one of my favourite events of the year. I\u2019ve attended every YALC, first as a reader and more recently as an author, and I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s been 10 years since it started! It\u2019s such a special celebration of YA books, and this year was no different.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As you walk around the YALC floor, there\u2019s a real buzz. Fantastic bookish businesses like Illumicrate and Lit Pins and Co are there alongside publishers and a Waterstones stand. There are giveaways, special offers and so many books on sale that it\u2019s very hard to resist!<\/p>\n

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Another amazing part\u00a0of YALC is the author panels and signings afterwards. There\u2019s the opportunity to hear your favourite authors talk about all things books and writing, and then you can head over to the signing area to get your books signed.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year, there was a fantastic range of panels and authors who write every genre of YA. I was on the 10 Years of YALC panel with Malorie Blackman, Juno Dawson, Katie Webber-Tsang and Kat McKenna, and it was so fun to talk about our YALC memories. I also chaired the Heart Rate Critical thriller panel featuring Karen McManus, Finn Longman and Ravena Guron, which was a brilliant experience! This year, I also got to meet Amie Jordan and Krystal Sutherland for the first time, and it\u2019s always so fun to chat with authors whose books I love.<\/p>\n

Another fantastic aspect of YALC is the industry area, with workshops and 1 to 1s for aspiring authors. I attended lots of them when I started writing, and this year I got to lead one about writing what you love. I got my agent through a YALC pitching session and met my publisher at their YALC stand, so it\u2019s definitely an amazing place to attend if you\u2019re interested in publishing jobs or writing a book.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re ready for a break, there\u2019s also a chill-out area, and there are often places to colour and sessions to do crafts. There are also filming spots if you\u2019re a content creator. It\u2019s a great way to make content and collaborate with other members of the online community.<\/p>\n

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All of that makes YALC a really fun, unique experience, but it\u2019s meeting friends that has been the most special part for me. It\u2019s full of like-minded people, and I\u2019ve met some of my best friends there in signing queues and sitting in panels. I\u2019ve also been able to meet up in real life with internet friends, which is just the best feeling.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing like YALC if you want to make bookish friends, meet authors, make contacts or spend money on books to your heart\u2019s content. Hopefully I\u2019ll see you there next year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

YALC is one of my favourite events of the year. I\u2019ve attended every YALC, first as a reader and more recently as an author, and I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s been 10 years since it started! It\u2019s such a special celebration of YA books, and this year was no different. As you walk around the YALC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2363"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2369,"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363\/revisions\/2369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}