Books are Crafty, Right?

To our left, a woman sells crocheted purses. Most people are paying attention to her crocheted octopus. It has little octopi stuffed inside of it. It’s honestly one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.

To our right, a man sells gorgeous woodwork. Most if it is religious. He’s very dedicated.

Across the aisle, a woman sells handmade jewelry. She spent most of the first hour of the show putting bags of her items on a rack.

And then there’s us. We’ve got copies of Madelyn of the Sky and Cade. We’ve got our display banners up.

We’re the only booksellers at this craft show. We’re trying something new for us. We figure, hey, we made the books, right? I crafted them! I figure that because we’re the only booksellers, we’ll stand out. That means either more sales, because people will be intrigued at something different, or we’ll sell nothing, because we simply don’t belong.

The day was a bit of an adventure. We had a lot of people surprised there were books. Several vendors wished us luck. A bunch of people were honored to meet a real, live author.

A am real. I live! I also write books. I’m a real, live author!

At one point, a high school(?) couple walked by. The girl pointed and shouted, “BOOKS! Look, it’s BOOKS!”

The boy shook his head. “I don’t read books.”

“Maybe you should! Then you’d be smart!”

He sniffed in disdain and paraded past.

Alas. Clearly not our intended audience, but I feel bad for him.

At one point, a mom and her son approached. He really wanted to get Cade, and she was happy to get book one for him. She found out the price we were asking for the whole series, and stunned, she wanted to get them all.

“No. I just want book one,” the kid said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

So they just got book one.

We had a lot of fun interactions with people. We sold enough to more than cover the cost of the table and lunch. Since we had no idea how we’d do going in, I’ll count that as a win this time around.

It was a good day. A nice, short show, only one day long, in comfortable environs and people who welcomed us as unique vendors.

Are we doing it again? Maybe. The hard part is a lot of craft shows in the area take place over a weekend, and with me being a pastor, I don’t take many Sundays off. This one was perfect, with it being just a Saturday. If we find more shows like that in the area, we very well may give this another try.

And for you? Have you ever seen a bookseller in an unusual location? Did you give their books a try?