Pitching literature and history festivals (Wales first)

Harvested 27 Oct 2026 (skills harvest). Scope: getting a heritage e-book's author/archive onto festival programmes as an EVENT, not a book listing. Drafts only; any pitch goes out on the project lead's GO.

What the sources show (read 27 Oct 2026)

• Clare Mackintosh, founder of Chipping Norton Lit Fest (~50 events/yr), interview on thecreativepenn.com:
• She receives ~300 pitches a year; "the vast majority are addressed 'dear festival organiser'" and she is "far more likely to read one addressed to me".
• Every indie pitch she had that year was rejected: "the emails tell me how many books they've sold, how long they were in various online charts, and what the reviews say. That would be great: if I were a bookshop!"
• Winning shape: "no more than a couple of paragraphs" telling the organiser what the event would look like, who it would appeal to, and your credentials; offer panel partners ("make it easy for the organiser to say yes").
• Honest yield: "At an event of, say, 100 people, less than 10% will buy books"; value is brand, loyalty and a bump after the event; small festivals lead to bigger ones. Authors should not pay to appear (fee or profit share is normal).
• Sarah Webb (children's curator, Mountains to Sea dlr Book Festival), with ILFD and Belfast Book Festival programmers (sarahwebb.info):
• Festivals programme 6-12 months ahead; pitch at least 4-5 months before; key names fixed 8-10 months out.
• Share of events that came from unsolicited pitches: ~20% (ILFD, dlr), ~40% (Belfast). Pitches by email with a well-written event proposal are accepted.
• "Anniversaries are very important. All festivals are looking to celebrate anniversaries."
• Wanted: "unusual and original book-related events. Esp non-fiction events in fact - history..."; not wanted: "standing and reading your book for 40 mins and then taking some questions".
• Typical fee: €150-300 (Ireland), £200-250 (Belfast). Go as audience/volunteer first; start with local libraries and schools to build a track record.
• Welsh calendar (Literature Wales What's On, festival pages, read 27 Oct 2026):
• Penarth Literary Festival (Griffin Books, Belle Vue Park Pavilion, Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan): 19-21 Jun 2026, fiction/non-fiction/poetry. Bookshop-run: pitch to the bookshop.
• Llandeilo Lit Fest / Gŵyl Lên Llandeilo: 24-26 Apr 2026, 10th year, 42 writers, bilingual programme; enquiries [address kept in the project workspace]
• Hay Festival (late May-June, Y Gelli) and Hay Winter Weekend; Hay is curated/publisher-led, a long shot for indies.
• Others on the LW list: Llandaff Cathedral Festival, Abergavenny Writing Festival, Crickhowell Literary Festival, Montgomeryshire (Monty) Lit Fest, Laugharne Weekend, St Davids Festival, Llangwm Literary Festival, Caerleon Arts Festival; history-specific: Swansea History & Heritage Fair (Historical Association Swansea), Llandeilo History Festival. Chalke History Festival (Wiltshire) runs "Pitch my Project" for early-career historians (RHS, 14 Oct 2026).

The method

1. Calendar backwards: list each target festival's date, then pitch date = date minus 6 months (minimum 4). For June festivals pitch Dec-Jan; for April, Oct-Nov (i.e. NOW for Llandeilo 2027).
2. Find the named programmer (festival site "contact/team", bookshop owner, LW listing). Never "Dear festival organiser".
3. Pitch an event, not a book, max 2 paragraphs: title; format (illustrated talk with original record images, a "read the documents" session, a walk, a panel); audience ("local history and family history readers in the Vale"); why now (an anniversary); credentials (the archive, catalogued sources); offer to join a panel and name 1-2 plausible co-panellists; link to one page with a 1-line bio, photo, the e-book and a 2-min clip.
4. Leave out sales figures, rankings, reviews.
5. Build the ladder: library/society talks first (see heritage-talks-circuit-aatp-branches.md, u3a-speaker-circuit-local-history.md), then small local festivals, then larger ones. Attend or volunteer once at the target festival.
6. At the event: a QR code to /ebooks/ and a mailing-list sign-up beat book sales (<10% buy on the day). Measure sign-ups per event with a UTM'd QR.
7. Follow up once after ~2-3 weeks; thank and move on.

How we apply it to Cedwyn

• Targets, in order: (1) Penarth Lit Fest 2027 (Vale of Glamorgan, closest; bookshop-run, so pitch to Griffin Books ~Dec 2026-Jan 2027); (2) Llandeilo Lit Fest 2027 (pitch by ~Nov 2026; offer an English/Welsh place-names event tied to the Enwau names book); (3) Llandaff Cathedral Festival and Swansea History & Heritage Fair as history-friendly venues. Hay only after a track record.
• Event idea (no case content, no accusations): "Reading a Vale farm through its records: maps, tithe and names" - an illustrated talk using public archive images, ending with how people can look up their own place. Anniversary hooks from the anniversary calendar skill (e.g. 28 July Glaniad for Welsh-Patagonian events).
• Write each pitch as a HubSpot draft task for the target festival (institution/role address only); nothing is sent without the project lead's GO. Public text never names the project lead; banned words apply; no family holdings.
• Track: festival | programmer | pitch-by date | status in the bizdev log; QR UTM utm_source=festival&utm_campaign=.

Sources

• thecreativepenn.com (Clare Mackintosh, ChipLitFest)
• sarahwebb.info ; sarahwebb.info
• literaturewales.org ; literaturewales.org ; llandeilolitfest.org ; literaturewales.org
• royalhistsoc.org

Raw Markdown: festival-pitching-wales-literature-history.md · version and changes: changelog · machine index: agents.json