I always forget just how annoying, frustrating, and draining these book events are between actually doing them.
Draining, because it's a full day long, sometimes with departing the house before dawn just to get there on time, and not getting back until six or seven at nights (sometimes later). There's also the fact that I'm an introvert (with social anxiety disorder), so any social event is draining in a way. By the end of the event, I usually just want to go home and hide out for a week or two (or five) and not talk to anyone ever again. I try not to let this show when talking with the potential readers, though I know it's come off once or twice over the years I've been doing these.
They're also annoying and frustrating, between long stretches of people just walking right past my booth/table without looking. Worse is when people actually look at my books, sometimes even talk to me about them, but still end up moving on. Sometimes, it's with promises of returning or that they'll order online, but most of these don't come to fruition. From what I've seen, if someone doesn't buy a book while they're there, they won't buy a book.
And that's fine. That's their prerogative. I keep trying to remind myself that my books aren't for everyone. Not to get impatient that my books aren't suddenly taking off out of nowhere. Maybe it will still happen someday. Maybe in a few years I get so frustrated I just give up. Not on writing, mind you, never that. But give up on trying to make a go of it. Publish the books online and just let them die on the vines.
On the other hand, there are some good things about these book events. As I stated, if people don't usually buy a book from me at the event, they don't usually buy a book. But, people do buy books. Plenty of books have been bought, by people, who had later indicated that they have read them. Some have even said that they loved them, which just makes my day. And today, with the event that I am starting to recover from, there was an outright fan who had bought one of my books previously and had been gushing about it to her sibling. She even freaked out a little when she realized that I was the author of it. It was amazing.
Do I wish that my books would take off? Absolutely. Do I wish that it could have happened already, and without ever having to peddle my books at these events? You bet your bippy. But for the moment, this is the way forward. Until I get enough of a following to drive online sales better, or word of mouth reaches critical mass and I can get some actual publishers looking into me, it's the best that I can do to get my books out there.
I sold books today. I didn't sell as many books as I wished that I had. I sold more books than I would have if I hadn't gone. For now, that's enough.
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