Written By Katie D.

On August 25th, I got the opportunity to attend my first big book event as an attending author. By email, we were told there were over 500 tickets sold, during set-up we were told 700 tickets had been sold, and by tear-down we were looking at over 1,100 people having attended the event. To say it was a success, would have been an understatement. Even with the success, I realized there was a lot for me to learn. These are my top 5 tips for creating an author booth.

Imagery Matters

I am a mood reader and a mood writer. I feel like there are a decent amount of us like this in the indie realm. In fact, some of my favorite authors, like Caytlyn Brooke, are my favorite because they have a book for me no matter what genre I am feeling in the moment. However, when you write for multiple genres it is important to be aware that your booth may confuse people. The amount of people that saw my big canvas pictures of two of my cryptids and then saw my physical book, To a Student Dear to Me, and got a a comically confused face was almost enough for me to want to write a story that would fit the weird narrative that must be going on in their head.

While, I don’t think it hurt me too much at the event, I do wish I had a banner or a larger sign that explained I write both poetry AND supernatural dystopians. Something that would piece it together a little more for people before they just skipped my booth because they were confused at what they were looking at. Make sure when you set up your booth, it gives a clear story into who you are and what you write.

Stand Up and Make Friends

On that same note, you need to understand that you are part of the visual. I grew up going to craft shows with my mom. Whether it was busy or people slowly filtered in, we always had time to sit and often kept sitting as people came over to paruse our booths as to not come off as super salesy. This was not the move at the book fair.

I sat at first and quickly realized, when people didn’t see me, they didn’t stop. As soon as I began standing up and engaging with people, they began coming over and talking with me about my books, concept art, and stickers. People want to connect and know the story behind your books. Stand up and don’t be afraid to be an interactive part of your booth. You never know who you will meet, even if they don’t buy your book right away.

Don’t Get Discouraged

This one was a little shocking for me at first. I know people aren’t always the most excited to read poetry. I didn’t realize how many people would come over and tell me that they hate poetry. I also know that dark fantasy has a lot of marketing appeal right now. I barely have any romantic plot lines in my book. There is one, but it small and not the center of the story.

And its okay, I still had people come over just to discuss the fact that they appreciated nothing on my booth was AI. I also found that when I did find my people, they were really excited that my book was there. You don’t have to be writing the newest and biggest trend to still have a market. Make friends, have fun talking about all the available books and merch, and focus on being authentic to your story and people will come.

Bring Extras – Free and Paid

Another way to bring people to your table, is by providing something other than your book. For me that was bookmarks and stickers. Though I am happy to say, I made more off my books than my stickers, I can’t ignore the fact that people were sticker hungry and they did make a decent portion of my sales that day. It is also what brought the most people over to my booth, even if the stickers that sold weren’t the ones I thought would be selling.

See, I made personalized bookmarks that I gave out for free, and then designed stickers that had to do with my books and genres that I sold in bundles. I also got a generic bag of bookish stickers from Amazon and a large bag of magnetic bookmarks people could choose from. I sold one of my custom stickers. Everything else, which again was a decent amount, came from the Amazon generic stickers and magnets. Did it hurt my pride a little? Yes. Would I do it again? Also, yes. It doesn’t matter what people bought as long as they are engaging and talking with me. Personalized sales can come later.

Make Your Socials Pop

This is obvious and on every list that I looked at before doing this event, AND I STILL DIDN’T DO IT. I was so focused on making the set up look good, and having my prologue done to encourage email sign-ups that I completely ignored putting my social media on my table. I didn’t even have my website on my table other than through my QR codes on my bookmark and email sign-up poster. Oh my goodness, it was embarrassing.

Thankfully, I do go by Written By Katie D on absolutely everything including my website, TikTok, and Meta’s platforms, so it was easy to explain, but still would have been better for people to be able to see at a quick glance. If you do forget, know that you aren’t the only one and just try to make sure they are available at your next show.

All in all, I am so thankful for the ability to go to events like these, and I will 100% be trying to go back again. In the mean time, you can sign-up for my email to stay up-to-date on all upcoming events, my current WIPS, and potential arc and beta reader call outs.