A mega meta book festival will welcome 3,000 booklovers and 100 authors in the Metaverse
Booky Call, a free book discovery platform cleverly disguised as a dating app, is celebrating National Book Month by opening registration for BookyCon, the world’s largest virtual book festival. Held in the Metaverse Nov. 12, the festival will feature more than 100 author interviews, meet-and-greet opportunities, book club lounges and user discussion areas.
“We are dedicated to bringing books to life,” Booky Call CEO Brant Menswar noted, “so we wanted to host the first large-scale celebration of authors and their books in the Metaverse.”
Booklovers will be able to interact with authors, industry insiders and leaders of several virtual book clubs as they guide their avatars around the virtual convention space. They can visit a virtual bookstore, purchase merchandise, join a book club discussion at a virtual bar and engage in fireside meet-and-greets after hearing speakers on one of seven genre-themed stages.
The Independent Book Publishers Association and the Women in Publishing Summit will host exhibit booths while both the Book Nerds’ Book Reviews and the BookTok Baddies, two virtual groups on Facebook, will be hosting Book Club Bars.
New York Times bestselling romance authors Jennifer Armentrout and Lexi Blake, viral sensation and nonfiction bestselling author Mary Katherine Backstrom, well-known social advocate and author Nathan Monk, and author and book marketing executive M.J. Rose are just five of the influential authors who will be participating.
Monk, whose works include “All Saints Hotel and Cocktail Lounge” and newly released “Russian Sleeper Cell,” is excited to meet new fans and reconnect with existing ones in the new format. “After two years of book releases happening on Zoom, it’s going to be really amazing to have that conference feel again,” he said. “What I love about BookyCon being hosted in the Metaverse is that it will have that convention room vibe while still creating accessibility to folks from all over the globe!”
Other authors who will be speaking include Kristen Ashley, Natasha Miller, Danielle Orsino, Erica Spindler, Sophie Strand, David McAfee, Lexi Haddock, Madeline Martin, Danielle Brown, Amber Brown, Jennifer Probst, Emilia Ares, Dr. Froswa’ Booker-Drew, Jean Meltzer, Jean Alicia Elster, Emily Myers, Brittany Wang, Nisha Sharma, Laura Taylor Namey, Erin Beaty, Katalina Gamarra, Sasha Alsberg, Emily Blackwood, Carol Van Den Hende and Mark Newhouse.
BookyCon registration is free. Tickets are available for 3,000 booklovers who will be able to attend the virtual event throughout the day from the comfort of their homes. They are available at www.bookycon.com on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Booky Call, the fastest growing book discovery app, available in both the App Store and Google Play, combines the psychology and functionality of dating apps with creative “humanized” dating profiles for thousands of fiction and nonfiction titles. Booky Call helps readers discover and engage with books in a revolutionary way, leading to close to one million book matches since its launch in September 2021.
