NOVA Authors Market Open to Public for Holidays

With COVID-19 making shopping a bit less personal this year, more than a dozen local authors have banded together to offer conversation, readings, signed novels, poetry collections, nonfiction works, books for young adults and children's books for the holiday season. The NOVA Authors Market Facebook group features authors who have made themselves available to answer questions about their work, sign their books and ship them, all with a personal touch. Participating authors, many of them award-winning and internationally known, are also offering specials and incentives to encourage readers to buy local while supporting the literary arts, and some are donating proceeds to local nonprofits as a way to give back to the community.

“COVID has been hard on everyone, including authors,” said Scott Howard, a Prince William County English teacher, fiction author and father who spearheaded the project. “Folks usually see us out at book shops or on sidewalks around this time of year doing signings and sales. We haven't been able to do that often, and even where we could, foot traffic is down. But people are reading now more than ever. This is a win-win for local customers and authors.”

Howard has created a schedule of activities for the first week of December. Starting December 3 and running through December 6, at various intervals, a special lineup of authors will take turns conducting readings, facilitating activities and engaging readers. All participating authors will continue to offer signed books and answer readers’ questions through December 20.

Members of the public are encouraged to request entry into the Facebook group and/or peruse the authors’ websites and books. For more information, email Howard at s.d.howard2@gmail.com.