Notes on a Book Fair: Takeaways from my festival experience
I consider myself lucky that every year (except 2020) a town called Collingswood, about half an hour from my home, hosts a sizeable book festival with thousands of visitors (click for their website). Collingswood is a pretty place with a beautiful Main Street that’s the site of many mom-and-pop shops, restaurants, and the local library. It’s known for its many popular festivals and activities. The day of the book festival, for instance, a farmer’s market took place in another part of town as well as an Octoberfest celebration.
I’d been to many art fairs and crafts fair, but never a book fair, so I was going into it pretty blindly. It cost only $50 to sign up for an exhibitor’s booth. The festival would take place outdoors, in the middle of Haddon Avenue. There would be a few “bigger” traditionally published author names participating, and some special activity tents like a children’s area and a poetry tent.
The day would be a long one: exhibitors were to arrive before 8 a.m. and would not leave before 4 p.m., when the road reopened to cars.
Having been in retail in the past, I know a few things about product display and talking to “shoppers,” so weeks in advance, I considered what to have on my table.
1) My cover, poster size.
2) Plenty of paperbacks. You’ll want to order them early. I thought I gave plenty of time for my order (two weeks) but received the books only two days before the big day. I purchased fifty knowing I would not sell them all, unless I had a really, really good day.
3) A sign-up sheet for my blog, and pens (also for signing books).
4) Bookmarks that have my website and other info printed on them. You might need a paperweight to keep them from blowing off the table. I had a put a book on top of them.
5) Some other free goodies, like candy or pens.
6) A sheet with quotes from reviews printed on it.
7) My award certificate in plexiglass.
8) A tablecloth in a color that makes the book cover pop.
9) A sign with the discounted price of the book. I charged only $10 (list price is $18) because my goal is to get more people to read my book.
10) Small sheets of paper I’d printed with my book cover and information about my Kindle Countdown deal, $1.99, which began the day of the festival and continues through Friday Oct. 8. If they didn’t want to pay $10 for the paperback, I gave them the slip of paper to take home in case they wanted to order it online at the sale price.
I packed up all my display stuff in an enormous Tupperware-style bin. I also had a six-foot folding table, a folding chair, my very heavy box of books, and my backpack, which carried my credit card reader (be sure to practice using this before your first sale), cash to make change with, my Kindle for entertainment (if no one came to my booth), a brown bag lunch (since I’d be alone), and bottles of water. Yes, there’s a lot to consider.
Here’s what I learned.
• Exhibitors must arrive early. When my husband and I drove up to the road where my booth would be, it was 7:55 a.m., though the festival would not start until 10 a.m. We had been warned that the road would be closed at 8 a.m., but it stayed open longer than that. (He helped me get set up and then left for a few hours.)
• Be prepared for anything, weather wise. It can be very hot in October when the sun is shining directly on you for six hours. While it was a cool 46 degrees when we left the house, a couple of hours later it felt like 80. I did not have a canopy like most of the other more-experienced exhibitors did. I didn’t even have a hat.
• You don’t have to have a canopy, but if you do, it does make a nice “room” of the space you’re given. I only had a table, but it didn’t seem to make a difference in how many people chose to stop by my booth.
• Know your pitch. I had practiced my one-sentence elevator pitch until it flowed smoothly and easily. So when the poster-size cover of my book did its job drawing people to my booth, I’d say hello, and follow with, “Do you like sci-fi thrillers?” Some people said yes right away, and, for them, I recited my pitch. Others bluntly said, No, which was fine. We all have our favorite genres, so I’d laugh and say, “Well, it’s also a love story!” If someone was interested but not buying, I gave them a bookmark and/or slip of paper with Countdown deal info just as they were leaving in the hope that they’d check it out online.
• The award certificate definitely helped. After I gave them my quick plot pitch, I pointed at the award certificate I’d received and told them my book had placed in an international competition. Then I mentioned it has 66 reviews on Amazon and a 4.6-star rating. All of these things, I believe, helped a great deal in making sales. When I started the day, I had the award certificate out but I didn’t refer to it. I wasn’t mentioning my Amazon rating and reviews, and I wasn’t selling many books. I had some nice conversations, and that was it. So, I think whatever positive reviews, accomplishments, feedback you can provide, you should do it.
• Let them read the back cover. Have two small piles of books front and center: one with the front cover up and one with the back cover up, so they can skim it if they’re interested.
• No one noticed the print-out I’d made of reviewer quotes. When they approached my table, all they seemed to notice was the poster of my cover. Beyond that, they looked at whatever I pointed out to them. I probably should have put two or three very brief quotes on the poster, such as “Great twists,”—The Prairies Review.
• Let a friend or family member sell for you for a while. In the afternoon, my husband and daughter joined me, and I took a break from my booth for about twenty minutes to walk around. When I came back, they had sold three books. My theory of why/how this happened is that it’s easier for someone you know to boast about how wonderful you/your book is than for you to do it yourself!
• Just be you. I think the best thing you can do to sell books is to simply start a conversation about your book with the people who show up. In other words, just be yourself. Be friendly and proud of your accomplishment, and you really can’t go wrong.
I ended up selling thirteen books as well as some digital copies. Perhaps the greatest part of the festival was witnessing the real-time responses to my pitch and book cover. A few people came up to the booth and snapped a photo of my poster. Others said things like, “They’re already here” in response to the title (They Will Be Coming for Us). One woman acted seriously scared when I told her it was sci-fi thriller, and she walked away very quickly, which made me laugh. But the best responses happened when perfect strangers heard my pitch and said, “Yeah, I want this one,” with an excited sparkle in their eye. And, even better, some of them asked if I would sign it.
Kim Catanzarite is a writer, editor, and instructor for Writer’s Digest University. Her sci-fi thriller, They Will Be Coming for Us, published June of this year to strong positive reviews. She is currently looking for another book fair to attend.
