In person events wrap up 2024

 

Last year I did a few in-person sales events, and knew that it would be an important way o get my books out in the world. So this year, I amped up my schedule and found many different events to attend. While I don’t have any author-only events near me, I had a variety of types of events to try out and took meticulous notes/stats to try to make sense of what worked and what didn’t.

 

 

The first take-away—there is no guarantee with anything. One event that went really well last year was a total dud this year. But, with the influx of new information it was still a good data point.

The second is that the other vendors are super important. First, because if everyone advertises that expands the audience exponentially. Second, because where my books fit in the price-point continuum seemed to make a significant difference in sales. At events with low-dollar crafts or even tag-sale items books were on the high end and tended to get overlooked. At artist based events where quality was highly prized, books were a good ‘budget’ option for shoppers and those days moved a LOT more copies.

 

Third is whether the vendors are the main attraction or not. At events where there was some sort of community activity as the main focus, sales were up. People who wouldn’t regularly come out for just a craft fair were already there and walking by the booth. Hmmm... books! And a significant number of copies went out on those days too.

 

A take specific to me (someone who loves to be thematic to say the least) events that encouraged booths to be decorated drew in more people too. I don’t do anything in half-measures and set out to win Best Booth title at both events that offered such a prize. For a fall food truck event I snagged top prize with my Halloween decorations. At the WinterFest event everyone turned up, and with having to pack everything into a small car, big decor just didn’t make it and the booths that won looked absolutely amazing. At both, even before prizes were announced, having a highly decorated booth definitely attracted customers to stop by and chat.

 

 

Now I have some new criteria for searching out events next year. Overall, fall and holiday season events were better too, so I may give myself a break this winter/spring and simply build my event list for the second half of the year.