Eat Local Read Local Book Fair Report - Success!

This month I had one in-person event, which was the Eat Local Read Local Book Fair. I finally decided to put together a proper booth and made some investments. A few things were pretty basic, like a decent black table cloth, but then I also got a custom banner with my name and website. I also made a couple single-page summary sheets for my books (in protective plastic sleeves), which I think were helpful for people as they walked by. I also got a chalkboard and come colored chalk pens to advertise special pricing and to give a simple blurb about what to expect in the books.

There were over 70 authors, and the organizers said that more than 650 people attended the book fair. I sold a half-dozen books and handed out a couple dozen business cards. What was really neat was that a couple people bought both books together. It made me feel good one one attendee picked up a display copy, gave a nod, then walked away only to come back about half an hour later and get both novels. I'm sure that happened a lot at the book fair, where something would catch a person's eye, then they sneak away to see if the reviews are any good before making a purchase. To everyone who bought a copy - Thank you! I hope you enjoy Thorne's adventures.

I was in a tent (it was an outside event) that housed many fantasy / sci-fi authors, and had nice chats with the authors flanking my booth. Both were romantasy authors, which still is the juggernaut in terms of popularity, but I was surprised with the number of people being interested in my books because they did NOT have any romance elements. After the event I also noticed a spike in web traffic - so for first any time visitors Hello!

In other news, I'm in the thick of revising my newest manuscript. The easier edits were in the first half of the book, and those went quickly. Now I'm in the major structural changes needed for the second half, and it feels like I'm writing a completely new book. All the original plot beats are still there, but how I'm connecting the dots is significantly different. I think I'm moving in the right direction, but every once in a while I worry that I'm just making parts of my story different but not better. My guess is that things will shake out once I give it to a beta-reader, so for now I'll stay the course. The submission window for my publisher opened in this month and runs until the end of January in the new year, so I've plenty of time to get the story as polished as possible before submission.

Thanks for stopping by.