They Can't All Be Good

 Had my worst book-selling event yet.

First of all, I find it remarkable how many people don't realize that the person sitting there selling a single author's books is, in fact, the author themself. 

I had a lot of interest but almost no bites. I was selling next to an author with a lot more books, who's been doing it a lot longer, and who has perfected the art of the sale. Oh, and is much more outgoing. It's not that I'm not outgoing, but I have my limits.

A few notable moments:

• Woman looks at the book, smiles, says, "This is really interesting, right up my alley. I'll definitely be back but my husband has the money." She goes over to the other author. Husband shows up. She leaves the other author with a sack full of books, then avoids eye contact as she walks past me.
• A woman was walking by and started looking at the other author's books, who isn't there. I am there and I offer my book, but she puts up her hand and say, "I don't think so."
• A young woman looked super interested in both books, is standing there reading the back of one, then all of a sudden puts it down, looks me square in the eyes, and says, "No." Then leaves.

Ouch.

Now, don't get me wrong. I like my colleague and he did absolutely nothing wrong. But I realized that people were getting "saturated". In a nutshell, if a con-goer spends too much time and/or money in one location, the neighboring locations are dead to them; they must go elsewhere to feel like they are getting the "con experience".

So, lesson learned. I will not be returning to that event. The authors who were doing a lot better than me were still having trouble making any sales. I will be focusing on different events.

Unfortunately, though I asked for a full table this year at NekoCon, they put me on a half table again. so here's hoping that isn't going to be a problem.

I will be attending a new one, a Ren Fair I haven't been to this coming weekend. I'm nervous but I'll do my best.
That said, I got some good advice from another author last weekend. I need to diversify a bit. Having a consumable product to sell will bring people back to the table, and I can make a game that isn't super-play-tested; it's just my table selling it! So once I get a couple more books out, I will be putting some effort into exapnding.

Here's hoping.