Love Stories etc... Festival 2024

Apr 30, 2025
2 min read

Updated: Oct 2, 2025

In 2024, romance readers and writers attended the first ever Love Stories etc... Festival in Manchester. If you're a romance lover, live in the northern parts of the UK, and didn't attend this event... You missed out.

QUICK FACTS:

Organiser: Manchester Central Library, HarperNorth and Simon & Schuster UK
Location: Manchester, UK
Price: ££ (out of 5)
Value for money: £££££ (out of 5)
Open to: UK and International readers and writers

DETAILS

Organised and hosted by Manchester Central Library, HarperNorth and Simon & Schuster UK, the festival took place on Friday 12th and Saturday 13th July. There were two types of tickets available - standard (£30) and V.I.P. (£40).

V.I.P. ticket holders joined the event on Friday evening for a cosy meet-and-greet with guest authors, publishers, and literary agents at the Waterstones Arndale Centre bookshop. And all ticket holders had access to a full day event on Saturday, which included author interviews, signings, a goody bag, sweets, a bookshop with the featured releases on sale, and even free books from Quick Reads. Yes! FREE books.

For budding authors like me, Love Stories etc... also offered a series of industry workshops with helpful advice on how to speak to and work with publishers and agents.

WHO ATTENDED

It's no secret that Romance Fiction as a genre is dominated by us lovely ladies. But it was great to also see male and LGBTQIA+ writers and readers all come together under the same roof up North.

Yes... Events of this calibre and niche don't normally happen north of London. So I was beside myself when I realized the tribe was congregating north of the border. And of course, I had to check it out for myself - like a bee attracted to lush flowers*. Pun 100% intended**.

* I know! My humour is more akin to dad jokes than clever banter.

** For those not familiar, Manchester city's symbol is a bee.

There were seven themed author interviews, involving twenty-one romance authors. And five industry workshops involving eight industry professionals from Simon & Schuster UK, HarperNorth, Penguin Random House, Jenny Brown Literary Agents, and the Romantic Novelist Association.

Not to mention the beautiful and amazing readers and wider community. I can honestly say that I've never met a group of people that is so friendly, welcoming and willing to share and support each other as the Romance Lovers.

WILL I ATTEND AGAIN?

Absolutely! I had the pleasure of chatting to fellow readers, authors, publishers and literary agents on my doorstep. An invaluable opportunity for an aspiring author like me. I was so excited and absorbed by it all, I barely took any pictures!

So yes, if the event happens again next year, I will be there with bells ringing. And so should you, if you love romance books or are an aspiring author, and are based in the northern regions of the UK.