Slightly Off the Mark

During the Avilla Freedom Festival my family and I heard two good bands, met a lot of people including a new writer, toured a car show, and ate some really, really good food (for which I paid in another way later).

What I didn't do was sell a lot of books.

I still got 'em.

It would have been nice to at least break even ... but on the other hand I did sell some books. I've been to a few author appearances in which not a single copy was bought.

The important thing is to learn from experience, something some people are better at than others. Personally, I kind of suck at it. Still, here are a few conclusions:

Just because you tell people where you'll be doesn't mean they'll show up. Partially it's about the busy world we live in; partially it's a lesson in promotion. I hit the promotion hard, with social media, a press release, invites sent through Facebook and Goodreads event posts,  a newsletter entry, and enough related blog posts (five!) that I was worried about driving people away.

When I say driving away, I don't mean the car show.

I can confirm, as a result of all the work I put into publicity, exactly two sales. Not only that, but we had no new sales of my newest book, Coming Attractions.

Part of the problem might be the time of the year, when people are outside doing summer stuff instead of being online and/or looking for books. A few weeks ago I also heavily publicized a TV interview I did, which showed not only all of our books, but also blurbed our http://markrhunter.com/ website. The increased website visits? Barely a blip, and sales remain flat.

Okay, so, 'nuff complaining. What can we take away from this experience? That writing is a horrible way to make money? That the art of writing had better be its own reward, because nothing else is guaranteed? That you can't reach people through social media as much as you used to? That people walking around at a summer festival will give you odd looks when they realize you're selling books?

All true.

My sister-in-law Cathy, on the right, had a bit more luck with her jewelry. That's Emily on the left, and my camera-shy brother Jeff took the photo.

I'm going to explore other promotion options in the future, and I'll continue trying to get the word out where I can, because you don't just give up when you have a few bad turns. In my mind, two rules remain as true today as when I first started writing:

1. You must deliver a good product. Yes, sometimes bad books become best sellers, but usually quality tells. There's no shortcut: Put the work in, from the moment you fire up your laptop through revision, editing, and polishing. People might not buy my books because they don't care for the genre, but I never want someone to walk away because of the quality.

2. You must love writing. Again, occasionally we see "overnight sensations", people who get a hit with their first swing. Most authors--by a huge margin--never earn enough to make a living at it. If you're looking for a way to supplement your income, there are a vast number of easier and healthier occupations. Complain all you want about submitting or promoting, but if you don't love the writing, don't bother.

If I'm going to keep doing it--and I am--last week won't be my last setback. But I'll keep going, because nobody ever bought a book that wasn't published.

Besides, that fair food was really, really good.

Bacon, lettuce, and fried green tomato. Yum.

I sent out a press release about the Avilla Freedom Festival appearance; it may seem silly, but silly is what I do best:

            A local author will make his second trip to the Avilla Freedom Festival this year, along with some of his family.

I thought this title was nicely official sounding and also just alliterative enough.

Anyway, the longest book signing in history, featuring two somewhat introverted people who are a bit averse to crowds and noise going to a festival, is over. By now you've all seen a photo of either me or Emily at the display table, which Emily laid out after telling me to go do something else. But here's a photo of the table with Emily and a guest who stopped by: My father, Delbert. They're munching on caramel corn at this moment, which we'll talk more about later.

The first surprise was when we were setting up on vendor's row, and I discovered my cousin Earl has a booth right next to us. (I bought some antique coins from him.) In this photo that's his place on the left.

Then it turned out one of the people on the other side from us was a woman I used to work with in the emergency services. Unfortunately for me, among other things they were selling some truly yummy chocolatey stuff. Then the Noble County Gas and Steam Association set up across from us and started making caramel corn ... from scratch, in an actual kettle.

 Is this in any way fair to a guy who needs to make dollars, not gain pounds? Don't even get me started on the bacon, lettuce, and deep fried green tomato sandwiches they were selling down the way.

We were within sight of the stage, and over a three day period were treated to, among other things, bluegrass, 80s glam rock, country, rap, and the kiddie queen and king contest. Below is a long distance photo of Cougar Hunters, who I take it were hunting not large cats but older women.

 There was also a festival going on, and every once in awhile I got to walk around and take a look, although of course not so much at the busy times.

 Car show, too. Maybe I'll do more of a post on that later.

So, how did we do book sale-wise? Well, the first two days were kind of a disappointment, by which I mean a substantial disappointment. Still, by the end of the second day we broke even on our one-time expenses. By the middle of the third day we'd made up what we spent on other things, like the canopy and a folding table of our very own. 

If it had been a typical three or four hour book signing, I'd be crowing about the sales we made. Spread out over three days it wasn't so spectacular, but we did well Saturday afternoon and evening. We also got some bites--gave away business cars and bookmarks to people who, hopefully, will go on the website, or Amazon, or B&N, and make some purchases. That's one of the reasons we do public appearances anyway: to get the word out. I also got to do a blurb on the local radio station.

The one thing I've found strange is that so far we have't sold all that many copies of Radio Red -- the newest release. But that will come.