Sunday, April 28 was a challenging day in Kensington, Maryland. It was the day of the annual Kensington Day of the Book Festival, and the skies were foreboding. The Day of the Book festival is believed to have started in Catalonia. As stated on their website, “April twenty-third (the festival is on the nearest Sunday) is a symbolic day in world literature. Declared as International Day of the Book by UNESCO in 1995, this celebration of books and literature draws its inspiration from a Catalan tradition, the Festival of the Rose.”
This may also be the reason there was a large booth at the festival was supporting Catalonian independence.
The Festival
The festival itself featured seventy authors and vendors selling food and gifts to an audience that often exceeds four thousand people for the day, though I didn’t see nearly that many walk by my table. Ellen and I arrived in plenty of time to set up, only to discover that I had left my tabletop display
at home. This is a picture of the display we used at Juneteenth. I thought I had put everything in the car the evening before, but was focusing so much on the canopy, weight and tables, that I forgot the display. So we decided to go with what we had. But, would it be enough?
What I Learned About Marketing
There are many ways to market from small booths with little adornment to booths with full canvas sides and displays of signs and banners. Our table—actually two tables—featured the books standing up, as well as enlarged statements from Amazon reviews, my business cards and our bookmarks. Mind you, I was next to Louise Gorday, who had not only a dollhouse-like thing on her table that featured items from her books, and a 7-foot tall banner, so we felt naked. She also had some neat little canvas bags with emblems on them from her books: it was slick!
We also came across another author who had trading cards featuring his characters. What an awesome idea! Ellen and I thought I could provide a number of them from both Twin Worlds and Take Hart that might bring more people to our table and create some buzz, when we go to Juneteenth this year.
My Own Idea
Adding people to my mailing list is obviously a priority, so I decided to offer anyone who signed up for my mailing list a pdf of a short story. For the stories, I chose my previously published ones, namely “Saving Sky,” “Bus 31,” and “By the River.” And those who purchased a book from me would receive all three stories. Where I missed the boat was in putting any contact information on the stories themselves. I’ll modify all of them to include my website and Amazon page information so they can find me.
I sold a total of 8 books for the day, which was not bad for a first time with a minimal display. So I’m anxiously awaiting next year!
