CAPITAL BOOKFEST A FUN SURPRISE

Well here it is a year since my journey to get my first book published started. I found myself signing books at the Capital Bookfest (http://capita2.bizland.com/) this weekend. It was sponsored in conjunction with Borders and I must say, I was skeptical when I signed up. You see I’ve been touring now for about four months and I’ve done it all. This event though, was one of the most fun events I’ve done in a long time.

DO YOU REALLY SELL BOOKS AT BOOKFEST

Truth is, most times authors don’t sell a lot of books at these events. I left with selling 13 books in 4 hours which about paid for the investment in getting a table. This year my publisher wanted me to tour different kinds of venues for signing to see which ones were more profitable. We find that authors rarely sell hundreds of books at these types of events. Now these events require payment for a table (or spot) for the author. The author should come prepared with tablecloth and promotional materials as well as some books. However, with this particular bookfest the Borders bookstore carried some of our books. My publisher called in advance and requested that they purchase some since I was in attendance and we were in the Borders book ordering system.

SO WHY DO BOOKFEST?

We are keeping select bookfest on our list, and the Capital Bookfest is one of them. I’ve done a few others and I just enjoyed the networking with other authors so much that I really like going to them also. However, our marketing budget will decide. There were various types of authors at the bookfest. Some had a publisher and others were self-published. I must say I visited everyone’s table, and there were some good quality self-published as well as traditionally published books out there. And you know what? People were purchasing them. Not only that, but each author had an opportunity to get up and speak about their book on stage as well as give a reading. I personally sold 6 books after the reading. It also helped that I was the only YA-Scifi author in attendance. Also, for my time spent I was able to network two additional speaking opportunities at local schools in which fellow authors were teachers! Wow!

HOW TO JUDGE A SUCCESSFUL EVENT

I truly enjoyed all the kids who purchased my books. I got a few hugs, ‘Wow – you are a writer of scifi?”, an opportunity to read The Pack, and some great advice as well as additional event opportunities from other writers that have pursued their careers in varied fashions.

It was definitely a successful event.