The Word On The Street is a free outdoor festival, held in several Canadian cities including Toronto, that celebrates the written word and champions literacy.

The Word On The Street was first held in Toronto in 1990. Until 2003, the festival was on a section of Queen Street West in downtown Toronto. In 2004, the festival moved to Queen’s Park and in 2015 the festival moved again to Harbourfront Centre.

It’s grown considerably over the past 28 years. I always enjoyed walking around and meeting different authors. Although, it has become more commercial, it’s still free and outdoors.

This year was different. I was there for the first time as an author. I was set up at a booth with 4 other indie authors in a section reserved for my kind. While there were huge crowds around the booths housing major publishing houses, our indie section had much less traffic. Engaging readers is fun but it becomes tedious after several hours in temperatures that reached 30C by early afternoon. I sold some books but I never got to stroll around the festival as a reader. I missed that part.

Such is the life of an indie author. Pitching your work, one reader at a time.