I was excited. A little nervous, but I packed my two boxes of perhaps forty books - a mixture of the four titles that are published - a small box of display helpers (plastic card holders etc.) a cash box and a black table cloth into the back of my car, added my life long partner, Georgia, plus a push cart to save my back and zoomed down to the Community College campus, center city Minneapolis. I could tell as I wheeled my stuff into the big main floor fair location, that it was going to be a busy day.
Rain Taxi is a local non-profit literary group that sponsors this event, and they had advertised quite widely throughout the twin cities area. This is also a book event with a long track record. Can't remeber exactly, but I think this year was the 9th or tenth (I'm not going to look it up)- or perhaps the twelfth year in a row that this has happened, so a good crowd was pretty much guaranteed.
I found my assigned table and spent the next ten minutes setting up my display. I was in a great location. Close - but not too close to the student food bar and near the front end of my isle - which guaranteed lots of traffic. The crowd of vendors (of which I was one) was made up of authors, author/publishers (like me), book distributors, traditional publishers, and some educational institutions - like The Loft Literary Center. All told there were over a hundred of us squeezed shoulder to shoulder at tables in long rows that spread throughout the entire main floor lobby .
On my left,was an author who specialized in writing about money. He was dressed in a suit and tie. On my right, a Hmong writer with a book about his life story. At 10 a.m. the doors opened and people began to filter in. I sold a copy of my new book "100 Things Retired Guys Should Avoid" almost instantly and felt a warm glow of anticipation. by eleven o'clock I'd sold another copy. "Hmm," I said. "Kinda slow motion - even with all these people." There was a big crowd by now. I decided to check the scene by walking around and watching how others were doing. The first thing that I saw, was that there were a million books on display. Well, probably more like thousands - but believe me, there were literally tons of books. And, some authors were DEEPLY discounting their books. Like $2.00 for a book. Next, I noticed that Rain Taxi had a big long table with used books for sale - also at around two bucks apiece. "Well," I reasoned, "This generates a crowd, so I shouldn't complain." But the over-riding observation I had was, not very many people were actually buying books - and those that did were keeping their purchases down to a minimal number - like, one book. Some bought several, but not many people loaded up on winter reading.
I returned to my table and pondered the situation while a hundred or so more shoppers wandered by, fondling my display books and sometimes promising to return later. By mid afternoon I had sold two more books and my back was giving out from standing behind my table and smiling. My jaw was aching and by closing time I had lost my voice completely. "Interesting," I said to myself. "I sold more books up in Lutsen, Minnesota when I attended Tom Christiansen's "Art For Living" event - and that was tiny in comparison. What does this mean?" Others were asking the same question. There was a lot of grumbling as I wheeled my still pretty full boxes of books back out to my car. Still, I have to say that the experience was good. I learned a lot about my own efforts as an author/publisher. Namely, that what I'm doing regarding writing and publishing is entirely correct in today's changing literary arena, and that if I'm going to be in that arena, I must participate. I'm rethinking my concept of traveling to other book fairs across the country, but I will certainly return to the Twin Cities Book Fair next year. More about this later. In the spirit of participation, I invite your chit-chat, comments and ideas. As usual.
