- Book Fairs picture by Che at Wikimedia Commons
Booksellers, book distributors, publicists, agents and authors attend book fairs. One can surmise whether librarians, writers or bookstore owners invented book fairs, events that bring hundreds and thousands of book lovers together at one location. What is clear is the fact that each year large numbers of book buyers and readers attend book fairs located across the United States and abroad.
Benefits of Attending National and International Book Fairs
C-SPAN’s Book TV list major book fairs. Interviews with bestselling authors and other major movers and shakers in the book industry are also aired on C-SPAN. Even more, if you don’t get a chance to attend a book fair, you might be able to watch snapshots of the fair air on C-SPAN’s Book TV.
When thinking about the benefits and rewards associated with attending book fairs, imagine that you could bring 20 or more book signing events together in a matter of four to six hours. If you’re a book author you wouldn’t have to hop in your vehicle and drive from bookstore to bookstore until you’d conducted at least 20 book signings. Get a booth at a book fair and allow the traffic of book readers flock to you.
Reeving Up Your Book Fair Book Sales
Of course, there are steps you can take to increase the flow of traffic to your author’s booth. For example, you can stand in front of your booth and distribute flyers and postcards. You can also pass out copies of excerpts from your latest books, being sure to print your writer website URL on each page of the excerpts. Introduce yourself to people who approach your booth or walk down aisles in front of your booth. Describe major and supporting characters in your books as you hand out leaflets, excerpts and postcards. Invite people over to your booth so they can pick up a copy of your books, check out the front cover and read the back flap. Even if people don’t purchase your books during the book fair, they’ll have memories and printed material (the handouts and book excerpts) to reference later. Because they have your website URL on the handouts they can also go home, pull up your website and learn more about you and your books.
Each time you connect with a book fair attendee, you embark upon a potentially new relationship. You also give book buyers a chance to meet you live and in person. Not too few readers appreciate meeting book authors in person. As book buyers come to feel like they know you their trust in you and your work may increase, a factor that can increase your book sales.
Bring a book fair attendee signature sheet and you can request that visitors to your writer’s booth sign the sheet, leaving their email and/or snail mail address. You can also ask them to write down which of your books they’d like to receive more information on. Keep in touch with people who give you their contact information. You can also ask them to let you know if they’d like to receive a newsletter you create. As you keep in touch with these people by sending them holiday greetings, the latest issues of your newsletters, etc. you may come to be viewed as a “friend,” which may, over time, increase your book sales even further.
Get into Spiral online at: https://www.ebookit.com/books/0000000841/Spiral.html
Check out Long Walk Up online at: https://www.ebookit.com/books/0000000531/Long-Walk-Up.html
Sources:
http://www.booktv.org/Book-Fairs.aspx (Book TV: Book Fairs)
Pingback: The Business Side of Writing | Write Money Incorporated
Pingback: Authors and Publishers at Cultural Book Festivals | Write Money Incorporated
Pingback: Will Amazon.com Push Its Own Published Books Most | Write Money Incorporated