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.
Ah, that is grand. And how energetic you have been in the past year.
ReplyDeleteWell, 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.
ReplyDeleteWishing you a relaxing break from the exhausting book tour!
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul! You're very kind.
ReplyDeleteClare,
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is very hard to know how to spend time and money--what the best thing is to do...
ReplyDeleteYes, 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.
ReplyDeleteWell, 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.
ReplyDeleteThanks Marly!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Steve Joj! Good to know...
ReplyDelete