Christmas Book Fair
Today I did my 26th (and last (yay!)) event for 2010 - a Christmas Book Fair at Deganwy near Llandudno, north Wales in the splendid Quay Hotel.
I've not taken part in a book fair before, and was impressed at the efforts of some of the other authors and booksellers. Whereas I just had the end of a cardboard box hastily decorated the night before (and my trusty laptop with film of course), others had leaflets, bookmarks, huge displays on screens, and even, in one case, a natty T-shirt.
At lunchtime there was a male voice choir,
and immediately afterwards I gave my talk to a small but enthusiastic audience. Thanks to Jean Mead (author of the Widow Makers) for organising it.
I've not taken part in a book fair before, and was impressed at the efforts of some of the other authors and booksellers. Whereas I just had the end of a cardboard box hastily decorated the night before (and my trusty laptop with film of course), others had leaflets, bookmarks, huge displays on screens, and even, in one case, a natty T-shirt.
At lunchtime there was a male voice choir,
and immediately afterwards I gave my talk to a small but enthusiastic audience. Thanks to Jean Mead (author of the Widow Makers) for organising it.
posted by Clare Dudman at 5:45 pm
12 Comments:
Ah, that is grand. And how energetic you have been in the past year.
Well, I've done my best and I have to confess it's been somewhat exhausting, and sometimes hard not to become disillusioned with it all.
Wishing you a relaxing break from the exhausting book tour!
Thanks Paul! You're very kind.
Clare,
I would love to see a post about what works and doesn't--with books coming out, I'm wondering where to spend my time. Everything changes so fast. Now do I spend more time online and less in physical settings, or what? Etc.
I'm feeling that physical events do little good unless there is adjunct print/online publications about the events... but maybe that's wrong.
That is, I'm still thinking about and wondering about what is worthwhile in the current state of things--because so much is, as you say, exhausting and disillusioning.
I have come to the conclusion that the amount we can do on our own as authors is very limited, Marly. I did very little on-line, so I am not qualified to say much about that. As for the physical events - I applied to many and was invited to disappointingly few. So I asked bookshops if I could do a signing - and although I did sell a few books in those it was a lot of hard work and quite expensive in terms of travel and sometimes, accommodation.
Yes, it is very hard to know how to spend time and money--what the best thing is to do...
Yes, it is hard to strike a balance. Despite the slog I did enjoy visiting those bookshops and meeting people, so that is part of the equation too.
Well, I have the book on my list of books for blog posts, at least... Every little bit, they say! Of course, I'm woefully behind, despite having done a bunch lately.
Thanks Marly!
Thanks, Steve Joj! Good to know...
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