The experience of selling signed copies of my books for the first time at craft fairs.

At the end of October I hired a stall at the Fairkytes Arts & Crafts Market in Hornchurch. I’d never done anything of the sort before, though I had seen other crafty people in my family exhibit at them. It was certainly a learning experience, so I thought I’d share that with you. I became aware of the Fairkytes Arts & Crafts Market entirely by chance when a family member happened to mention they had seen it advertised on Facebook. At first I didn’t think it was appropriate, since although writing is considered a “craft”, a book isn’t exactly what comes to mind when I think of “arts and crafts”. I’m thinking more handmade jewellery, pottery, woodwork and ornaments, art prints and paintings etc… And it’s true, the potential customers attending an arts and crafts fair aren’t going there specifically looking for books. But I realised that readers are everywhere, and a nice signed paperback makes a lovely gift. This idea was corroborated by a little internet research, where I found other self-published authors - mainly across the pond - make copious use of craft fairs to sell their books, as it gives them a local presence. It took a little nudge from my family to really get me going on it, but eventually I decided to sign up and give it a go!

Now, it wasn’t as simple as just rocking up on the day with my boxes of author copies. There was a lot of preparation to do, and not a lot of time for it. I needed to put my best foot forward to make my stall eye-catching. I needed something to tell people at a glance who I was and what I was selling. I needed some method of taking payments which I knew would primarily be by card. I needed a tablecloth, signage for each book, and a price list. Plus, I wanted to give something a bit extra for those buying on the day, and I decided on bookmarks. So, I ended up spending a lot of money. I bought a Square Reader to take card payments, which synchronises with my web store. I got a big roller banner and the bookmarks with my custom designs on (which I had to knock up quickly in InDesign), and I bought another box of author copies for From the Grave of the Gods, as I was running a bit too low for comfort. I scrounged around the house and found my old black photography backdrop, which worked brilliantly as a tablecloth, and I printed up a sign for each book with a little blurb and reviews on, plus a price list. At the last minute I also made little tent cards that told people where each book fitted in the series. And the pièce de résistance was the medium-sized model of Seventeen which my dad had 3D printed for my birthday last year, which I mounted on a weighted stand so it wouldn’t fall down. Phew! Then, with only a couple of days to go, my wife reminded me I needed some way of packaging the books… and charging up the card reader and my phone… and something to sign the books with. For the packaging we decided on very simply wrapping the books to order in the roll of brown paper we had at home already, and I needed to make sure to pick up my pen! And a spare!

Optimistic? Perhaps. Definitely.

But all the stuff I bought was really an investment for the future. I have enough bookmarks now to do lots of craft fairs and perhaps some other things with, and the signage can be used for wherever I exhibit as well. The idea is that most of it will pay for itself a little further down the line - as long as I make a profit, that is. And therein lies the big hurdle.

So let’s go through the day at the Fairkytes…

We arrived at the arts centre early and unloaded the stuff from the car. The venue itself was quite small and out of the way, so immediately I wasn’t expecting there to be a huge turnout of customers. A very helpful member of staff showed us to our 6 foot trestle table, which was between some other stallholders, and we set to work making our place look great. And I think it really worked.

Of course, I also live-tweeted the whole experience on Twitter as well.

We had some nice conversations with the other sellers, and got some sage advice from the more experienced ones. We even exchanged details with a few of them. It turns out these fairs are quite good for networking. Then, to my dismay, when the fair opened to the public, I watched as customer after customer walked past our stall with barely a glance, and most of the ones who did stop made a point to tell me they don’t like science fiction. It seemed we were in the right place, though, because the stalls immediately to our left and right got a lot of attention; it’s just a shame the attention they got didn’t rub off on us. In fact, it wasn’t until midday when I had to leave the stall in my wife’s capable hands to go and move the car elsewhere that we had our first sale. Two more followed, for a total of three by the end of the day.

So how about the Thames Chase Christmas Craft Fair?

