Dear Friends of the Cape Cod Book Festival,

We love that you are readers and are even reading this support us page, because we need your help. It’s a fact.  Reading is our most endangered species. 

We don’t believe in book bans.  You don’t want to read a book, then don’t read it. But don’t stop others from reading it.  We believe that closing ourselves off to history, knowledge and information via book bans is suppressing the truth. And besides, publishing has changed immensely with an influx of new cultural voices, diversity and genres like never before. Don’t we want to read them all? Or, don’t we want to let folks decide for themselves that they want to read them all?

Running a book festival opens a world to all types of circumstances involving books. But…

Did you know that no one on our team gets paid?

Running a book festival is a year round feat that is more than setting up a few staged authors visits, dinner parties and accommodations.  There’s outreach to schools, community, full time PR and Marketing, non-profit status reports along with the challenges from the public.  There’s publisher inquiries, agents, authors, logistics, tourism, ticketing, web design, and all types of other items right down to answering every inquiry and email from fans.  It’s a full time job for our Founder, except it’s not 9-5.  It’s often 70 hours a week sans salary. So it’s volunteer work for the sake of literacy.

Did you know that our authors don’t get paid either?

We don’t pay high speaking engagement fees. Our authors believe in literacy and keeping books alive.  Many are close friends who come in out of the goodness of their heart and for love of the written word.

Did you know that in the next year we hope to do more for kids and librarians?

If Cape Cod is a summer tourism haven, isn’t it time we became a literary haven, too? Shouldn’t we be taken more seriously than beach blankets and steamed clams?

Your pledge is tax-deductible. Your gift, no matter the size, will make a direct impact on supporting our mission to engage, educate and entertain the greater communities of the Cape through visits with inspiring, world-class authors.

Keep reading, and please support your local independent bookshops!