CONNEAUT – Chelsea Banning’s first foray into hosting a book signing didn’t go well at all.
At the suggestion and with the support of author Stephen King, Banning made a second attempt, this time inviting some of her author friends, leading to the creation of BookBash.
The 2026 BookBash, presented by Pretty Good Books, the fourth iteration of the event, was hosted on Saturday, April 25, at New Leaf Event Center.
“It started out with 25 authors the first year we did it, and we’re a little short of 100 right now,” co-organizer Joe Zinski said. “This is our fourth year and, progressively, we’ve just gotten bigger. Last year we had, I think, 54 authors, and this year we’re almost at 100.”
The event has grown exponentially since its inception.
“We immediately grew out of our venue last year,” Banning, event co-organizer, said. “It’s surreal. I was on stage helping with the story times, and I’m just looking over everything, and I’m like, ‘This is so cool. We did this. I can’t believe we did this.’”
Over the first half of the event, approximately 300 guests walked through.
“We did a lot of marketing push this year and my goal was about 400,” Banning said. “Joe was like, ‘Let’s see,’ but I was hoping we could get at least 400 and I think we might. I think we might get about 500.”
The event was a book lover’s paradise as it included authors, books for sale, story times, panels and vendors.
“We have workshops where you can bedazzle your book, which is really popular, or do some blackout poetry,” Banning said. “There was a Writing 101 panel, the world of horror, and then fantasy world building, how to build a fantasy world. We’ve got three local children’s authors reading their own books. We’ve got a T-shirt press where you can get T-shirts made on the spot. We’ve got leather goods. There’s tea and there’s someone selling coffee, because you can’t have books without tea and coffee.”
A raffle was conducted with the proceeds being donated to the Ashtabula County Animal Protective League and Maddox and Friends Cat Rescue.
“(BookBash is) a lot of work, it’s a lot of stress, but (the crowd) is the payoff,” Zinski said. “We raffle off books and stuff for charity. Everything on this table, the authors have all contributed to it. Somebody’s going to win all of this today. We’re doing a canned food drive for the local food bank. We’re trying to raise money for Maddox and Friends Cat Rescue. They’re in dire need of financial support. The APL always needs help financially. We’re trying to raise money and basically turn this into a giant charity event, where we can help the community.”
Though BookBash was born from a failed book signing, it has become a celebration of independent and self-published authors of all levels of experience.
“There’s authors here, ranging from ‘I’ve been doing this for 20 years’ to ‘Today’s my first event.’ We’re able to offer them support in various ways – knowledge, sharing – sometimes it’s a shot in the arm, because a lot of these new authors, and Chelsea even experienced it herself when she started, they have imposter syndrome. They don’t think that they’re good enough, or they’re not really an author, or whatever, because they’re self-published, or had to go a non-traditional route. This allows them to be part of the greater community. It’s guaranteed every one of these authors has, at one point in time, and maybe even today, felt alone until they got here,” Zinski said.
Banning couldn’t have been happier with the contrast from her first event to BookBash 2026.
“I haven’t stopped smiling since we opened the doors,” Banning said. “We had a line at one o’clock when we opened and that was awesome. It was probably about 10 or 20 people, which might not seem like a lot, but 10 or 20 people were waiting to get through the door, and I think that’s amazing. That means we connected with someone. It’s been exciting. Even just here, talking to you, I’m watching authors sell their books, and there are smiles and laughter. It’s just been amazing.”
Events like BookBash presented by Pretty Good Books are important to the future of the book industry.
“Today’s Indie Bookstore Day, and Joe’s an indie bookstore owner, but it gets people reading, and it gets people to see other genres they might not have,” Banning said. “We’ve got kids’ books, and we were doing story times. I’m also a librarian, so I was like, ‘Let’s do story times for kids,’ and they got to read through some of the kids’ books and everything.”
The event allowed avid readers to explore content by new authors or in genres they not typically be interested in.
“What’s nice about the indie authors is they’re not on a constraint that some of the big traditional publishing houses might put on their authors,” Banning said. “With the indie and self-published authors, they have a little bit more freedom to write what they want to write. They might go more in-depth with, say, something political or they might have a specific horror that the traditional publisher was like, ‘That’s a little much.’ There’s something out here for everyone and we’ve got so much different stuff. It’s like a whole new world.”
“I hope they learn that there’s something out there to cultivate a culture of reading and friends and maybe meet people they never thought they would and make a new friend and find a new book that might change their lives,” Banning continued.
Banning hoped the authors in attendance were able to make some personal connections.
“I hope they have a good time,” Banning said. “I hope, even if they connect with one reader or their neighbor, the author neighbor at the table next to them, there’s something that they can do. They can connect, make friends, know that they’re not alone and that we’re here for them.”
BookBash provided an opportunity for prospective writers to ask questions and learn more about their craft, as well as gain inspiration to finish their work.
“We would tell you to do it,” Zinski said. “Just do it. Just write. I can tell you we’ve seen everything from super highly polished, ‘I’ve spent thousands of dollars to make this perfect’ down to ‘I probably did this on Microsoft Word and did the best I could with editing,’ and you can always fix it. I can tell you Chelsea’s first book, she went through three or four different iterations before it finally got to a spot where she’s like, ‘All right, I think I’m good for now.”
Banning is grateful for bookstore owners, like Zinski, who support the independent and self-published authors.
“He is wonderful because there are some indie bookstores that don’t want to buy self-published and indie published books,” Banning said. “To have someone like Joe where the main thing that he wants to support is the self-published and indie authors is an amazing thing, because that’s one less gate we have to try to jump over, jump through.”
Without the support of friends and families, BookBash would not be possible each year.
“(We’d like to thank) the authors that have been with us since the beginning, our spouses have been amazing. Sarah (Zinski) and Tim (Banning) are phenomenal. Then, we’ve got the other volunteer staff, Jeff Vano, Dave Jackson, Jeannie Jyurovat, Mike Tetlak, Tim Podgorny, and we’ve got some security guys. They’ve just been an amazing help,” Banning said.
