#sleepy now

[meharker]

back from book fest. Big Rest vibes now.

Festival went really well!

Surprisingly a LOT of people showed up looking to just buy books which was awesome to see. Some customers were going booth to booth, like: "Hello. I am collecting all the books. Please give me your finest book, thank you."

More of my thoughts on the event (for fellow authors) below the "Keep Reading" line!

This was my first Author-Focused book booth event. I've had booths before as an artist/craftsman, but not as an author.

Since I've only got one book released, I figured I'd bring some additional things to sell to make my booth look more lively.

I brought some of my jewelry from my eternally-on-hiatus Etsy shop. Also a few fun gift items, kinda like the gift shop section of Barnes & Noble. And then some mugs and pins I designed and heat-pressed myself. (Collectively, I'll call these "Gifty" items going forward.)

So what sold the best? What sold the worst?

Due to the fact that this event was directly advertised as a BOOK FESTIVAL with author signings...

...my books sold the best! Which I was NOT expecting.

Generally at festivals / conventions / local-booth events, books are one of the HARDEST things to sell. (People are usually at a fair to get food and small little souvenirs. Not books.)

But due to this being a Book Festival, a LOT of the people were there JUST for books and nothing else.

In general, people who came to my booth either: * Bought a cute gift item and didn't look at the books, OR * Bought a book and didn't look at anything else.

I barely got any cross-sales. People were either there for Books, or for Gifty things, but not both.

Not sure if this behavior was exclusive to this event, but it was interesting to see.

Of my non-book items: Pins and Bookmarks sold the best. These were one of the cheapest items at my booth, and they were very bookish-themed. People seemed to buy ones that had sayings or drawings that related to them the most. More generic stuff didn't sell as well.

Of my non-book items: Jewelry sold the worst. Which was surprising. Usually at craft fairs, my jewelry sells really well. I got quite a few people looking at it and saying they were cute, but no sales.

The jewelry still brought people over to my booth, however. The shiny jewelry made people stop and look, so it was still effective as advertising...but next time, I'll just go for a big sign or something. Jewelry is a LOT harder to make than a big sign xD

What would I change for next time?

My booth happened to be between two other authors.

They both made a LOT more book sales than me.

One of them was a Romance author with 14 books written, the other was a Detective Murder Mystery author with about 8 books written.

Because they had more books (sometimes multi-part series!) and they only sold books (no extra item types) people were more inclined to buy multiple books from them.

As an author, aiming for that kind of sale model (More books, ONLY books) would be a good for future Book Festivals.

For myself, since I only have one book released, I think having multiple types of items at my booth was helpful!

...But I do feel like it took away from my book sales slightly. Some people walked up and asked: "Oh wait, you're an author too? I thought you were just a vendor."

That said: if this wasn't explicitly a Book Festival, I'd still totally want to have the extra Gifty Items.

At craft fairs, conventions, or other multi-purpose events...books are really hard to sell! So I wouldn't change my approach for those events.

But for events that are solely book festivals featuring authors, I'd bring less Gifty stuff and focus more on the books themselves.

Handling Credit Cards

I set up a way to accept Card payments using a card-swiper with a phone app. This has worked fairly well in the past.

But a TON of people wanted to do "Tap to Pay" or "Apple Pay" which I wasn't prepared for.

My app couldn't process those things. Thankfully, in most cases people had a back-up physical card I could swipe...but I did have to turn down one sale where the gentleman only had Apple Pay.

(Admittedly, who goes to a local craft fest with only Apple Pay and no other alternative payment methods?? Maybe this was just an unusual thing, or maybe he forgot his wallet.)

Cash sales were nice, but people only really got out cash for low price items (usually my tiny Gift items that were less than $10.)

Everyone bought books with a Card. So if you do a festival, you NEED a Card payment system, or people will walk away.

Also small note: Ask "Cash or Card?" when asking for payment. Don't say "Cash or Credit" -- this confuses people xD (phrase is a holdover from one of my previous jobs. Writing this to remind myself to stop saying it.)

Other Miscellaneous Things

Having $1 bills and $5 bills is really important for giving change.

Wind WILL try to blow down your whole display. Bring heavy-duty tape and weigh everything down excessively if your event is outdoors.

Sunscreen is vital.

Practice your "1 minute" book pitch for when people come up and ask "So tell me what your book is about." Keep it short and sweet: they mainly want to know GENRE, the singlemost MAIN CHARACTER, and the basic PREMISE / VIBE.

You don't have to tell people you're an indie author or with a smaller press. None of the customers even cared. I assumed the authors next to me were traditionally published based on their booth and displays. I found out they were self-published later when talking to them.

Be chill and roll with it when people come up and say things like: "Oh, I only read Dystopian Sci-Fi. Sorry." and then walk away. Honestly I was glad when they didn't buy my book. If they don't like my genre, they might leave a bad review or hate the story by default! So I always smiled and was genuinely like, "Hey, no worries, thanks for stopping by!" and that approach worked out great.

