Book signings and Christmas fair

It's that time of year again, I'm busy booking up my weekends in November and December to do book signings at Christmas fairs...

I've got some exciting venues lined up this year, from the Tithe Barn in Poppleton to Yorkshire Heart Vineyard - yes a vineyard in Yorkshire - what an exciting new venue for a Christmas fair! I love the Christmas fair season as everyone gets ready for the festive season, and it's good to know that my books will be part of so many people's Christmas' as they emerge from the wrapping paper  - I wonder which book will be this year's bestseller...?

People like to meet a real live author, parents like to show their children the face to the name on the front cover on the books - but it's a two way thing, as an author it's great to meet my readers - as time goes on there's more and more who've already read my books, and give me feedback and which ones they liked best. The Monster Under The Bed is always a big taking point, everyone has a story to tell about the monster under their beds, and But I'm Not Sleepy is still my bestseller - it seems everyone has a Lucy...

Self publish - the new name for multitasking

I think self publish is the new name for multitasking - trying to split my time between writing and illustrating the next book, and the business of marketing. But marketing can be as creative as writing the book - or at least that's what I'm trying to tell myself, to wake up the creative part of my brain when I'm trying to think of ever more inventive ways to get my books noticed, but my brain just wants to daydream about the next book - characters jostling about trying to leap onto the the keyboard.

Book signings are always popular, but why do book signings always have to mean standing in a bookshop or in a  hall at some craft fair...? Isn't the internet the new craft fair, where we can meander about and find just what we wanted without all those wasted trips to town when we found nothing, but  ended up rushing back to the car before the parking ticket ran out...

So all I have to do is move my online bookshop out of the back alley it seems to be residing in, and drag it out into the main stream of internet traffic, but not in so much traffic that my books get knocked off their shelves, I don't want them getting dogeared...

Off to break open the next box of books now, to fill an order - so something must be working.

Living the dream, and dreaming of making a living from it, one book sale at a time...

Book signings and the randomness of craft fairs

Every so often I venture out from behind my computer screen, out into the world....

Book signings in bookshops are good because people are already there looking for books, but you can't beat the randomness of a craft fair...

I'm usually the last to arrive at these events, because I know I can set up in less than 10 minutes. It's become like a well oiled machine - the tablecloth, the book stands, the books of course - some on stands and some laid flat on the table. Most people like to pick up the ones from the table rather than the stands, who know why... maybe they don't want to risk upsetting the stands. But really not much upsets the stands, they're a tough lot, my display team, valiantly holding up books for hours on end  with never a complaint... (oops, letting my visual imagination run away with me again).

The newest addition to the display is a little flock of sheep, that go with my bestseller But I'm Not Sleepy. I have fairy lights and bookmarks, and the sometimes forgotten notice that says I'm a local author doing a book signing - strangely that's the thing that mot people don't notice...

Although the characters of my latest book Outnumbered by Cats, try to stow away in the boxes as I pack them, I don't think half a dozen cats running round a craft fair would be very practical, especially as the occasional dog comes in...

The other traders are usually a friendly bunch, which helps the day go by, through the quiet times. And there's nothing like eating a sandwich to bring out the customers, it's as if they just wait for you to fill your mouth with food to come over and ask a question, so lunch can take a while to eat. My record for longest lasting sandwich was a couple of hours - if only I could remember the filling for that magic sandwich that brought the customers flooding in...

And there's nothing more random than the customers...

• There's the obvious book lovers, who spot the books from the other side of the room and come over with that glint in their eye. 
• There's the ones who look totally uninterested, but get drawn in and often buy one. 
• There's the collectors who buy a signed book to put away and see if it becomes valuable - while quite possibly missing the true value of a book, which needs to be read to be revealed... 
• Best of all is when a book is bought for a small child and placed in their hands to hold and enjoy. Books are precious, but not the sort of precious to be placed on a shelf like fine china. The sort of precious to hold, to read, and to look at the pictures, and to get a little shabby like a favorite teddy...
• Lastly there's the difficult ones, who'll pick fault with everything, but stay to talk anyway, they've no intention of buying, and the books are probably shying away from them in terror in case they get picked... (oops that imagination again...) 

Craft fairs can be fun, and a great way of meeting customers and getting your book out there.