A fantasy romance novel convention quickly went from Velaris to very messy.
Romantasy fans — the extremely popular book genre among millennials and Gen Z women that blends fantasy fiction with smutty romance tropes — were baffled when they arrived at the A Million Lives Book Festival in Baltimore on May 2 and 3. What was promoted as an immersive gathering of hundreds of book lovers, dozens of authors and publishers, and themed entertainment quickly devolved into what is being dubbed the “Fyre Festival of BookTok.”
Organized by Archer Management, A Million Lives promised author panels, romantasy cosplay meet-ups, a costume contest, a content creation room, a vendor hall stocked with new releases and bookish items and a glistening ball taken right off the pages of Sarah J. Maas.
Author and attendee Stephanie Combs mockingly shared a video of her and her friends strutting through the hotel lobby wearing floor-length ball gowns.
“When you’re going to a bookish fantasy-themed ball,” she wrote in a TikTok post before showing a sparsely populated convention hall with no decorations. “And this is what you get.”
Tables at the event were shockingly empty, with some lazily thrown fake rose petals and books on them. Guests dressed for a ball of epic proportions were sadly disappointed as they idled in the room, which didn’t even have the lights dimmed.
“When you gotta laugh so you don’t cry,” Stephanie joked. “A million lives or a million lies? I was an attending author…at least we looked fantastic.”
Perci Jay, an author attending the event, showed off the “absolute chaos” of the ball, which only attendees who bought the most expensive ticket had access to. The affair cost $250 and had no food, with water and drinks for purchase at a cash bar. The only music at the ball was from a small speaker a security guard had on him.
“So yes, friends, that means the plan for this ball was for us to stand in the giant empty room, with no food, a cash bar and stand there in silence,” she said on TikTok.
Authors looking to sell their books were told that around 600 tickets were sold for the event.
In reality, only about 30 guests attended.
Romance author Kait Disney-Leugers blasted the festival as the “worst event” she ever attended, adding that she did not make any money at A Million Lives, a huge blow, saying authors usually pay for their own tables
“I barely made enough to cover my fucking parking for two days,” Disney-Leugers said in a TikTok, adding that “It felt like Fyre Fest of book festivals,” referring to the disastrous 2017 music festival whose ritzy advertising ended up being a multi-million dollar scam.
“Advertised as something really awesome, but the actual execution of it was horrible. We were told there were more than 610 tickets sold. I did not see those people.”
An author told The Cut that the conference’s promise that authors’ hotel rooms were comped was not met. Grace Willows, who organized the event, reached out to the author, allegedly asking her to pay for her own room at a different hotel.
Willows, an author, apologized for the event — which is being compared to the woeful Willy Wonka Glasgow and the scam “Bridgerton” ball that had stripping fairies instead of Regency waltzes across the ballroom.
“I am wanting to issue a formal apology. I do understand that the ball tonight was not set up to standard,” she said in a TikTok video on Sunday. “There were a lot of issues with getting set up, and it was not handled well. I’d like to apologize. If you would like a refund, please contact me and I will issue a refund immediately.”
Archer Management released a statement the next day saying that all attendees will be refunded by May 31.
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