Author Guidelines

The organizing committee are in the process of planning our 2023 festival, which will take place at Pasadena Public Library's newest facility Jefferson Branch Library on Saturday, September 23, 2023.

If you are an author and would like to be considered for 2023's event, please review the following criteria:

• The book must be a Young Adult title (primarily targeted for readers ages 12-18). Middle Grade titles will be considered, but rarely selected.
• The book must fall within collection development standards for the library (generally positive professional reviews, of interest to our YA readers. Professional reviews include: Library Journal/School Library Journal, Kirkus, VOYA, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Horn Book, etc.)
• We strongly recommend the book must be available through Baker & Taylor, Brodart, or Ingram and returnable to the distributor.
• The book's publication date must be recent (within the last year or so), or have longevity/relevance
• For debut authors, the book's publication date must be at least one month before the date of the festival
• The book or author must relate to a panel discussion with other authors
• The author must not have been a speaker at the previous year's festival

Please note that while we would love to pay authors for travel expenses and honorariums, we are unable to do so.

If you meet the above criteria, please fill out this form.

We review all requests, but cannot respond to every one. If you are not selected to be featured in the festival this year, it is likely because your title does not fit into one of the criteria above, however, we will consider it for the following year, or you may submit another form later.

There is no deadline, however, we review the forms (including anyone who’s submitted their name from the previous two years) between December-April.

We reserve the right to invite or refuse participants at the discretion of the organizing committee.