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So, as I noted in a post last week, I had a booth at an art show in St. Augustine, Florida, this past weekend. St. Augustine is one of the settings in my novel.
A terrible storm came through on the first morning of the show. The wind and rain tried to tear apart my tent, and it ripped one of my banners, but I waited to put out my books until after it passed.
Right before the show started, I heard an artist in the booth next to me say to her husband, "That guy's not gonna sell any books." I smiled at her just to let her know that I could hear her, but inside I was thinking that maybe she was right. Who's gonna buy a book at an art show?
The answer: a lot of people.
My booth had people at it all day, and my hand got tired from signing autographs. It turns out a local paper picked up a press release I had sent out, and they made a nice write-up about my book, and I had a lot of people tell me they came to the art show JUST to get my book. I gave away free doubloon replicas (my cost = 50-cents) to everyone who bought a book.
The highlight of the weekend was when a guy walked by and, in passing, said "Oh, I'm reading that book." I stopped him and asked what he meant. He told me that he lived a few hours south and was in St. Augustine for the weekend. A few weeks before, his wife had downloaded the Kindle version of my book; she read it, loved it, and urged him to read it. At the time, he was halfway into it. He said, "Wait a minute... you're the author?" When I said yes, he got all excited and we had a great conversation about the book. He had no idea that I'd be at the show, so it was really a strange coincidence. It's not like I've sold a ton of books yet.
The next day, the temperature dropped. It was in the 40s most of Sunday. That might not sound bad to northerners, but for me and a lot of other Floridians, that's way too cold to be outside! I didn't think anyone would show up, but they did, and I ended up selling over a hundred copies at $15 apiece.
The bonus was that the newspaper article also seemed to have made a good pop in my ebook sales as well.
My father in law dressed up as a conquistador for me the first day, but most people didn't really think he had anything to do with my book. In St. Augustine, according to one bartender I met, apparently guys dressed up as conquistadors are pretty common! The helmet, sword and breastplate served as good props on my book table, though.
My daughter held a sign asking people to buy her daddy's book for about ten minutes, and it was a big hit while it lasted. There was a playground near my booth, so that got the priority.
Here's a pic of me at my booth with my conquistador father-in-law. He was really in character; I had to ask him to stop scowling at customers a few times! As you can see, I grew a beard just in case I wanted to dress as the conquistador.
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A terrible storm came through on the first morning of the show. The wind and rain tried to tear apart my tent, and it ripped one of my banners, but I waited to put out my books until after it passed.
Right before the show started, I heard an artist in the booth next to me say to her husband, "That guy's not gonna sell any books." I smiled at her just to let her know that I could hear her, but inside I was thinking that maybe she was right. Who's gonna buy a book at an art show?
The answer: a lot of people.
My booth had people at it all day, and my hand got tired from signing autographs. It turns out a local paper picked up a press release I had sent out, and they made a nice write-up about my book, and I had a lot of people tell me they came to the art show JUST to get my book. I gave away free doubloon replicas (my cost = 50-cents) to everyone who bought a book.
The highlight of the weekend was when a guy walked by and, in passing, said "Oh, I'm reading that book." I stopped him and asked what he meant. He told me that he lived a few hours south and was in St. Augustine for the weekend. A few weeks before, his wife had downloaded the Kindle version of my book; she read it, loved it, and urged him to read it. At the time, he was halfway into it. He said, "Wait a minute... you're the author?" When I said yes, he got all excited and we had a great conversation about the book. He had no idea that I'd be at the show, so it was really a strange coincidence. It's not like I've sold a ton of books yet.
The next day, the temperature dropped. It was in the 40s most of Sunday. That might not sound bad to northerners, but for me and a lot of other Floridians, that's way too cold to be outside! I didn't think anyone would show up, but they did, and I ended up selling over a hundred copies at $15 apiece.
The bonus was that the newspaper article also seemed to have made a good pop in my ebook sales as well.
My father in law dressed up as a conquistador for me the first day, but most people didn't really think he had anything to do with my book. In St. Augustine, according to one bartender I met, apparently guys dressed up as conquistadors are pretty common! The helmet, sword and breastplate served as good props on my book table, though.
My daughter held a sign asking people to buy her daddy's book for about ten minutes, and it was a big hit while it lasted. There was a playground near my booth, so that got the priority.
Here's a pic of me at my booth with my conquistador father-in-law. He was really in character; I had to ask him to stop scowling at customers a few times! As you can see, I grew a beard just in case I wanted to dress as the conquistador.
