Book Fairs

I've gone to two book fairs so far this year. I have three more scheduled. Last year I did many more. So why did I cut back this year? Several reasons.

About the best most of us can hope for is a few dozen books sold at a fair. These usually run one day from ten in the morning until sometime between two and four in the afternoon. Others run two days. Since some require an overnight stay due to distance, writers should factor in the expenses when deciding whether or not to go to a fair. If you draw a largish crowd at your table, you'll have to worry about spending only a few minutes with each buyer.

We meet fellow writers on the same circuit and catch up on family and friends. I caught up with Arnetta Philpott Hairston who brings her son's books to events until he's able to do it himself.

Let's do the math. Say I have a great fair. I meet with 30-40 readers, some of whom are already part of the Mad Max "family," while others are shopping for a new book with different characters. Say I sell 25 books at the fair. Now factor in five such events a year. I'd be able to reach 150-200 readers and sell 125 books. Add in at least one overnight for one of the fairs, plus gasoline, food, etc., and the return on each book sold quickly goes into the negative.

But how else do we reach our readers, you howl. I want to do book signings and be loved by my readers, you whimper. I want to thank them for buying my book, for supporting my writing efforts. It's a conundrum most debut writers face. We won't have the big book tours paid for by our publishers. We won't pack Barnes and Noble through having a poster in the window and a small blurb in the papers. We won't be on the Today Show, NPR, Oprah or CNN's book show. We won't have a publicist pushing us here and there, guiding us through the pits of marketing, unless we hire one. We have to do the work ourselves. That said, we have to be smart about how we spend our time.

I wondered if I was crying into the wilderness until I read a piece in the Wall Street Journal last weekend. Titled "Fiction's Digital Alchemist," the article features how Paulo Coelho, everything best selling author (NYT, USA Today, etc.) has changed his outlook on marketing. The article laid it out pretty clearly. Before he cut out book events, he calculated the following:

"In the past, each reader at a book signing would ask him to autograph about three novels (he has 27 out) and pose for a photo, amounting to a two-minute encounter. All told, that meant interacting with maybe 90 readers at a few dozen book events each year." Oh phooey. My estimates are way too high. Sigh.

He goes on: "Now he can write 'at least one kind word' to roughly 30 people a day and reach more than 10,000 a year. In the past six months, he has gained 4.1 million fans on Facebook through "likes" on his page."

And that, my fellow writers, is a good use of time.

Several years ago, I heard a middle grade author talk about answering every personal tweet. Granted, she only said things like "OMG. So happy you loved my story. Happy face." She kept a small file of  responses which she cut and pasted into her responses. Her fans stayed and were very happy.

For those of us who have day jobs, or who are shy and don't like to put themselves in front of people, or who may not be able to travel for a whole host of reasons, this might serve as a trail guide for reaching readers. I put together a daily timeline for responding to email, FB and Twitter. I alternate between writing and interacting. It's easy and takes the stress away from balancing reaching out and writing down.

I answer every, and I mean every, personal note. My numbers on FB, LinkedIn, Goodreads and Twitter continue to grow. My newsletter has nearly 1000 members. Can I say that any of these activities leads directly to sales? No, but if I don't do anything, I guarantee I will turn inactivity into no sales at all.

Now I figure out how these contacts translate into sales. Wish me luck.

Ferrum College Women's Leadership Conference

I had the pleasure of attending and participating in the 14th Annual Ferrum College Women's Leadership Conference on Saint Patrick's Day. This year's theme was Empowering Self and Others: Building Social Networks.

On first blush, you might think this was all about FAcebook and Twitter. It wasn't, although both tools played into the discussions.

Beth Macy, feature writer for Roanoke Times, addressed the value of face-to-face human contact. As a feature writer, she knows she gets her best material sitting in someone's kitchen, asking questions, listening and taking notes. Her social networks are up front and in person.

