TLDR- I survived the Sip & Shop Adult Book Fair, learned a few lessons along the way, and refined my why.
I spent the whole day in Irving for a book fair hosted by Happily Ever Sip & Shop. This was my first experience with this host, an outdoor table, and a not so book heavy book fair. I learned quite a lot. Not the least of which is that I have been spoiled by the wonderfully organized Get Lit events I’ve participated in.
Anxiety was high leading into the day. We were not sent a map of the area, where to load in or park, or assigned booth locations. This is something that I’d come to expect, simply because it was standard at the only other events I’ve been to. When I emailed the host to request these items (twice!) all I received was a cut and paste from the original email which gave the address and the name of the person to check in with. Never mind the fact that I had no idea what that person looked like or where to find them.
Being an outdoor event, we were encouraged to bring a canopy tent and weights. Renee Edwards and I were sharing a booth, so we split the load and I brought the tent, she brought the weights. The plan was to have my husband come to help us set up and her husband would help us tear down. We could start setting up at 9:30, so my anxiety dictated that I needed to be there at 9:30.
At 8:30 I began loading my car with the canopy, table, and chair that I would be bringing (the rest was already loaded). As I did this, my husband started having tummy issues. He’d had problems the day before but thought surely it was something he ate and that he was over it. He was not. And the idea of driving half an hour out to help me set up, not knowing if/when his bowels would betray him, I told him to stay home. Knowing I wouldn’t have help (Renee planned to get there a bit later to give us time to set up the tent), I chose to leave right away and arrive at 9:15.
GPS got me to the address, and I saw two tents already erected and finally had a clue as to where the booths would be located. Unfortunately, the loading zone was small and already full. I drove around, trying to decide what to do. I finally pulled into the nearest parking lot and hoped I wouldn’t die trying to haul my things to the grassy area.
I started with the tent, since it was largest. As I approached the grassy area that looked to be the place someone asked me how I knew where to set up. My reply was “I don’t. I just got here.” We asked another person and they pointed to a pink tent with a man and woman setting up their permanent jewelry booth.
Now, I’m sure their plan had been to be completely set up before people started arriving and we were about ten minutes early, but they didn’t appear to be on the lookout for confused looking vendors trying to figure out who “Taylor” was. We finally flagged one of them down and after marking us off of her list, she instructed each of us to (what felt like) a random spot. They did not appear to be pre-assigned. More of a first come, first served situation. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s the way it felt.
I set my tent in the spot I’d been directed to, then went back to my car to get the rest of my gear. On my way back to my spot a couple asked me what all the tents were about and I explained that it was an adult book fair (that’s what the event was billed as, anyway). They thanked me and I continued my struggle to roll a dolly over cobbles and grass.
I’d parked in a one-hour parking space, so before setting anything up, I went to move my car. Every parking space had a time limit, even in the parking garage. The longest time was three hours. I parked in one and prayed I wouldn’t get a ticket or towed.
Returning to the space I worked on getting the canopy set up. It had been a long time since I last set it up, but I’d always done so with help. Alone was impossible. I struggled to get the darn thing open. I finally decided that asking for help was a whole lot better than sitting and waiting for Renee to show up, so I approached the couple that had asked me what was happening. They kindly agreed to help and in no time the canopy was in place.
I sat in my chair, putting together the shelves for my table so that I could be productive while also resting and letting my heart rate come back down. Renee arrived and we worked together to problem solve and complete our set up.
All of this anxiety and we hadn’t yet started the event! From our vantage point, all of the vendors across the grass from us were craft items, jewelry, food and beverages…I didn’t see any authors. There was an author next to us, and a book vendor down at one end (not for a single author), but if there were other books for sale, I did not see them. I have begun to think maybe all of the authors had been assigned to one side of the grass and that’s why I couldn’t see them. I never left my booth to look around, but there were very few books for something called a book fair.
Once things got started and people came by, I was able to settle into the routine of asking people questions to get them to stop and hear about our books. Renee and I got a good rhythm going so that we were able to highlight how are books were similar as well as what made our work unique (with our joint novelette in the middle). We both did a decent job of selling, despite the large number of people who, when asked what they liked to read, answered “I don’t read.” I even convinced one of those people to buy Quest to Valadin!
As the day went on, I refined my sales pitch by sharing my why. I explained that my intention for this series is to have representation for various mental health diagnosis that are often misunderstood. I want people to feel less alone, but I also want to educate people that have a skewed idea of what someone with a particular diagnosis might experience. In the long run, I want to normalize the struggles we all go through and make it okay to not be okay. That message seemed to resonate with several people, which makes my anxious heart so very happy.
Overall, I sold six copies of Quest to Valadin and together Renee and I sold six copies of A Fool for You. Unfortunately, one of those sales of Quest to Valadin did not actually go through and I didn’t notice until the customer was long gone. Lesson learned. Don’t close the phone until you get to the receipt screen.
It was a long and muggy day. More than once a gust of wind threatened to take our tent, even with the weights. Renee and I have agreed that we will avoid outdoor events from here on out if possible. Though we did already sign up for an October Sip & Shop (not billed as a book fair, so at least we won’t expect people to be readers). Hopefully it will go better.
Our next event is on June 5th. Another Get Lit, which has already been so much better regarding communication. We talked with another vendor (Agua Fresca) who agreed with us that Get Lit is much better organized. I love that Rachel Lewis (the organizer) always has volunteers going around to check on the vendors throughout the day, rather than relying on one person that is also a vendor. She is an author herself, so when she designed Get Lit, she incorporated all the things she felt other vendor fairs were lacking. I plan to send her a hardy thank you.
I am lucky that there are a lot of vendor fair organizations in our area to choose from. I didn’t realize how lucky until talking to an author who lives in NYC, where she says there is nothing. If I wanted to, I could find a vendor fair or two every weekend of the year! Which is lucky, since I seem to have more luck selling when I can talk to customers than I do from simply praying for sales online.
Leave a Reply