Festival of Reading
I just want to thank everyone who came out and stopped by the FWA booth, where myself, Bria Burton, Laura Bell, Gino Bardi, and Chris Hamilton answered questions about FWA, publishing, our books, and more.
I enjoy these times because it’s great to meet people, to talk to those who have a book inside them that they have to get out.
You can check out a video taken during the event here. (I think – it’s on a Facebook group page, so I’m not sure what the restrictions might be.)
Here are some of us at the booth. (More came later – and Bria took this picture. Thanks, Bria!)
An Age Old Question
Discussions ranged from animals to zombies, and one interesting dynamic looked to be the proximity of two booths, one staffed by a religious group, the other by an atheist group.
Sadly, they didn’t engage each other. I thought that could have been very interesting!
The question, though, is this: How do I get someone to buy my book? As we sat and talked about politics and beer, book signings and businesses, one of our authors would ask people passing by to, “Just read a couple pages.”
It reminded me of another author I sat near at another book signing event. He said, “You picked up my book. Why did you put it down?”
I told him, “It’s hardback, I figure it’s going to run me at least $25, and I don’t buy books that are that expensive.” (And that’s no matter who the author is.)
I think that’s something many authors (who are not bestsellers or have huge followings) struggle with. I go back to the basics. Why did you write the book? If it was to make a lot of money, then you probably wrote it for the wrong reason.
I’d enjoy hearing what draws you to buy a book, especially from an author you don’t know.