The festival saw crowds pack out the town's main street over the weekend to buy and talk about books, hear live music and listen to a variety of author panels.

Creative Clunes chief executive Sue Beal said this year's turnout looked to exceed last year's record attendance of 11,000 people.

"It has been extremely busy, it has been huge. A lot of people came and there was a really full program, all of the author talks and conversations were pretty much booked out," she said.

"Having talked to the booksellers on Main Street, they are all having a bumper crop."

The annual event is a key event for the historic township, able to capitalise on a strong patronage from Melbourne and surrounding regional centres.

Ms Beal said the 2023 program came with a twist, with the inclusion of a wider variety of arts and story telling.

It was also the first year the festival was put on in March, instead of its traditional date of May.

"It was a really ambitious program this year, it was much bigger than previous years and it has really worked," she said.

"The fact that we decided to broaden the lens to not just be about the written word, but story telling though songwriting, theatre writing, visual arts and photography.

"We decided to a night time music program as our first offering for the night time. It was a huge, huge success. It was sold out, we could have sold twice as many tickets, the bands were terrific."

The packed Saturday schedule saw author talks cover a wide range of topics, including crime thrillers, First Nations storytelling, aging and Soviet history.

Ms Beal said the organising group looked to continue this year's successful March format into the future.

"We get a lot of people from Melbourne, but also from around the goldfields; Ballarat, Bendigo, Castlemaine, Daylesford," she said.

"Some of the booksellers come from interstate, we have them from Tasmania, Queensland and New South Wales. It is very well known now.

"A number of the businesses said they have had two or three months turnover in the last two days. It gives them a real boost heading into winter.

"It is a celebration of the book. It is a great thing to be celebrating in this technological age."

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