My First Experience At YALC And How I Saved Hundreds On Books

On Sunday 10th July after just getting back from four days at a music festival I headed to the Kensington Olympia for YALC.

YALC is the Young Adult Literary Convention which takes place in the same building as the Film and TV Comic Con, held annually at Kensington Olympia. YALC is a three-day convention style event which hosts guest authors with signing opportunities every day, stage panels, workshops and retail exhibitors celebrating all things Young Adult books. There are some adult books dotted around as well, but it is focused way more on YA.

The first YALC took place in 2014 as Malorie Blackman’s major project when she was Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2013-2015. And the rest is history.

Tickets and getting to YALC

You can buy tickets for YALC online through the same website as London Film and TV Comic Con. Buying a YALC ticket gets you access to YALC an hour before anyone from comic con. And this is essential if you want to get to any signings (more on that later). And then you can access comic con downstairs after the first hour.

The event is held at Kensington Olympia which is right next to the train station of the same name. It’s quite a big station and accessible from the overground train but also the district line.

In terms of whether to go for a day or weekend depends on what you want to get out of it. If you want to go to loads of talks and signings across different days then it may be best booking a weekend ticket. But if you’re less bothered about that, or there’s only stuff on one day then that’s more than enough time. In terms of exploring the publishers you won’t need more than a few hours, and all of the best deals do happen on Sunday (more on that later too).

Things to do before the event

Before you go to YALC you’ll want to check out the programme of events for the day or days you’re going and work out your priorities. If you want to attend any signings have a priority order so you know which signing to queue for a ticket for firs. So for me my number one was Jacqueline Wilson so I headed there first. But also check out the workshops and panel talks on offer so you know to be in the right places in advance.

It’s also worth following some of the publishers on Twitter/ other social media as they’ll be posting about giveaways they may be running. You can see all of the publishers on the site map from 2022 here. Not only that but outside of the event it’s good to fill your feedback with bookish awesomeness.

My experience of YALC

2022 was the first year I had ever gone to YALC, although I did stumble to the floor when I went to comic con a few years ago, but I had no idea what it was. I only went for the Sunday this year because I was at 2000 trees festival until Saturday night. But it worked out perfectly as Jacqueline was only there Sunday.

When you arrive at the event you’ll queue up outside mixed between people there for comic con and people there for YALC. But when you get inside the building you’ll have a separate entrance. I turned up 15 mins before doors opened which was a great choice as it wasn’t stupidly busy, but gave me time to get my signing ticket.

You’ll get a ticket you can either print or show at the entrance. If you have a weekend ticket you’ll get a wristband, or a stamp if its jus for a day. And after a quick back check you’re in. I found the whole thing super smooth to get in and the crowd were super friendly which was a huge bonus as I turned up on my own.

Signings and talks

For signings at YALC you join virtual queues which basically means you get a raffle ticket showing your number in the queue. Then when the time comes for that signing they’ll say numbers 1-25, then 1-50 etc. So the lower number you’ll have the earlier you’ll get to go to the signing. For most authors you’ll be able to get a slot quite easily, but for some more in demand (like Alice Oseman who was there on Sunday) they may cap the number of spaces. So if you want to go to a signing get there before doors open to get straight in.

For talks at YALC, again if you want to see something desperately make sure to get to the space early to get a good spot. Even get in for the talk before to ensure a good seat. I know the space changed for 2022 so I don’t know how it was before, but I found if you sat too far back you couldn’t hear everything going on. So for Jacqueline Wilsons talk we sat through the talk before and moved forward when it finished to get a good spot. And the talk was magnificent.

How I saved hundreds of pounds on books at YALC

For me the main reasons I was going to YALC was for Jacqueline Wilson and book buying. So for that reason the Sunday is definitely the best day. Most publishers have deals on books such as 2 for £10, or 3 for £10, or just random sales. But as the day gets later on the Sunday a lot of publishers reduce prices further. I never paid more than about £3 or so for a book so got some insane deals over the day. A lot of stalls do bundles for series’ as well if you want to buy a collection.

I do admit I went a bit crazy, especially within the first hour or so of heading in. I loved heading to publisher stalls and speaking to the wonderful staff there to get some recommendations of books. And in most cases I bought them. You can see my haul of books above.

A lot of stalls also had freebie samples of upcoming books, and in a lot of them you could enter giveaways to win ARCs (advanced reader copies). So you could be really lucky to win a copy, but remember it’s a lot busier at the weekend so there’s more chance of winning on the Friday.

Now I just can’t wait for 2023!

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