More recently this month, I went to my second craft fair at Thames Chase, which was quite a different experience. This time, instead of being where all the other sellers were in the barn, our stall was on its own in the visitor centre. This was both a blessing and curse. On the one hand I was thankful for being somewhere slightly warmer, as the barn was frigid and draughty, and we benefited from getting all the initial footfall as customers filtered through the visitor centre to get to the barn. But on the other hand it was very isolating. I didn’t get to speak to any of the other sellers or do any networking, and it certainly felt like we were overlooked for the most part, as people knew they needed to get to the barn. The set up was different as well; it was two square tables put together, rather than a single trestle, and we were placed uncomfortably in front of some iPads and information about the nature reserve. This time, my wife had the brilliant idea to have some mints on the table to give away for free to entice people just that little bit more to stop and look. Unfortunately this didn’t work, as my wife and I (and a little later, my children and in-laws) were the only ones to eat them! They were delicious. The customers really missed out!

I had some very weird and wonderful conversations with people during my time at Thames Chase; from people wanting me to feel how cold their hands were, to one person who thought I was the centre information point (to whom I had to point out the books under their nose). Again it wasn’t until nearly midday that we got our first sale - and to a fellow author, no less! That was pretty cool. But the rest of the day was a bit of a wash out. There was one more sale of From the Grave of the Gods towards the end, for a total of two. I managed to mitigate the disappointment somewhat when I tweeted asking that if someone wanted to help out with sales, the books were still available on my webstore, and indeed an order came through a short while later! So again, a total of three sales for the day.

Outcome

Fairkytes wasn’t a good day generally for most of the sellers. Some didn’t sell anything at all, and most were unhappy with what they did sell. Most of us didn’t make back the cost of our table, which was £25 (quite expensive as these things go, I gather). I would have needed to sell ten or more of From the Grave of the Gods to make that back. Similarly, I didn’t make back the cost of the table at Thames Chase either, though that did only cost £15, so the loss wasn’t as great. I heard from the receptionist that it wasn’t fantastic for anyone else either, but since I didn’t get to talk to anyone there, I don’t know much else.

From a bookselling standpoint, I am well aware people aren’t going to craft fairs looking for books, as I said above. However, I’m surprised there seems to be such a disconnect where people don’t associate books with Christmas gifts. Almost everyone I sold to was buying for someone else, which is what I expected, but they were in the vast minority. I had many more conversations with people who weren’t interested because they personally don’t like the genre, but they have close family who are. Perhaps book-buying is a more personal thing than I thought, and most prefer only to buy books for themselves, rather than others?

What it was, however, was a worthwhile experience. I am told you can never tell how these things will go; sometimes they’re amazing, sometimes terrible, and there’s no rhyme or reason for it. It all depends on who turns up on the day, which you have no control over as a seller. At Fairkytes I got some networking in, and heard about other fairs to attend - including Thames Chase. And at Thames Chase, I got to practice the “elevator pitches” for my books and had some fun with observational humour.

I should say as well that the hosting at both craft fairs was good, from the complimentary tea and coffee to the welcome we received on arrival. We were offered help with carrying things, and easier access than the main entrance from where we parked. Also at both venues, the staff took photos to share on their social media pages to try to entice more customers to come. At Thames Chase in particular, the receptionists made an effort to point out our stall as the first one, and it mitigated the issue of being blanked as people sped through to the barn.

Would I do this again?

Yes, I think it’s worth keeping on trying. Building a local presence is just as important as an online one. I will note that I saw a customer who had bought one of my books at Fairkytes again at Thames Chase. So I feel like that’s a good sign that the same kinds of people like to frequent local craft fairs. It means there’s the possibility that someone who might be on the fence about buying at the first fair might see you at the next and decide to take the plunge. Those initial conversations can therefore be quite good at planting a seed, and you’ll only open yourself to the chance of a follow-up if you keep attending the fairs. Certainly, I’d also like to continue to try and make my banner and bookmark purchases worthwhile, but I’m also hoping they’ll come in handy at other events such as anything I may do in the library in the near future… maybe.

I don’t have any real nuggets of wisdom to impart about the experience, I can only share what it was like for me. But well done and thank you for reading through to the end; I hope it was helpful for you in some capacity.