Choosing a Book Sale Venue

If you are planning to rent booth space at a book fair, craft fair, or other public event to sell your book, Andy Upchurch, author of TheOleanders of San Leon, offers the following advice: 
 
It's not enough to pick a venue with just a lot of people.  
 
It should be:

·   A place where books in general would do well
·   A place where YOUR book in particular would do well - i.e., some connection between your book and the theme of the venue.  Example:  A book about boats at the Houston Boat Show.   

 

It takes both parts of this equation to ensure that your book sales are worth the time and money spent on the booth space.

 

Andy says that he had a bad experience at Galveston Mardi Gras because he made the wrong choice.  It was not successful for him because:

 

·  There was a steep cover to get in, which kept crowds down
·   It was geared to a younger partying crowd that weren't interested in much else
·   They set up the vendors away from the center of the activities
·   They charged vendors a lot to be there.

 

Andy thought the Galveston Mardi Gras would be a great venue for selling books because he remembered a huge crowd of people of all ages. It was at one time, but not now. He learned a valuable lesson there.

 

Even after doing the research in advance, however, sometimes you just don't know if a book sale venue will be good for you or not, and you just have to do it once to see!