MORE than 2,000 people bought, learned and listened to everything that the book industry had to offer this weekend when the first bi-annual Australian Festival of the Book was held in the Southern Highlands.

"I am amazed at the outcome," President of the South Coast Writers Centre Annie McNamara said.

"We have received people from all over Australia and everyone seemed so happy - sellers, buyers and especially the general public.

"We've had full houses to all the various talks on the industry.

"I think people have showed such an interest because we have managed to cover such a variety of aspects on the book.

"Although we have experienced lots of hiccups, such as transport problems, we have sorted them and I believe they have gone unnoticed - which is a bonus."

Events on offer over the weekend included story telling for adults and children, talks on various types of publishing, poetry readings, cartooning and illustrating.

"The poetry read by the Indigenous poets was by far the most popular event," Ms McNamara said.

"It was read at the Bowral Court House and the place was so packed we had to turn people away and people left the readings feeling so inspired."

Other aspects of the festival that people were interested in were the old printing presses and the talks on self-publishing.

"It was incredible to watch all the old printers come out of the woodwork when the old working printing presses, were rolled out," Ms McNamara said.

"The store holders too have been incredibly happy with the result with lots of potential buyers coming through the Memorial Hall."

Being the first time the festival has been held, Ms McNamara said there have been a few teething problems but nothing that cannot be fixed.