What's in a Book Festival?

Book festivals are exhausting. So much to pack up - and I have a Prius, so packing that little sucker is like playing a high-stakes game of Tetris - so much to not forget, so many details to iron out, so few opportunities to eat or use the bathroom (who needs to use the bathroom, anyhow?), so much talking and smiling and talking and smiling and talking and smiling..., so much worry over selling enough books to make the venture profitable, so much hoping the person you're assuring will like your book will actually like your book, so much work. But I never question if going to book festivals is worth it, because my readership is what makes my writing possible.

Authors are a rather anchoritic bunch by nature. That is to say, we like to be alone, and we can tend to treat our art as a sort of religious practice. It's spiritually fulfilling, in a way, to close oneself off from the real world and sub-create a new world in the form of a story. I think most of us would prefer to write our stories in seclusion, submit them for editing and publishing, and then set them loose (for sale) in the magical world of the internet and let the readers come to us. No direct selling, please. No self-promotion, thank you very much. The Art should speak for itself.

The problem with this is, even in a perfect world, I don't believe this is ever the way it should be. Art always has a personal source. We, the authors, are part of our written works, and our readers deserve a chance to get to know us, and us them. To set a story loose on the world is to enter into a relationship with the people consuming the story. Hopefully that relationship will be a good one, but as with most relationships, it will not thrive without communication and effort on both parts.

One way devoted readers who have entered into a relationship with authors through their books can help that relationship thrive is by writing reviews on places such as Amazon and Goodreads, telling their friends about the author's books, and generally spreading the word! But how can the author foster a good relationship with his or her readers?

I think one way (besides the obvious way of continuing to write books) is to remain engaged and active in book festivals, and that is why I attend as many as I am able to attend. I can blog, I can Facebook and Tweet every day, I can post to Pinterest, but it's not the same as getting on the ground in the real world and meeting new (and old) readers. Meeting people in person - shaking hands and signing books, and placing my stories directly into their possession - is something that will never go out of style. It keeps me grounded and puts names and faces to my readers. It encourages me, too. I hope that, no matter where my books take me in the future, I will always have opportunities to attend book festivals and greet my readers in person. The moment you lose that personal connection to your readers is the moment you fail in your half of the author/reader relationship.

My next book festival, if you live anywhere in the vicinity and would care to join me, is the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, TN on Oct. 9-11. Come, grab a couple copies of The Gateway Chronicles or BREEDER, and build a relationship with me!

You Don't Sell Books Sitting Down

I spent the weekend in Decatur, GA (a beautiful and historic suburb of Atlanta) at the Decatur Book Festival. I was a participant in the Emerging Writers Tent, and it was not only a very profitable weekend for me, but it was also a time of reflection and observation. There was also one BIG lesson I learned: always, always bring more books than they tell you to bring. The rules for the Emerging Writers area stated that each author (and there were over 100 of us participating) could only bring 20 of each title. So I brought 20 of each title. I started selling at 10 AM. I sold out of book 1, The Six, by 1:50 with a day and a half left to the festival. Thankfully my publisher and I rallied and were able to offer a special deal for people who wanted to order copies of book 1 directly from me, and I sold several more copies that way, but I was really kicking myself for not bringing more than the prescribed twenty, because I know I could have doubled my sales on all the rest of the books. All of this led to a general observation though. Selling books doesn't just happen. Of all the authors there, I was the only one selling books in the Emerging Writers Tent in high quantities. In fact, of all the authors there, I was one of the only ones actively selling any books at all! Early in the day on Saturday I spoke with a fellow author who was there with his debut book, and I asked him what his strategy was for the weekend. He chuckled and said that he didn't really have one. He just wanted to put his book out there and see what happened. For the rest of the day, I saw him sitting on a bench watching the crowd go by. Meanwhile I (and my sister who came along for moral support and ended up being a great sales assistant!) was on my feet handing out flyers and bookmarks, engaging in conversation with people, smiling, laughing, and in some cases practically tackling people to bring them over to my books. I didn't scalp people away from other authors' books or anything like that, which would have been wrong and unkind, but I made an attempt to actively engage every person who so much as paused in front of my books. And you know what happened? I met wonderful people, I got to know some of my future readers, I learned what sorts of things they look for in stories, and I sold books! Now, I don't mean to be overly critical of the gentleman who spent his day on the bench. Novice authors tend to have this, "If you write it, they will come" mentality when it comes to publishing their first books, but the fact of the matter is that that's simply not true. Writers are generally introverted, but if you're like me - an author who is making a career out of writing - then you have to attack the pragmatic side of the coin as well. This year I can finally say this is my career, and I'm going to attack it with what financial guru Dave Ramsey would call "Gazelle intensity" (imagine a gazelle outrunning a cheetah and you'll understand the metaphor a little better). I will not sit down. You don't sell books sitting down.

Scribbus Mac Doodle

Hello one and all! It's been a crazy, crazy autumn, and every time I feel as though I'm gathering myself together, something else falls apart (sometimes literally, as we had a washing machine die and a transmission go out on a car in just three weeks here). That being said, I'm inching my way through my fifth manuscript. Woo hoo! I'm sticking with my usual release schedule, so those of you who enjoy my books can look forward to the fifth book in The Gateway Chronicles, The Scroll in the fall of 2013. In other news, I attended the Austin Book Festival in Austin, Texas this past weekend and had a blast! I sold out of copies of book 1 by halfway through the first day and book 2 by halfway through the second day. It was great to get out and meet some new potential readers, as well as many of the people employed by my publishing house. My publisher is very positive about the future possibilities for my books, so we'll see how everything plays out! And finally, I have a new laptop now! It's a brand new Mac, and I have named him (yes, him) Scribbus Mac Doodle. Scribbus and I will go on many adventures together, first of which will be the completion of The Scroll. From there, the sky's the limit!

If you haven't purchased your copy of The Enchanted yet, you should do so now! Just click on the image at the left to be directed to my publisher's website, or contact me at kbhoyle@yahoo.com about getting a signed copy or signed bookplate to go in your copy.