Convention Review

The 2026 Australia Book Fair

Held 21st to 22nd February 2026,
Melbourne, Australia. Suzie Eisfelder reports
through the prism of an SF/F reader

Book Fair Australia is a multi-genre literary festival. It was founded in 2022 in Sydney, Australia by Ivana Truglio. It is staffed by volunteers, and what wonderful volunteers they are. I attended for the first time on 14th and 15th October 2023, then on the 2nd and 3rd of November 2024 and yet again this year, 21st to 22nd February 2026. The first three years it was held in Sydney, and having proven that their model works they decided to bring it to Melbourne, Australia fourteen months after the one in November 2024. I’m a Melbourne person and I drove to Sydney for two Book Fairs. I wanted to show my support and also buy more books direct from authors. I regret not attending in 2022, much regret.

There were very few changes in the move from Sydney to Melbourne. I don’t have the information for 2022. In 2023 the official figures show 145 exhibitors with 98 of those being authors (Science Fiction and Fantasy was the biggest category at 31%). In 2024 the official figures show 194 exhibitors with 118 of those being authors with a larger spread of genres, Science Fiction and Paranormal made up 8% with Fantasy, Action & Adventure being 21% (I note that they’ve divided up Science Fiction and Fantasy somewhat differently). I don’t have the official figures for 2026 as they’ve not finished collating them, but my unofficial figures taken from looking at the program show 192 exhibitors with 157 authors, of that the Fantasy, Action & Adventure genre is 17% and the Science-Fiction, Paranormal genre is 5%. It’s almost as if the representation of the Science Fiction genre is reducing, I’ll be interested to see the official figures to see what I’ve missed. Melbourne was still staffed by volunteers and each of them was just as nice and also just as dedicated as they were in Sydney.

More information I’ve culled from the programmes, yes, I’ve kept my programme from both 2023 and 2024. In 2023 there was one stage area for panels and one split table i.e. one table with two authors. Science-Fiction and Fantasy were counted as one genre in 2023 and there were 39 authors. In 2024 there were two stages for panels and six split tables. Fantasy, Action & Adventure was counted as one genre and I’ve counted 21 authors. Sci-Fi, Paranormal was counted as one genre and I counted nine authors. In 2026 there were two stage areas for panels and ten split tables. Fantasy, Action & Adventure was counted as a genre and I counted 33 authors. Sci-Fi, Paranormal was counted as one genre and I counted thirteen authors. While I do buy other genres, these are often my go-to genres.

This year they sold out of tickets several weeks in advance. It was a wonderful feeling to attend a sold out event. One report indicated they sold about 1,900 tickets. They did open up sales for Sunday afternoon when they saw how Saturday afternoon went. If you needed to change your mind you could attend from 1pm to 4pm on Sunday afternoon for only Aus$30. The official statistics I have for 2023 and 2024 does not mention numbers of tickets sold, but it does say that there were Aus$88,000+ books sold in 2023 and Aus$129,000+ books sold in 2024. It’s really heartening to see these figures and know that people are definitely reading.

I approached the entire weekend feeling tired, but upbeat. Being in my home town means I don’t have to plan the driving and hotel rooms. Book Fair Australia in 2023 was a nightmare when it came to hotel rooms for me. I’d booked my first Air BNB, with a month to go it was cancelled by the owner. I was told the cancellation was because it had been double booked by the booking agent. Add in the extra stress of finding another room and the travel around Sydney using a different route to that originally planned and I was just grateful to get to the Book Fair Australia on that first day.

Book Fair Australia is a two day event. It has stalls for authors to talk to their adoring fans (and sell their books), stalls for the sponsors (including Book Addiction and Certified Printing), local bookshops and other vendors. The other vendors range between the supplies all readers need, such as bags for books, or mugs to hold that much needed hot drink, or even containers for that necessary cold drink, to things that readers may not need, but absolutely want...earrings. I may have bought five pairs of earrings.

My goal when attending book events is to catch up with authors I’ve read and loved, and also find new authors. I love supporting small business wherever I am, and supporting local authors is a must. Over the past few years I’ve found some of the best books are written by self-published authors. One of my favourite writes across genres, but my favourite series of his that he’s co-written with a friend is The Outer Reaches. Co-written with A. J. Jones it’s a space opera and I enjoyed it thoroughly. There are three books in the series, the first is co-written while the authors have branched off to write the second and third books by themselves. The main feedback I give to them is ‘more please’ I follow that statement up with their writing together is next level. I won’t say I have all of Pete Aldin’s books because I really don’t like romance, if a book has romance in it I may not finish it. Some of his books have romantic elements and they’re not for me, so it’s a good thing some of his books have no romance. The series he’s set in Tasmania, Australia is about zombies, the first two books are kick ass, but in my opinion the third is let down by the romance angle. As a book blogger it’s wonderful to have readers find their new author through my blog, that was the case on the Sunday as I brought my friend (and my reader) to Pete Aldin’s table to introduce them.

The authors range from Science Fiction to Fantasy, from RomCom through to Romantasy, Memoir through to Self Help. Since I don’t like Romance in any of its forms there were a lot of stalls I could just walk past at speed, bearing in mind hobble is still a speed.

Tucked in the middle of the aisles of stalls were two ‘stages’ (there was only one stage in 2023, but two in 2024). Both were just areas delineated by several rows of chairs and a backdrop. They did use a sound system for each ‘stage’. This was useful for those people who have soft voices or the audience who are hard of hearing.

The panels looked to be very interesting. I was with a friend on the Sunday and he made sure I made it to the panel I wanted to watch. If not for him I would have missed all the panels by talking to authors. The one we attended was How has generative AI affected you as an author. The speakers were Phillipa Nefri Clark and G. R. Thomas with moderation provided by Blair Stratton. An interesting topic.

The lead up to the event was punctuated by forays into the Book Fair Australia Discord. There are some of us who chat about what’s coming up, when we’ve bought our tickets and how we’re going to get there. We also talk about our books and our To Be Read Piles. It was great in 2023 to have somewhere to whinge when my Air BNB was cancelled. We’ve kept talking since Book Fair Australia finished, and will continue to keep talking until the next. I really enjoyed meeting up with some of them during the weekend. It’s a far cry from when I was young and reading was frowned upon by my peers.

I only bought twenty six books this year. In 2024 I walked away with forty books, so this year I was being careful. I still have books on my To Be Read Pile from both 2023 and 2024 as well as books I’ve bought at bookshops and other book type events. When my favourite second-hand bookshop closed last year I went in there three times and bought several boxes of books. I’m really not doing my To Be Read Pile any favours by attending Book Fair Australia this year, but I wanted to catch the vibes and catch up with some of my favourite authors to tell them off for not writing faster (yes, I know how long it takes to write a book) because I want the sequels, and also to catch up with friends.

Suzie Eisfelder

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