I’m intending to hold this at the Time for
Tea Café in Prestwich, Greater Manchester. I don’t have a date yet, but it will
be early evening, probably 6.30-8.30. It will include afternoon tea style
snacks: sandwiches, quiche, cake and tea or coffee. And a glass of wine. Afternoon tea just isn’t
what it used to be! If it is successful, I’ll organise more and I’ll also post
a description here and on the web site so that other writers / café owners can
adopt it for their local Creative Cafés.
Who is invited
I shall be inviting writers and people who
love reading and listening to words. It has to be by invite only – there is
limited space at Time for Tea and anyway, a “salon” needs an intimate
atmosphere. THE FIRST ONE WILL BE FREE. Thereafter,
cost will be £10 to include “afternoon tea”, a glass of wine, excellent company
and a book to take home. It won’t be the
same people every time but there will be some overlap.
What will happen
You’ll enjoy a great “afternoon tea”. Two
or three of the writers will read out some of their work. I intend to move people
around three times so that you mix with different people. You are also invited
to bring one book to give away. It can simply be one you’ve read and enjoyed. It doesn’t have to be brand new. Hopefully
everyone can do this, so everyone will go home with a new book. Writers may also
bring up to three books to sell and they can bring flyers to give out. They are
also invited to consider donating a book to Time for Tea. And we can chat all
the time about books and writing.
What you can do now
Let me know that you would like an invite.
Tell me what you think of the timing – is 6.30
too early / too late? What about using a Saturday?
Is the price reasonable?
What about the idea of swapping books? What
would be the fairest way to distribute these?
Does the book sale system work for writers?
I’ve limited it to three as we don’t want to spend all evening swapping money. Maybe
the flyer could offer a small discount? Should I restrict sales to the writers
who read their work? But let everyone bring flyers?
The Creative Café is all about serving creative practitioners,
their audiences and the cafés. Does this
do that
