When a literary festival with an impressive list of authors can be organised in a small Hertfordshire village it needs to be promoted well. With this in mind, we have created a website linked to a ticket booking platform packed with information about the one-day Barkway Literary Festival which, this year, is taking place on Saturday 1 October.

Tickets for author events

With a clear colour-coded design, visitors to the website can navigate easily between types of events and find plenty of information about the authors and their latest publications. Quotes from reviews confirm the status of the participants as do images of their book jackets. Events are easily booked by clicking on the blue Tickets buttons.

Events take place in two venues in the village. Workshops at the Social Club start at 10am when Matty Long author and illustrator of the ‘Super Happy Magic Forest’ series hosts a workshop for children ages 5 to 10. Later, nature enthusiast Rachel Lawston is running a fun story time for children ages 3 to 7. In the afternoon Nicola Irvine, film director, screenwriter and founder of film production company, Landlady Films will be speaking about writing for the screen, while bestselling crime writer, Sophie Hannah is running a masterclass for aspiring authors at 4pm.

Author events in the Village Hall start at 10.30am, when Dr Matthew Green, historian, writer and broadcaster presents his brilliant Shadowlands. He is followed by Faye Brann discussing her journey to becoming a published author. Later, Mick Finlay will talk about his hit Arrowood series followed by comedian, author and NHS anaesthetist Ed Patrick talking about Catch Your Breath. Economists Rupal Patel and Jack Meaning, authors of CAN’T WE JUST PRINT MORE MONEY? will be providing the answers at 4pm, and award-winning journalist and travel writer Vitali Vitaliev shares his fascinating life at 5.30pm. Local author Sophie Hannah, headlines at 7pm with a talk about her life in books including her latest, The Couple at the Table.

A cost-effective way to promote a festival

We used WordPress to create the website, its intuitive user interface makes it easy to populate with information and photography and can be simply updated each year. It links to Ticketsource which is super easy to use and perfect for the organisers to manage ticket sales and bookings. Links to social media and festival supporters help make the site a key and important part of the festival’s publicity.

If you are organising an event and looking for ways to promote it, why not speak to Mark at Marketing Zone on 07801 419800, or email mark@marketingzone.co.uk and find out more about creating your own website with an integrated ticket booking facility.