A new book festival is joining the likes of the failed Glasgow Willy Wonka experience, controversial Eras Tour event, and the infamous Fyre Fest after romance authors lost money and attendees complained bitterly all over social media.  

A Million Lives Book Festival, a romantic fantasy book convention held at the Baltimore Convention Center over the weekend is getting slammed online for not delivering what it promised – it has since been nicknamed ‘A Million Little Lies.’ 

The festival was marketed as a convention for readers of ‘romantasy,’ which is one of the most popular genres on BookTok, where book lovers talk about their favorite books on TikTok. 

West Virginia-based author Grace Willows organized the event through her company Archer Management. It was described as ‘the perfect event to make more bookish friends,’ including a ‘vendor hall, panels, a content creation room, fandom cosplay meet ups, a cosplay competition and a ball.’ Ticket prices ranged from $50 to $250.

According to Archer Management, the company is ‘here to host events to help build the bookish community’ and supports ‘traditionally and independently published authors.’

Grace’s biography explains that books are her ‘therapy’ and have helped her meet ‘so many amazing people in the bookish community.’ She ‘started this company’ to share her love of reading ‘with others and make them affordable so that anyone can attend.’ 

However, after the event, attendees flocked to social media to complain bitterly. Many of the authors said that while they were promised up to 1,000 attendees, there were very few people (according to Reddit, about 50 to 60), and they still had to pay for their own tables to sell books.  

‘I barely made enough to cover my f***ing parking for two days,’ author Kait Disney-Leugers, who took a day off of work to participate, claimed in a TikTok, before saying that A Million Lives ‘felt like the Fyre Fest of book festivals.’ 

Kait has since made a video about the website created to help authors who were at the event raise money to financially recover. 

Other TikToks, including the viral video shared by author Stephanie Combs, showcased no signage, no amenities, including the promised ‘content creation room,’ and a barely decorated room where the ball was supposed to be. Instead, women in lavish ball gowns looked downtrodden in a mostly empty conference room. 

A content creator with the username Azthia Bookwyrm shared a video of what she nicknamed the ‘A Million Let Downs Book Festival,’ showcasing the vendor hall devoid of guests and $10 wine in plastic cups at the at the empty fantasy ball. 

‘Those poor introverts finally decided to leave their houses, and this is what happens. They’re never leaving their houses again,’ one commenter quipped. 

One attendee on Reddit explained that they enjoyed meeting the authors and networking. However, they had to walk for miles to attend all of the events. When it came to the ball, they said ‘the cleaning company came 15 minutes beforehand and couldn’t be bothered to set up correctly.’ 

They also explained that the music went wrong because ‘the DJ was hospitalized beforehand and couldn’t find a replacement,’ which is why a Bluetooth speaker was used instead, which they found unacceptable for $250 VIP tickets, along with a $600 hotel, as well as $70 parking. 

‘Yikes. This sounds like a bookish Fyre Festival,’ one commenter responded. Another confirmed, ‘I was one of the signing authors there. And yes, most (if not all) you’re hearing is true.’ 

Fantasy, mystery, and romance author Hope Davis created a viral Instagram thread about her experience, writing that ‘authors were charged a $150 table fee and told at some point 500-600 tickets were sold. Only about 50 people showed up.’ 

Hope also said that there were no promised swag bags, no decorations at the ball, and no official schedule of the panels. 

‘I took a huge loss on the weekend but at least I sold SOMETHING. I sent most of the 100 books I ordered for this event but I can’t imagine what some authors are going through right now trying to ship books back or return them because they can’t take them with them,’ she said. 

Grace later took to TikTok to apologize and promised a refund to people who asked for their money back. ‘I do understand that the ball tonight was not up to standards. There were a lot of issues getting set up, and it was not set up well,’ she said in the video. 

Grace then turned off comments. 

Daily Mail has reached out to Grace for comment.