Selling in-person: what I learned

I’ve been selling in-person for years (my parents both self-published, so I sold their books at events as a kid), but I learn something new each time… so here are my takeaways for anyone who might find them useful:

(First, a note on the conference: it was a three-and-a-half day conference on classical Lutheran education, about 500 attendees, a lot of families with small children. Probably half the attendees were parents, a fourth were empty nesters or single adults, and a fourth were children. A lot of them were homeschoolers, homeschool graduates, or former homeschoolers, so this crowd is very similar to the homeschool market.)

  • Fiction did much better than nonfiction. This might be because my parents’ non-fiction has been around longer than my fiction, so we may just have saturated the audience. But I think parents are increasingly looking for good fiction for their kids. They care less about the quality of their own nonfiction, but they’re very cautious about what they give their children.

  • In addition to books, we sold “Blind Dates With A Book” (classics version). That did extremely well, I think in part because of price anchoring. (Our other books were $10+, compared to only $5.) A lot of people bought those but nothing else, so I made sure I was giving away business cards to those customers.

  • Very few people joined my newsletter without making a purchase. But once they made a purchase, they were very willing to join it. Same for business cards—browsers were reluctant to take them, but customers were eager. Not sure why, since the newsletter and business cards were free….

  • The chairs behind my table (you know, the ones I wasn’t supposed to sit in) made a useful table extension when we ran out of room on our table. I put an entire tote of Blind Dates With A Book on one chair and set it next to the table… lol. I did sit down during slower times, but I found the table did better when I was standing… so it’s good to find creative uses for your chairs!

  • Very few people asked me to sign my book after purchasing it. I’m not sure if I should have been offering? It feels somewhat egotistical, but I don’t sell signed books otherwise… so maybe I should have offered. Thoughts?

  • I’ve gone back and forth on how much to engage people, but I think I finally figured it out: engage extroverts, because they want to talk. Ignore introverts, because they genuinely just want to look at your books. (Extroverts will generally make eye contact as they approach your table, and introverts won’t.) It seemed to help with engagement at the table, and it let me (as an introvert) have some quiet time, which was much needed.

  • I had a poster up for my current Kickstarter campaign… and no one scanned it. So apparently this crowd really wants to buy their books in person? I’m not sure. I also noticed that only one person used the QR code on my business card (at least while I was watching), so it could also be a generational thing. Most of the parents were 30+, and most of the kids didn’t have phones (or money to buy books, so they weren’t at the table anyway). I’m curious if QR codes would be more successful with a teen/young adult audience. Thoughts on that?

  • This should go without saying… but self-care is part of your job when you’re running a table! You need adequate sleep, good food, comfortable clothes and shoes, and lots of water (especially if, like me, you’re selling books in a building with no AC in extremely humid high-eighties… the books felt damp by the end of each day). If I could do this conference over again, I would do more weather research beforehand, and probably bring a small battery-powered fan. (The vendor next to me had one hidden behind his books… and I was so tempted to ask to borrow it….)

Anyway, I hope this is helpful to anyone wanting to sell in-person! And I would love to hear anyone’s thoughts if you have more to add to this. :)