Book Scoot Offers One-Stop Shop to Support Local Authors

The Greater Charlotte Annual Book Crawl kicked off on Apr. 1, spanning several Charlotte-area bookstores in a range of municipalities, even crossing state boundaries into South Carolina, with more than 20 indie bookstores offering unique experiences, exclusive promotions and a chance at a literary grand prize for folks who check off all the stops on their passports.  

For some people, that’s a lot to get to in a single month. That’s why local author Delphine McClelland launched her own abridged version — a one-stop book crawl called the Book Scoot, which will be held at Camp North End on Saturday, April 5 from 1-5 p.m. 

Inspired by the annual Book Crawl, McClelland launched the Book Scoot in 2023 while brainstorming ways to promote her self-published romance novel Dark Obsessions. 

Wanting to capitalize on the Greater Charlotte Annual Book Crawl but unsure where to start, McClelland realized she could do something on a smaller scale that would entice readers with a bookish event while simultaneously educating them on some authors right in their own backyards.

Similar to the crawl, Book Scoot attendees will get a stamp from every station, giving them the opportunity to win various prizes. For the first time this year, the Book Scoot will end on Sunday night with Night of Indulgence: Forbidden Lovers Masquerade Ball, with a theme inspired by Dark Obsessions. 

McClelland, whose book won a 2022 American Fiction Award in the Romance Paranormal/Supernatural category, understands how hard it is to be an author in today’s landscape and is proud to host an event that is not about self-promotion but spreading the love among her fellow authors in the area. 

“Being a self-published author is hard, being an African American self-published author is even harder,” she said. “As a way to promote my book and gain exposure my sister and I created a platform that gives self-published authors like myself a way to reach new readers.”

She sat down with us to talk more about the event and why it’s important. 

Queen City Nerve: What can folks expect when they attend the Book Scoot on Saturday?

Delphine McClelland: We have anywhere from eight to 10 local authors stationed around Camp North End, and they start with me over at That’s Novel Books. Participants get their map with the locations where all of the authors are, and then they just scoot around to all the different authors and they get a stamp or get the author to initial that they stopped by. Then they’ll come back to the starting point, and it gets dropped into a bucket, and then we draw a winner. No purchase necessary. 

The stations give the authors opportunities to talk about their book and everything that they’re selling and hopefully make some sales that day. The Scoot is something, just a little added piece of fun to get people interested in going around to at least meet every author and at least talk to them. That’s one more person that they can potentially give their book to talk to and just to help spread the word, get you that word of mouth promotion.

You get to have a nice day out, enjoy the day, meet some new authors, and try for a really awesome prize.

How did the idea for the Book Scoot come about?

So about three, four years ago now, I ended up writing my first novel. I had never written a book, never planned on it and I needed ways to promote it. At that time, I didn’t have an Instagram, a TikTok or anything, so I didn’t really have any true fanbase outside of just friends and family. 

While looking to find new ways for me to promote my book and get it out of there, the idea came about when I was looking over stuff with the Book Crawl. When I was talking with my sister, who owns her own PR firm, Soirees Entertainment, she said jokingly, “Well, why don’t you do your own?”

So, with this being a nod to the Greater Charlotte Annual Book Crawl, how does it differ?

The Book Scoot allows book lovers and book enthusiasts the opportunity to experience and support locally talented writers as well as a locally and independently owned bookstore. In the past, we would try to partner authors up with a different location. Marissa Serrao, who wrote the book Seeking Nessabella, was at Black Moth. She and Black Moth got together and they created a drink based on her book. 

I was at Pop Bar last year and they did a Dark Obsession Gelato Pop for me. We try to connect the author with an establishment, and they’ll work together to figure out what’s going to be on their menu for that day and how they can create something that’s inspired for their book as well.

This is our third one that we are doing this year. This year we’re trying to do something new so people can get a whole weekend. The Book Scoot will be on [April 5], and then that Sunday night from 6 to 10 [p.m.], we’re having a masquerade ball. Some of the big festivals have this book convention on Saturday and then they end with a ball. This is something that you don’t really see a lot in Charlotte. So I was like, “Let’s have a little book festival and a ball at the end of it.” So we’re going to see how that works out this year.

In addition to you trying to promote your book, what else are you hoping to achieve by having this event?

Just getting exposure for me and other local authors, being able to give them a platform to sell their book and talk about their books and just let people know that they’re there. I’ve since learned how difficult it is to be a self-published author and just trying to get people to pick up your book knowing you’re battling with so many books in the world and so many people who are well-known. 

On Amazon, if your book is not free, there’s millions of other free books that people can read. [The Book Scoot] has just been that way to help the different local authors get their books in people’s hands. I would like to see it continue to grow and have the ability to have more authors come into play.

Who do you have scheduled for this weekend?

It’s myself, children’s author and illustrator Travis Thompson, Bee the Sage, and SL Harby just to name a few. The books range from all different genres. We try to keep it different instead of it just being all one thing. It gives people a nice variety to see.

Was this a hard thing to start doing?

No, I don’t think it was hard. We just took a shot in the dark just to see how it was. Everyone has always enjoyed it. Once my sister got everything rolling, she found authors really quickly. It’s been, ironically, pretty easy. The harder part is if we can match everyone with something at Camp North End; that’s the harder piece is trying to keep that going. There’s just not a lot of shops that always can match up but people are usually fine with that because they just love the opportunity to be out or to share their book with a new audience. 

It does get harder to do because we want to grow it and make it bigger. 

Would you say it rose in popularity from the first to the second iteration?

Yeah. We had a really good turnout last year. We’re getting a lot of interest from people who want to do it. I just think it is slowly growing every year and we’re hoping to make it this whole weekend this year with this Forbidden Lovers masquerade ball that we’re going to close out the weekend.

Can you tell me more about that masquerade ball?

It’s something that I’ve been wanting to do for as long as I’ve been writing. I get into following a lot of different authors and book people and they go to these different book cons and they always have some type of masquerade ball. It’s something that nobody really does in Charlotte. My sister, being the planner, was like, “Well, let’s do our own.” 

So it’s loosely inspired by my book. I call it a Night of Indulgence Forbidden Lovers Ball. We’re planning to have some light hors d’oeuvres and a red punch to go off of this theme and this vampire vibe. It’s broken up into two spaces, upstairs and downstairs, and it’s going to be this play on light and dark. The upstairs will be where you can relax and chill and grab a drink and some food. The downstairs will be more of the party vibe. 

There’s a cigar lounge and some different photo-ops that we want to set up. A night to wrap everything up in a nice little bow and have fun.

Read more: Books on the House Increases Reading Accessibility in Charlotte

The Book Scoot will take place Apr. 5 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., starting at That’s Novel Books in Camp North End. The Forbidden Lovers Masquerade Ball will take place Apr. 6 from 6-10 p.m. at the Blind Fox. The Book Scoot is free to the public while the ball is a ticketed event.

The Greater Charlotte Annual Book Crawl continues through April 30. Learn more about how to participate at the website.