Authors are fuming after a "magical" 'BookTok' festival turned out to be a flop - "worse than viral Willy Wonka experience"."

Organizers of A Million Lives Book Festival in Baltimore last weekend promised a "magical experience" with a vendor hall, content creation spaces, and a cosplay contest."

But what greeted attendees was a starkly different reality, on May 2 and 3.

The vendor hall was sparsely populated, with folding tables and a few artificial rose petals as the only decorations, at the Baltimore Convention Center.

The much-anticipated ball featured little more than a plate of cookies and music from a portable speaker.

Perci Jay, 30, was among those disappointed after buying $150 tickets when for the event where she says she was promised a spot to sell books.

She said the event was worse than Willy Wonka Experience or the Fyre Festival - adding that attendees' reputations have been destroyed.

Perci, an author, from Waco, Texas, said: "I know people have been comparing it to the Willy Wonka experience, or the Fyre festival, but at least the festival had food, and the kids had an experience."

"This was not a concert where privileged people had a bad experience, or a child's scary afternoon after an encounter with the unknown."

"This was work for people, this was their livelihood, their reputations have been tarnished, and their bank accounts have been devastated."

"There is not going to be a way where some people will be able to recover from this."

Perci, the author of Bride of Lycaster, put down a $150 deposit for the event in February 2024.

She claims she was told there would be between 600 to 1200 people attending to purchase books.

Perci arrived at the convention center with a number of authors a day early on May 1, 2025, and describes the scene as a shambles.

She said: "Before I even walked through to the hall, I knew the event was unorganised."

"The convention center was huge, there were no signs to direct us and tell us where we were going - luckily, security helped us."

"The tables had no clothes. There were no decorations, a lot of the authors were helping each other set up."

On the first day of the festival, the authors were expecting to see hundreds of people walk through the doors, but claimed that around 30 people turned up.

Perci said: "The event was sold as a place where authors could meet their readers, sell books and network with other authors."

"You had about 100-plus authors there, many of whom were brand new."

"For some authors, this would have been their first opportunity to bring their books to readers."

"We were told by the creators of the event that there would be at least 600 people there."

"I could count only 100 to 130 ticket holders there."

Perci said on the second day of the festival, things went from bad to worse.

She said author panels were set up in rooms where there were no chairs or nobody there to moderate the conversation.

Perci also claimed that the authors had put together goodie bags for attendees to take home, which went missing.

She added that instead of a DJ for the ball, there was a speaker that a security guard had brought along.

Perci said: "Authors had paid out of their own pocket for promotional items that went missing."

"We were left wondering where all those products went."

"We had panels set up where there were no moderator, there were no chairs for people to sit on."

"We were sitting on the floor like we were in kindergarten."

"Every ticket holder paid for a content creation room, which, when we looked, was just an empty room."

Perci is demanding that all authors be compensated for the money they have lost while getting ready for the festival.

But apart from an apology online, Perci said that she hasn't heard anything from the organizers.

Perci said: "Every time we spoke to the organiser of the event about everything that went wrong, we were met with an excuse."

"We were met with excuse after excuse, that when they were piled together, it seemed like none of it was true."

"We just had to put a brave face on and keep the show going for all the poor people who paid to attend."

Indie author Genevieve James, 36, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was similarly disappointed.

She says authors and vendors, many of whom had invested thousands of dollars in travel, table fees, and inventory, were left scrambling to recoup their losses.

In the aftermath, Archer Management and event organizer Grace Marceau issued public apologies and promised refunds by the end of May.

"There were numerous issues with the arrangements, and it was not executed well," Marceau said in a statement. "

In a statement posted on TikTok, Archer Fantasy Events, said: "I wholeheartedly apologize for how the event turned out this weekend."

"We are currently processing refunds as fast as we can."

"All refunds will be processed by May 31st. We thank you and appreciate you for your patience."

"We take full responsibility for the way AML was handled. We are doing refunds for every attendee, author, and vendor."

"We are also canceling all of our future events and will be process refunds for those as well."