Is a vendor booth at an event a good idea? Depends on your goals – and the event!
So a couple weeks ago, my husband and I happened to be passing through Coolidge, Arizona, a tiny town about 60 miles southeast of Phoenix. By luck or happenstance, the weekend we were there, the town was holding Coolidge Days. After the fact, I looked it up and found this flyer:
Since we were there on Sunday, it seems we missed the exciting things … like the pancake breakfast, the horseshoe tournament, and the PARADE! We didn’t see many cars of any sort, let alone of the car show variety, and we were gone well before the volleyball tournament got underway. What we saw was, well, somewhat sad.
We had good frybread – again, more by luck than planning, I think. And there was live music that wasn’t bad – especially if you like (or don’t mind) the “here’s how Jesus saved my life” commentary between each song.
I bought an incense holder, a birdhouse Christmas tree ornament, and a pair of earrings for $5 at one booth, and we were pretty much ready to leave Coolidge Days behind us. Then, a man approached us and asked a simple question: “Are you book readers?”
Um – yes. Yes, we are.
I indicated as much and asked him why. He’s an author, and he had a booth we had completely ignored because it had no signage and nothing to indicate what it was or why we should visit. Now, in this man’s defense, Sunday was a W-I-N-D-Y day. The tarps on every booth were flapping and flailing like crazed Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons. So Dustin – it turns out the man’s name is Dustin Hall – explained that he was a new author and had his book, Waking the Beast, for sale. His partner also informed us that their booth had been well appointed the prior two days of the festival – the wind on Sunday had just made it impossible to keep the banner secured or anything on the table upright on the day we happened by.
Dustin’s really well done banner includes his website (I might suggest omitting the www), QR code, where to buy his book, and the forms of payment he accepts. The accompanying poster has his head shot and cover image.
So, we bought the book. It still sits on my side table, right where I left it when I walked in the door that evening. I’m reading another local author’s book right now, but may give Dustin’s a crack when I finish that one. No promises, because it’s really not my genre – but it is my husband’s! Here’s the most amazing part, though. I asked Dustin how he’d done, in terms of sales, and he told me he’d sold about 50 copies over the course of the weekend. I don’t know what his printing cost was, but at $15/book, he still did pretty well, especially since the booth rental was only $75 for the entire weekend.
So here’s the takeaway. A 10’x10′ booth at the 2016 Tucson Festival of the Books is $710. Yep, there are 100,000+ in attendance, but you’re one author trying to make even a small splash inside a very big pond. From my perspective, an investment in an event like that has to be more about exposure and networking within the industry than about book sales. Will your budget support such a thing?
On the other hand, you can do what Dustin did and be the only author at a small event. And be willing to get out and talk with people. Not only did he sell 50 books, but he met me and I’m blogging about him and his book. And this blog post is going to get shared on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. Will it generate even one more sale? Possibly. Will it help with his exposure? Of course. And it may help his SEO because it will create a link back to his site.
One last thought: The Power of the Group. With whom can you partner to share an event booth and cut costs while you increase your exposure? Good partners might be other authors, musicians, speakers, coaches, or people with products in which your readers would have an interest. And while you’re partnering there, why not keep looking for other ways to leverage your connection? Events, PR, promo products, videos … the opportunities are only limited by your imagination.
Here’s to finding the great opportunities and capitalizing on them!
Laura
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Marcie Brock, Book Marketing Maven 
Serendipity? Maybe!
If anyone would know serendipity, it’s you, Beth!
whoa–sounds like he was asking upper dollars as well. i’d certainly rather be the big fish in the little pond than vice versa, but definitely depends on the reception of the crowd, huh. he gets a hearty hooah from me!
We had a conversation prior to going to the Tucson book festival earlier this year and arrived at the conclusion that $15 is about the most someone will pay for a book by a completely unknown author. I always buy the book in the case like this, even if I know I will never read it, because I know what that kind of support means to an author. Dustin’s pricing may be dictated by his printing costs – but he proved he can get the $15, so more power to him! Thanks for the feedback, Virginia.
I used to do markets when I ran my own business (and plan to again as an author), and found that having some sort of newsletter sign up was invaluable as it meant you could keep in touch with people afterwards, even if they didn’t buy your book/product on the day. I found I got a lot of sales afterwards because of it (assuming you have a regular newsletter too)
Yep – follow-up after the event is really important, or why do it at all? That my be the focus of my next post. I love that you have proof it works in many after-the-event sales, Melissa!
[…] my own blog, I wrote a post yesterday about an author who had a successful outing with a vendor table at a very small special event, Coolidge Days, which took place in Coolidge, Ariz., over the weekend […]
I host a 100+ vendor event twice a year. I’ve had Dustin at my event once and he is all signed up to be at the next one in November. He just doesn’t sit at his table. He shows himself a nice guy first and then talking about the book just happens!!! He did VERY well at my event. He works hard at selling his book. And it is a great book, by the way!! FYI, my space fee is only $25!!! See you in November, Dustin!!
Thanks for reading and commenting, Robin. Please feel free to include a link to your event here. Laura O (aka Marcie Brock)
Thank you Robin for always being supportive! Can’t wait to see you at the Fall Fling!
I am the author of the book this blog is about. First, let me express my excitement to read this blog and all the feedback! (Next banner we will remove the www). I first started pen to paper about 17 years ago and have gone through a vicious cycle of trying to get published. Finally last year my wife and I decided to give publishing the book and hitting the pavement a try, and I must say it has worked out for us. The decision to order books that take up a whole bedroom, manage a website, design marketing material and spend weekends talking to people and marketing myself has been a wonderful journey, honestly, who better to sell your product then you? It just takes that 1 person, that 1 purchase, that right moment to make a dream a reality. I have tried larger events and for us they don’t work, getting that 1 on 1 with people is what drives most of our purchases, it seems the location and price of the event is irrelevant to the quantity of sales. With over 20 events coming up over the next 6 months my goal is to get people to read my book, enjoy it and support my future endeavors, with the release of my next book, “Extreme” in September 2016.
Thank you for taking the time to check out my booth, purchase my book and put out a blog!
Many congratulations on your continued success, Dustin! You are a role model I will hold up at the next meeting of the Phoenix Publishing & Book Promotion Meetup. Especially because I got two blog posts out of the topic, and there’s at least one more to come!
[…] posted a few months back about meeting Dustin Hall at Coolidge Days and buying his book. And when my husband and I – who don’t have any small children in our lives […]