Author Participation Guidelines
Thank you for your interest in participating in the Summer Reading Kids Fest!
Our goal is to create a joyful, family-friendly kickoff to summer reading — featuring high-quality children’s books and optional outdoor-inspired activity ideas.
We are building this event intentionally and ask that all participating authors review the guidelines below before submitting.
📅 Event Dates
The festival runs Memorial Day weekend.
Friday, May 22nd to Monday, May 25th of Memorial Day weekend.
All participating books must be FREE on Memorial Day Monday.
Authors may choose to make their books free for 1–4 days within the event window, but Monday participation is required for all titles.
📚 Eligible Books
To participate, books must:
• Be written for children ages 0–12
• Be professionally formatted and edited
• Have a professional-quality cover
• Be available digitally through Amazon
• Be set to FREE on Memorial Day Monday
We welcome:
• Indie authors
• Small press authors
• Traditionally published authors
• AI-assisted titles (transparency required)
We reserve the right to decline submissions that do not meet basic quality or formatting standards.
🌳 Optional: Summer Activity Feature
To encourage reading beyond the screen, authors are invited (but not required) to submit a simple outdoor or hands-on activity idea inspired by their book.
Examples:
• Alphabet scavenger hunt
• Nature walk prompt
• Build or draw challenge
• Kindness activity
Books that include an activity idea may be featured in our Summer Reading Activity Guide.
📣 Promotion Expectations
Participating authors agree to:
• Share the event at least once with their audience (email or social media)
• Clearly communicate their free dates
• Ensure their book is set to FREE as promised
This is a collaborative event designed to benefit both families and authors.
🎉 Our Goal
We are aiming to feature approximately 200 intentional authors who are committed to creating a meaningful summer reading experience for families.
Submissions will close once capacity is reached.
❤️ Our Commitment
We are committed to:
• Creating a simple, mobile-friendly browsing experience
• Organizing books by age and genre
• Clearly displaying free dates
• Promoting the event beforehand and throughout the weekend
We are excited to celebrate the start of summer reading with you!