PREPARING FOR YOUR FIRST FESTIVAL AS AN AUTHOR

One of the ways to market yourself and your books is to do in-person signings. For most authors, it’s one of the more fun parts of the job. You get to meet and talk with readers and sell your books. Since I’m traditionally published, most of my events have been connected with a bookseller, which is easy for me—I just show up to the event. However, this past weekend, I was lucky enough to be invited to be a vendor at the 10th annual Little Falls Cheese Festival in Little Falls, New York. This is a very large festival—people came from as far as Wisconsin and Texas, and the estimate for this year’s attendance was between16,000 and 17,000 people. It was my first time selling my books on my own at an event, so I wanted to share with you some things to consider, depending on the type of your event.

For the outdoor event, I needed: 

• Canopy tent 

• Tables and chairs 

• Cash box 

• Smaller bills for the cash box to make change

• A square reader for credit cards and/or Venmo 

• Signage for pricing, your bio, and list of books for sale 

• Signage may also include a banner 

• Signage may also include a large display board of one of your books 

• Other signs to draw people in, i.e., “Get Your Book Signed by the Author”

• Book holders to display your books 

• Tablecloth

• Your books

• Pens to sign books

• Bookmarks or other swag

You might also want to have a notepad where they can write down their email address to subscribe to your newsletter. However, because this was such a large festival and my booth was often crowded with people, I opted to just offer my bookmark, which includes my website. I also slipped a bookmark into each book I sold.  

Give your books a whole-dollar flat price with tax already included. You don’t want to be dealing with figuring tax or handing back a bunch of coins. Make it as easy as possible for people to whip out their cash and buy a book! I opted to charge a higher price for credit card sales, which covered the fees and also incentivized customers to use cash. 

People will ask what your book is about, so have a short pitch ready. Mine was as simple as, “It’s a cozy mystery where my protagonist is a cheesemonger who owns a cheese shop and solves murders in her spare time (as one does).” I could tell they basically wanted to know why an author was at a cheese festival, so that gave them an answer. But my cheese pun titles pretty much sold themselves. 

Think about your own comfort. Plan for weather. We got lucky with a warm, sunny day, but weather can vary, especially when you have to get there early to set up and be there all day. We brought a blanket for the chilly morning and dressed in layers. Splurge for cushioned chairs. You’ll be sitting most of the day. Remember to bring plenty of water and (not too messy) food for yourself. You don’t want to have to leave your booth to stand in a food truck line for lunch. 

If you have someone willing to help you set up and deal with sales while you sign and converse with readers, take someone with you! My sister came with me, and I literally could not have done it without her help. Plus, it was a lot more fun to share the day with her. 

Decide how many books to take. Since this was my first time at this event, I wasn't sure how many books I should buy for it. Honestly, I didn’t think enough about it. I’d bought most of my books (at a discount) a year or more ago and hadn’t been to many self-sell events, so I was anxious to finally get rid of them. The last thing I wanted to do was buy a ton more and come home with a bunch of them. Most likely you’ll be doing future events where you can use those books, but since my series is complete and most of my events include a bookseller who supplies the books, I didn’t want too many left over. 

I ended up taking 120 books, which wasn’t enough. The festival ran from 10AM – 5PM, and I sold out by 1:00. I'm certain I could have sold at least 50 more books. I wish I had taken more, but another thing to plan on is a learning curve when it’s your first time attending an event.  

Consider which events to participate in. Figure how much it will cost you (don’t forget the possible cost of the booth space) and how many books you’d have to sell to make a profit. You want it to be worth it and know (as much as you can) what you’re getting into. Part of the reason this one was so successful for me is that not only is it a very popular event, it’s a cheese festival. So, my Cheese Shop Mysteries fit right into the theme. They only allow cheese-related vendors, so every vendor had artisan cheeses they made or sold in their shop, or they had items related to cheese or dairy. My books not only had a target audience for their cheese theme, but unlike the cheese sellers, I had no competition. 

Even with my expenses, I still made a nice profit, and I had a lot of fun. I got to visit a new town—Little Falls, NY—which is very much like the quaint small towns we cozy mystery authors write about (minus the murders), and I met so many wonderful people. The festival was exceptionally well organized and a great experience, all around. There’s nothing better than meeting readers excited to read your books! Chatting about mysteries and cheese all day? Sign me up for next year! 

