This past weekend, a book festival in downtown Baltimore promised to be the perfect event for book lovers, but instead, it's being described as one of the worst events people have seen. Accounts describing the A Million Lives Book Festival have gone viral on social media, especially on TikTok. Authors and vendors WJZ spoke to say they feel misled by event organizers, and they say the event didn't feel put together at all. The event,
put on by Archer Management , was held on May 2 and May 3.
Authors feel lied to
Stephanie Combs's weekend at the Baltimore Convention Center was supposed to be a big one. The
Maryland-based romantic fantasy author has been independently publishing books since 2023. The A Million Lives Book Festival was going to be her first one attending as an author. "That is one of my dreams, bucket goal lists," Combs said. "I wanna be invited as an author to an event like this. Where I get to meet readers and get to connect with other authors." Leading up to the festival, Combs said communication from organizers was sparse. She and other authors say there weren't clear directions on how to enter and bring their products into the center. However, Combs said she remained optimistic because she was informed that between 500 to 600 tickets were sold for the event. On the first day, Combs estimates, around 20 to 30 people showed up. On the second day, close to 100 showed up. Panels for the festival also didn't have chairs or tables in their rooms, forcing people to sit on the floor. The festival closed out with the Lavender Romance Ball, which some paid $250 to attend. The event looked more like a high school cafeteria. "As an author, I felt bad for inviting my readers to this event because they were promised this amazing, wonderful, fantasy-themed ball, and I felt like they didn't really get what they paid for," Combs said. Archer Management posted a statement on social media Monday apologizing for how the festival went. "We are currently processing refunds as fast as we can. All refunds will be processed by May 31," the statement reads. Archer Management hasn't responded to requests for comment.
Vendors take financial hit
Author Perci Jay flew in from Texas to attend. Her videos about A Million Lives have garnered more than five million views on TikTok. She said authors, especially new ones, can take on a big financial burden because of these events. "Some of us went into debt to come to this event. Some of us took on expenses -- mitigating the risk of what we were promised -- and had to spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, shipping unsold product back home," Jay said. Jay said she spent time at the festival encouraging new authors to keep going to these events. Combs said this hasn't deterred her completely, but she's going to be cautious with brand-new events like this one. "I know there's gonna be things that go wrong, it happens at every event, and I can be completely forgiving of that," Combs said. "It felt like in this case there were just a lot of excuses." It's unclear if Archer Management will help cover any other costs that authors and vendors had related to the festival.
