5 Things We Learned at YALLWEST 2019
Last weekend, Savannah and I flew took an early flight to Santa Monica for the annual YALLWEST held at the local high school. We had so much fun talking to the different content creators that came to our meet-and-greet on Friday as well as meeting the rest of y’all during the festival day! Now that we’re both back in the office full of vitamin D and bookish love, let me recap our weekend for y’all.
P.S. If you have any pictures from either of these events with us, please send it over.
Brandy Colbert and Natasha Ngan are mad chill.
We started off the weekend with the NOVL Meet-and-Greet at the Sandbox in the Le Méridien Delfina hotel. We had the honor of having Brandy Colbert, author of The Revolution of Birdie Randolph, and Natasha Ngan, author of Girls of Paper and Fire, come hang out with us and 15 NOVLers. Tacos were served (as were looks), friendships were made, and pool tables were posed on. Wouldn’t you say that’s the perfect start to the weekend?
2. Y’all fuel us with your love and energy.
How do we have so much energy, you ask? Well, it’s because we feed off of your energy and excitement. Plus, who wouldn’t be excited? We’re in California, we have amazing books to share with y’all, and we get to see all your happy smiles when you come by the booth. A huge thank you and shout out to everyone who stopped by just to say hi, even when we weren’t doing giveaways—it’s incredibly sweet and one of the highlights of our jobs.
3. You can recognize our booth from miles away.
The pink and blue blood in us is strong. There was no missing our booth because these colors stand out so well in the sunlight, and we were right across from the food trucks. Not gonna lie, that boba truck enticed us ALL day.
4. We have the best and the most dedicated fans.
Some of y’all are really dedicated to NOVL and it really shows. There were so many things to look at and do at YALLWEST, but somehow, readers came lining up right on the dot. When we did our fleece blanket giveaway, we thought no one would come name all of us, but someone got it right away! We even saw people with our tote bags from two redesigns ago—y’all really are the MVPs.
5. NOVL + JIMMY make for a great team.
This year, our friends down the hall at JIMMY Patterson joined the festivities and gave away their titles and swag. Work trips are always conducive to some team bonding, and we’re so glad we got to bond with Sabrina and Julie over stacking book towers and ice cream. We hope you had a chance to grab their ARCs as well!
So…see y’all at YALLFest?