Carrie Smith Schmidt also addressed the human connection in social networking. Her remarks reiterated the importance of personal networks and mentors. Without people who helped her career through the US Department of Agriculture, she might not have been able to use her degrees in animal science and agriculture. A woman studying science at a time when that "just wasn't done," Schmidt carved a career path that now has her working with farmers for the USDA Rural Development program in Virginia.

Two different looks at social networking were featured in panel discussions in the afternoon. "Intergenerational Impacts of Social Networks" featured a panel of students, a young business woman and two grandparents. All used the standard networking tools, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter all for different reasons, although a couple panelists were still befuddled by the necessity to "tweet."

The last panel on "Art, Literature and Music: Creative Networks in SW Virginia" brought together representatives of the Crooked Trail, the Blue Ridge Institute, the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge, and the Valley Writers chapter of the Virginia Writers Club. The latter would be moi. I emphasized that as a writer your blog, your Facebook entries and your tweets all form part of your resume.

And that brought me to an interesting question: how will today's text-addicted youth interview for a job? Will they be able to make eye contact, shake a hand, ignore the smart phone buzzing in a pocket? Or with they be so numbed by lives of multi-tasking distraction they won't be able to respond to questions that will open or close doors to their future? Sounds like a good essay to me.

Hats off to Nell Frederickson and all of the rest of the staff at Ferrum College for putting on a terrific program. I think faculty, students and the public heard a consistent theme: networking, no matter what the medium, is essential in career and life. Don't blow it.

James River Writers Conference, final post

Okay, the last series of sessions at JRWC this year focused on the future of publishing and on use of social media. Or not, depends on my mood.

On the future of publishing, the panelists were mixed on how long the traditional commercial publishers would continue to print books for distribution in book stores. While this isn't likely to go away tomorrow, the trend toward e-publishing (thank you very much, Kindle, iPad, Nook) and publish on demand (not to be confused with print on demand, or self publishing). Publish on demand fulfills orders from bookstores without having to house warehouses of hard copy. You order it, they print and ship. Or, you can download and read immediately.

The importance of social media underscored what I've been hearing for several years. Writing the book is just the first step. Building a platform and getting people to know you exist is more important, particularly when traditional commercial publishers are scaling w-a-a-y back on publicity. Authors are required to be involved in marketing their books and in establishing a reputation in social cyberspace. Panelists focused on blogs (and gimmicks to drive people to blogs), Facebook and Twitter. Yes, most people Tweet.

Case in point. One author, whose book was being released soon, posted a Tweet that casually mentioned a person who inspired her book. Person sees name in his Tweet search and retweets. To 2.8 million followers. This author jumped from relative obscurity to having 2.8 million people knowing she exists. No, not all will buy the book, but enough might ...

How do you use social media?

So, many things to think about. Many things to make part of my writing life. So many things, so little time.

Alternative Publishing

I went to a discussion on Monday on the pros and cons of self publishing, sponsored by the Valley Writers Chapter of Virginia Writers Club. Four members all had self-published, with varying degrees of success. The general consensus was that self-publishing works if you have something of local interest (Sally Roseavere's novel is set at Smith Mountain Lake), is non-fiction (memoir by Rodney Franklin and history by Jim Morrison) or humor (Becky Mushko). No one is getting rich slowly this way, but their words are being read.

One prevailing theme was how involved a writer has to be in marketing his/her book. (To avoid this awkward construction, I will use "her" as the collective noun.) Hand selling at readings, out of the trunk of a car, or through local book stores and gift shops moves a few books. Not enough to garner interest from an agent, however.

I didn't hear anyone talk about alternative publishing and alternative marketing. I would love comments about these topics:

Publishing to electronic books, i.e., Kindle

Podcasting to attract listenership

Using social networks, i.e., LinkedIn, Plaxo

Using FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.

I have nearly 4000 personal contacts on one of the social networks. When I posted a note that I was reading a particular book on marketing, my friend noticed a definite blip in sales.

How else can we market our books? What are your experiences?