This was my first local event. Last year, my promotion was concentrated on internet-based stuff- my blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc... But one of my goals for 2011 was to get myself out in my local community more. Show Buffalo that I am here and I am awesome!!!
Yeah...didn't really work so well.
The book fair is open to authors, publishers, book and paper crafters, etc... Basically if you do something and it uses paper in some way, you could participate. I had attended the event a few years ago and there were a ton of really talented people there. I couldn't wait to participate!
So I planned my table, and with my friend having to back out uncontrollably at the last minute, the table was all mine. So I decided to make it sexy. My books are sexy, so I made sure my table represented that:
And I dressed accordingly. I wore a fabulous dress and painted my nails red, and I wore a cute pair of shoes. But as the other tables around me filled up, I started to feel extremely out of place. My decor was wrong, my attire was wrong.....my book was just wrong. At one point, I was adjusting my dress (I admit, it was a little low cut) and looked up to see the woman across from my table glaring at me. She quickly looked away....but it gave me a good idea of what she was thinking. Me and my book did not belong there.
I had some people come by and say they thought my title was great...or the cover was striking, or the blurb sounded good.....but none of the comments led to sales. I did sell some books, but most were to my friends who came to support me. Only 1 book was sold to a non-friend.
But instead of letting myself get too depressed.....the St. Patty's party at a friend's house after the book fair helped...a lot!:
I told myself that this was just not the right venue for me and my work. There is nothing wrong with my work. I just need to work harder to find places where my work will be appreciated.
Hopefully what I have coming up will help. I spoke with one of my favorite little independent bookstores and we will be setting up a book signing. I did an interview last week with a small newspaper and that will run in next week's edition.
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