BOOK ISLAND  – ”If you’d told me that we’d have eight times more land than last year and all up, probably around four times as many exhibitors, I wouldn't have believed it,” said Selina Greene, the woman in charge of the second annual Second Life Book Fair.

The fair will take place beginning this Friday at 2 p.m. SLT and run until 4 p.m. Sunday on Publisher Island.

”We’re anticipating around sixty exhibitors, which is on top of the 100 shops we already have across the two sims,” Greene said.  ”So it’s really exciting, and a huge job, but we have a great committee composed of island residents who are all pitching in to make it manageable and smooth.”

The fair is very much for everyone, according to Greene, ”For anyone who enjoys books, reading, writing and the written word, so the public is very much welcome. It’s an event where people can come to learn through our many events and workshops.”

And it’s not all about books, either. At the fair, residents will find a mix of publishers, newspapers, poets, designers, and bloggers. ”So in a sense we’re defining book in the loosest sense of the word, taking in e-books and in-world books as well as RL ink and paper books, plus many other things word-related,” Greene said.

Asked if SL really is the best place to arrange a book exhibit, – book reading not being one of the great in-world activities – Greene answered, ”I think SL is such a wonderful environment for creativity, and there’s a lot of potential for communication and idea exchange in the environment. It’s a great way for RL published authors to connect with their fans, a great place for unpublished writers to show their work and to connect with RL publishers and agents – and an SL Book Fair creates such an environment.”

She’s amazed that they’ve managed to put it all together. ”Like RL, we’re dealing with people on all kinds of different time zones and countries, but we only have IMs, notecards and in only a few cases e-mail to draw on. I think that's testament to the enthusiasm of the literary and publishing community in SL, and how excited everyone is to be a part of the fair,” Greene said.