I brought some Free Audiobook codes to give out, but only handed out one or two. Would skip for next time.

I also brought Freebies to give out with each book sale. (I had bookmarks, keychains, and jewelry themed off my book. If you bought a book, you got to pick one of these items to take for free!) But honestly? The Freebie thing just confused people. They were done buying their book and ready to walk away, and here I am like "Wait take a bonus!" I'd skip this next time.

Pre-signing the books was good for consistency, but it took away the fun of signing live. Next time: I'd still pre-sign them, but leave room to put the date and ask if I can write a custom message.

Bring smoothies or food you can drink (like soup in a thermos.) Otherwise, it's really hard to find time to both Eat and look Professional (unless you have someone else who can watch the booth for a minute while you take a lunch break.)

Find the bathroom location before the event starts. Same with parking or other vital event locations.

The secret to selling more books? Write more books, lol. I need to work on this xD

If you read this far: hey, hope some of the tips help you!

Mainly, I wanted to type this out now while it was fresh on my mind, so I can look at it later when I have another event.

Keep writin'!

[saetiate]

I want to talk about communication skills for a sec. imo there’s a difference between “I feel like you’re misunderstanding me” vs “I feel misunderstood”. “I feel like nobody cares about me / you don’t care about me” vs “i feel unappreciated / unnoticed / unheard / unconsidered”. you know. and I think seeing things w the perspective of the latter can help reframe feelings and understand your needs and wants better and can help keep a neutral conversation

[introvertia]

It’s July the 5th, stop blowing shit up, please and thank you.

[popiicuu]

Now to go back on my Lucille grind

[the-insomniac-emporium]

Salvatore Moreau

so many shapes ._. see under read-more for progress bits

[themonstrousother]

I really like reading and critique analysis of certain tropes, iconographies, genres, the like within American media and literature, especially through a post-colonial lens, however I do think sometimes people tends to take an extreme approach to it where they get too submerged into the idea of an inherent uniqueness of American culture and experiences, like at times they will be like X thing is so specific to US culture and I’ll be like well I don’t know if I’d say that

[gatheringrust]

it’s DASH GAMES FRIDAY.

or was. it’s still friday somewhere! so while we’re here, i have five quizzes, stolen from the beautiful @laperlina …

which of the new and improved five love languages are you?

HANDS: like the epitome of intricate rituals. you were probably a pulling pigtails type of kid. It's hard for you to decipher your feelings half the time, and when you do it’s even harder for you to communicate them. when you’re in love everything tends to be magnified. you get riled up from a gentle pinky brush, you lose your mind over a shoulder graze. your balled up fist waiting for someone to unravel you. i’m strong nine-tenths of the day — i have to be, just to survive. what i need is someone i can be weak with, ect. ect.

what color is your love?

Black; love as healing: your love is the carefully tilled soil of last year's garden. In that way, loving you is rich with possibilities and growth. You are a quiet weekend night, as the stars begin to wink down at you. You sit, you listen, you reflect. Perhaps in the past you've been misunderstood, maybe by yourself. Everything has the potential for love. Love is a promise for you.

what is your trauma archetype?

The Devoured: Your trauma is consuming, fiery, relentless. It burns through relationships, through safety, through peace of mind. Yet even in ruin, you shine with a dangerous intensity.

what body part are you?

hands: Hands can do so much, they're extremely versatile much like yourself. They can nourish, they can pray, they can comfort. But we both know that's not what you use yours for is it? You know as well as I do how hands can maim, can strangle, can destroy. They are unthinking and unfeeling, and unlike the others they do not act off instinct but off of command. Every act you commit is purposeful, filled with an intent, sometimes to be cruel and sometimes to be kind. You know who is deserving of your hurt, who is deserving of your love. Always make sure you can tell them apart before you wrap those hands around them.

what are you seeking?

peace: how long have you been at war with yourself? how much of yourself have you lost to the fire that's made its home in your heart? oh, but who can blame you? for as long as you can remember, you've had to face the world alone. all bared teeth and bloody knuckles. you learned young the only person you could rely on was yourself, didn't you? learned that the others would leave you to the wolves? and so you learned how to fight, how to stand tall even if you stood alone, how to shed the softness that wounded you before. but that isn't very sustainable, is it? the embers you swallowed, the fire you cloaked yourself in, it doesn't just burn the world around you. you have watched piece after piece of you go up in smoke: your hope, your smile, your mercy. what you seek is an end to the seemingly endless burning. and, little phoenix, you deserve it. please, breathe out. lean on me. the world isn't as cruel as you've made it out to be: it is okay to stop fighting. it is okay to let go of that anger. there is so much more to you, so much more that you have. the serenity you seek can be granted, but only once you are willing to work on letting go of the hate you've harbored for so long now.

i tag:

@ossoraca @menelvagor @gezelligheiid @saltuary @tidalhaired @askrossiel @helreginn @thegreatstrongbow and anyone who so wishes to partake!

[boimgfrog]

u know the rock concert is abt to slap whenrhe audience is mostly middle aged men and trans women with cool ass haircuts