About Us
Discover your new favourite author with Indie Author Book Fair
Seamless process
What is the Indie Author Book Festival?
- showcase the outstanding books available from their fellow indie writers,
- to celebrate books and reading, and
- to exchange best ideas for the professionalisation of independently published authors.
An author who has chosen not to sign up with a traditional publisher. They oversee and project manage all aspects of their book, from the hiring of professional editors, cover designers and typesetters, to ensuring their books are available on the various print-on-demand distribution methods that allow their titles to be available globally. Simply put, they contribute towards the cost of their book in some form, and strive to be “professionally self-published”.
Unfortunately, this method of publishing is sometimes seen as an outlier in the traditional world and a lot of “Traditional” fairs and festivals do not welcome indie authors in to their events. In late 2022, we decided that if we couldn’t join them, we’d organise a series of dedicated fairs and an overarching Festival specifically for Indies.
The concept was popular and so more events are being planned to give readers a fun and engaging chance to come along and Discover their New Favourite Author.
Meet the Organisers
Collette Parker
Engagement Lead
Collette is an experienced writer, sub editor, PR and community engagement specialist.
After finishing her training with the National Council for Training Journalists (NCTJ) she worked as a reporter on the Hunts Post and Oxford Daily Mail and as a sub editor on the Cambridge Evening News and TVTimes Magazine for 10 years. She freelanced during this time on Daily Express Features, Guardian Education and Elle Magazine.
During the noughties she was the arts writer on Cambridgeshire Life and food critic on the platform Local Secrets. Collette then went on to write property features for Fine & Country, edited the Guild of Professional Estate Agents quarterly magazine, and provided editorial and PR for numerous companies.
Her roles in PR included Communications Manager at Luminus Group (now Chorus Homes) and Media Manager/Community Engagement Manager at Anglian Water.
She freelanced for Cambridgeshire Probation Services Internal Coms, marketing and PR Papworth Trust, Peterborough City Council Media Team and Care UK Internal Communications.
Collette graduated with a degree in English and Drama from the University of Cambridge, in her 30s ran workshops for various community education establishments, was artistic director of Ocras Theatre Group and is currently Associate Freelance Director (Projects) for The Chronicle Theatre Company.
Mark Giles
Festival Lead (UK)
I am a novelist, script writer, poet and member of the British Guild of Beer Writers. I was born, with another name, in Sunderland in 1970 and grew up in the North East of England. Despite having been in an admittedly little-known band, 3am Decision, and having worked in various guises in the legal sector, I have always managed to maintain a love of both the English pub and the written word. ‘Collapse of the Wave’ is the natural result of such a love and became my first novel.
I started writing ‘Collapse of The Wave’ while sitting in a pub, celebrating finishing co-writing a sit-com script with a friend. I looked around the place, thinking of the well-known writer’s mantra ‘Go with what you know’. I wish I could say that the notion of writing about a pub came to me straight away, obvious as it should have been, but it took about another hour and a couple of pints before the idea started to form. From that day however, what I then started to do was to write down ideas and observations on the memo pad of my phone while I was down the pub, rather than relying on remembering the next day. Well, you never remember the next day, do you? That soon made a massive difference to the amount of raw material I had to work with, and it quickly started to take shape as a novel. Don’t worry, to those who drink with me. All names and details have been changed!
And thus there and then, possibly, Pub Fiction was born, one chapter at a time. I avoided thinking about the whole thing too much and…eventually, I got it finished in 2015.
Once the first book was done, reception was rather favourable, and I kept getting asked when the second one was coming out. This was usually while down my local or at beer festivals, where many of my target audience may be found I guess. Also, we did leave Dan in a bit of a situation, so I thought that I had better let myself and other people know what he did next. ‘Another English Civil War’ is that story and the book was launched in late July 2018.
Since then I have been writing poetry, preparing to write a science fiction trilogy and am working with Chris Lewis on Home County – The Musical.
Ian Hooper
Executive Director
Ian Hooper was born and raised in Northern Ireland and is a former Royal Air Force intelligence officer. Under the penname of Ian Andrew, he had his first novel, A Time to Every Purpose published in 2014. Writing under the same penname, his first crime novel, Face Value, won the Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize for Fiction.
Since 2015, he has been executive director of independent publisher, Leschenault Press (and its main imprint, The Book Reality Experience) and continues to work as an author, editor and ghost-writer. Acknowledged as an expert in, and a passionate advocate for, the independent author arena, he founded the Independent Author Book Fair in 2020 and subsequently the Independent Author Book Festival, in an attempt to level the playing field for all indie authors at literary events.
Residing in the idyllic southwest of Western Australia, he holds qualifications in management, training and learning design as well as an MA in Creative Writing and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management.
Kirstie Duthie
Festival Admin Lead
Kirstie (Kat) was born and raised in Cambridgeshire and has a background in administration for the corporate world. She met Mark, and later Ian, over some beers and eventually helped out with the first Indie Author Book Fair in St Ives, becoming one of the organisers for the future UK events! Kat’s favourite books vary, from crime to romance to fantasy and on a relaxing holiday will binge as many books as possible accompanied by a bottle of wine.
Rob Littlewood
Festival Lead (Aus)
Rob Littlewood is a successful independent author having written and published, with Leschenault Press, his first two novels in the Scifi/Fantasy trilogy, The Balance Wars. Book 1, Deviance was published in 2020 with Convergence following in 2022. The final book in the series, Equilibrium, is planned for 2024.
Rob also runs his own successful business consultancy Clearwater Workplace Solutions, drawing on his experience in industrial relations and human resource management for small business. In addition Rob has written multiple award winning Business Award submissions for various clients. With a passion for independent publishing, Rob is one of the organisers of the Bunbury Book Fair working in close collaboration with the rest of the Indie Author Book Fair Events Team.