Where? How? Simple. I got a vendor stand and state license, tent and sold them on weekends at festivals, fairs, and community market days in the central Texas area. And I had never sold anything before. I had neat, inexpensive posters that listed what the novel was about and placed photos and reviews all over my vendor stand to attract attention. These fairs are usually held on Saturdays once a month. During a time period of about three years, I sold approximately 2,000 books in two hardback editions during this part-time sales effort.
The best part of this was that I got to interact with my buyers, before and after the sale, when nearly a quarter of them would see my booth at future fairs and come over to personally tell me about how much they enjoyed the book, some saying they stayed up reading till 5 a.m. the next morning to finish It. I knew then I had a winner.
And this is important. When a person comes over to your booth to look it over, get up and talk to them, offering to tell them what the book is about. Don’t be silent, thinking the buyer will talk first. He’ll probably look and leave.
But don’t order too many books at the start until you see how they sell. Maybe even try Print on Demand. I took a big chance by ordering 1,000 books at the start. But I’ve been a professional writer for decades and I felt my debut book was good.
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Guest post by A.F. Ebbers, a journalism graduate of Ohio
University was a reporter/writer for major newspapers, ad agencies, and in
public relations for Cessna Aircraft Company.
He also graduated from Army Flight School and flew for the Ohio and
Kansas Army National Guards. Later he was called to active duty and served two
flying tours in Vietnam. After retirement from the military, he flew for
corporations and for regional airlines. A dual rated ATP pilot, he has written
for numerous national magazines, Sunday supplements and trade and travel
magazines and has written screenplays and short stories. Today he lives with
his wife in the Austin, Texas area and, when not writing, enjoys tennis, flying
and piano. Dangerous Past is his
debut novel.
Very interesting post. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWOW! I love what you've done with this! Thanks!!
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