A Day at the (Author) Fair

Rain pounded the roof of the van as we pulled into the strip mall’s parking lot.

“Look!”

Amazingly, a parking spot lay open directly in front of the Cincy Book Rack. My wife waited in the van while I ran in to see what we needed to do to check in.

J. S. Bailey waited inside with a smile. All we had to do was come in. She showed me an assortment of tables; we were some of the first to arrive, so we got dibs. She suggested one of the larger tables, since we had more product for sale.

Back out to the van. Water soaked into my shirt and chilled me. We scrambled back in, carting a few heavy boxes. I left my wife behind while I moved the van so someone else could park closer while unloading. One final run through the rain, and I was safely inside.

We set up our table. Really, my wife set up the table. She’s got an eye for that sort of thing. I really don’t.

We introduced ourselves to our neighbors. Next to us, a gentleman selling accounts of Native Americans in the 1800’s. Across the aisle, a woman selling clever superhero novels (I may have bought them), and a man selling a book about a suicidal man who rates bars. Down the way, others sold horror or science fiction or picture books or…

And then it was time to begin.

The author fair was open. Thus began a six-hour event where a dozen authors showed off their wares to a variety of readers.

Not everyone was interested in Madelyn of the Sky. That’s not surprising. Not everyone’s into middle grade fantasy adventure. However, every single person in our target audience, each young teen girl that saw our covers, bought a copy.

One dad came in with his daughter. “I saw the previews that the book store put up on social media. Saw your covers. Read a sample. I knew it would be perfect for my daughter!” And he picked up a copy of book one.

Later on, another family found us on social media, saying their daughter hadn’t stopped reading it since they left the bookstore.

And after six hours of work… we’d sold a grand total of nine books.

Woo. Finally, we can give up this life of crime.

Now, despite our low sales, the day was fantastic for us.

• People kept on commenting on our covers. They catch the eye. That means we don’t have to fight for attention.
• Our target audience seized on the books. We have a product that connects with our readers.
• Not a single person came in that knew us before that day, but we still sold books. That means we’re not leaning on friends to sell books.
• We sold about the average amount as the other authors. We’re not falling behind our peers.
• We got to practice our pitch in a real setting with lower stakes. We paid nothing for the table, so we only lost time, not money.
• We made connections with authors we’d never met before and got to talk with peers in a new setting.
• We sold almost only the first book of the series. That helps us figure out what’s most likely to sell in future events.

Put that all together… it was a good day, and we feel so much more ready for the big con we’ll be tabling at in September. We didn’t sell a lot, but much was learned.

I want to thank Cincy Book Rack for having us. It was such a great event, and the store is one I recommend you visit if you’re in the Cincinnati area. I’d also recommend that you visit local bookstores wherever you are. They often support local authors. If you see an event of local authors, visit. Authors don’t bite!

Mostly.

I didn’t hear of any author bites at this event, at least. I’m pretty sure that’s fairly consistent!

Have you ever been to an author fair? Ever got to meet an author in the wild?

Did they bite?