Authors Slam Baltimore Book Festival as 'A Slap in the Face' After Arriving to Find Barren Convention Center

More than 100 authors who attended the first-ever A Million Lives Book Festival in Baltimore over the weekend say they were misled by organizers, leaving many frustrated and out of thousands of dollars.

Authors and book lovers alike took to social media to express their disappointment with the literary festival, organized by Grace Willows and run by her event planning company, Archer Fantasy Events, according to NBC News.

Attendees, who had paid between $50 and $250 to take part in the festival, had been looking forward to it for more than a year. Many authors rearranged major life events to attend.

Fantasy author Perci Jay, who scheduled her uncle-in-law's funeral around the festival, invested in travel and purchased boxes of books to sell at tables she paid for and decorated. However, instead of the promised 500 to 600 attendees, fewer than 100 people showed up.

"How are 80 attendees going to buy books from 120 authors? Riddle me that. I lost nearly three grand," author JD Laubach revealed in a TikTok. Another author called the experience "a slap in the face."

Furthermore, Willow promised a fairy tale gala with swag bags. Instead, attendees were met with a barren convention hall filled with sparsely decorated tables and no merchandise in sight.

Willow shared on both her personal and company social media accounts that they "wholeheartedly apologize for how the event turned out" and promised full refunds for all attendees.