My first attempt at in-person selling

We have a local Farmer’s Market each week during the summer, and I have toyed with the idea of getting a table to sell my books in-person. I finally took the plunge and booked a table at one of the “special” markets that are just for one day (actually 4-8 PM on a Friday). This was a Harvest Market, but of course it was not just for “harvest” things. There were a lot of different vendors selling all sorts of things - your typical farmer’s market or craft fair.

I took Thomas’ advice and tried to gussy up my table a bit - they had encouraged a “harvest” theme so I went with that. I didn’t have a lot of books on hand but I wasn’t expecting to sell too many, so I wasn’t too worried. The table cost $50 (which is 2x the amount for one of the regular Farmer’s Market tables, but oh well).

I did have a giveaway for people who bought books or who signed up for the newsletter. I had made a few mugs last Christmas featuring my book covers (as gifts) and had ordered a couple extras for some kind of giveaway, so I used one of those.

I was pleasantly surprised at the result. I sold 14 books, so at least I recovered the cost of the table, lol!

My books are general market historical fantasy.

Takeaways:

  1. My husband was a huge asset. He is much more extroverted than I am so he had no problem on asking people as they went by, “Do you like to read?” It was amazing how this worked - people would stop and chat and I definitely got sales that I wouldn’t have otherwise.

  2. People thought it was cool that a local person had written a book (or three, heh). I live in a small town of 7000 people so this likely wouldn’t be a factor for people in a larger center but they were quite happy to “support local”.

  3. I used Square for sales which worked great. There were a few who had cash only, so I was glad that I had come prepared with a cash box.

  4. My bookmark with a QR code on it for the reader magnet was a great asset. When I explained they could get a free short story bundle and check out my writing to see if they liked it, lots were enthused about the idea. I noticed 8 new signups to my newsletter in the week after the event, so there was some follow-through.

  5. Because this was a limited-time event, it wasn’t a huge time-suck. Pretty much the whole day was dedicated to it but that was an acceptable amount of time for me.

  6. It was great to have a “set” of books to sell. My trilogy is complete so I reduced the price on buying the three at once.


I will definitely do this again. In fact, I AM doing it again, as I also signed up and paid for the special “Christmas” market. Same idea of 4-8 PM on a Friday. Those are always well-attended. I don’t think it would be worth it to do this every week, but I can see that as an occasional thing, it will be good.