If you want to know more about this year's  Little Falls Cheese Festival, The Daily Post has a great article and video! 

Writers: At what kinds of events have you sold & signed your books? 

Readers: At what kinds of events have you met an author and bought their book? 

KORINA MOSS is the author of the Cheese Shop Mystery, which includes the winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel, as well as two novels short-listed for Best Contemporary Novel. Listed as one of USA Today’s “Best Cozy Mystery Series,” her books have also been featured in PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, and Writer’s Digest. 

Korina is also a freelance developmental editor specializing in cozy mysteries. To learn more or subscribe to her free monthly newsletter, visit her website korinamossauthor.com.

MY NUMBER ONE AUTHOR MARKETING TIP

by Korina Moss 

Let me preface this blog post by saying I’m not a marketing expert. My first book came out last March and I’m in the early stages of growing my “brand.” (Gosh, I hate that word.) So my number one marketing tip is my number one, not the number one. It’s the one that I go by when I decide how I’ll spend my time on social media. But hear me out because I think my tip can work for you and make your marketing life more enjoyable. 

So what is my number one author marketing tip? Be yourself. I know it sounds simplistic but, ironically, it may not be intuitive. 

When we think of marketing, we immediately think ‘sell your books’. We transform from multi-faceted creators into one-dimensional salespeople. My social media has plenty of posts promoting my books and other authors’ books, especially around the time of their release. Book promotion is necessary, and it can be a lot of fun. It can also be exhausting for the author and for readers who follow us on social media. 

Because I’ve been a reader for a lot longer than I’ve been a published author, I look at author marketing through a reader’s lens. The books I love to read the most tend to be the ones where I feel a connection. So as an author, I want to forge a rapport with my readers beyond the pages of my books. We’re already connected through our love of cozy mysteries, but I can use social media to strengthen that bond. And by using the various platforms, I can show different facets of myself. 

 

My recent Instagram feed

On my Instagram page, I lean toward posting nature photos of where I live, trip pics, throwback photos of my son, and food snapshots (which, of course, include cheese!). My Facebook author page feels more like a daily chat, so I like to talk about routine things that are happening in my life and pose questions to get to know my followers and those who stop by. My Twitter account is almost solely about reality television. I live-tweet humorous takes about the shows I watch. I’ve made a great bunch of friends on there who do the same. This is the one platform which is rarely book related. Frankly, I was a little nervous that my publisher would frown upon my gossipy banter, but they were supportive of me being me. I’ve also since discovered that many reality TV tweeters are cozy mystery readers and have bought my books. 

Last week, one of my Twitter friends contacted me. She co-hosts a podcast that discusses a franchise of reality shows called Below Deck that we watch on Bravo TV. Having seen my tweets and knowing I’m a super fan of the franchise, she invited me to be a guest on the podcast to talk about the show. We recorded the podcast and I had a blast. She asked me questions about my cheese shop mystery series (which she’s read), and we talked about which annoying reality show member I might fictionally “bump off.” I wasn’t expecting it, but my cozy mysteries ended up getting quite a bit of airtime on the podcast, and I reached a whole new audience who might not have known about me or my books. Being myself and sharing an interest outside of books on Twitter ended up affording me a new opportunity as an author. 

 

Instead of dreading marketing, by being yourself on social media you may find that the best part is the connection—the same as can be found in a good book.

Readers: What’s your favorite social media platform to use? 

To connect through social media, you can find me at: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or my website korinamossauthor.com

To listen to the Gangplank Report podcast mentioned in this post, go to: The Gangplank Report

My Author Vacation

 

My Author Vacation by Debra H. Goldstein

Sometimes, authors take vacations. Not in the sense of a trip to Florida, California or Europe, but an at home mental break.

During the past week, I took one of those stay-at-home mentally checked out vacations. After pushing and meeting several deadlines, I deliberately forgot about writing. Instead, I focused on catching up with weeks of episodic television, books on my TBR pile, and daydreaming. Pure fun, but now, the itch to write is returning. I’m feeling relaxed and energized – a perfect combination to start a new project.

Writers often get so engrossed in the mundane that they forget to take care of themselves. Whether by overeating, not exercising, or simply worrying about the words that aren’t flowing, they stress themselves out. This potentially begins a vicious circle where one concentrates on the word count but ignores the most important factor behind a decent story or book.

Sometimes, in order to be our best, we need to step back and “smell the roses.” My method is to take mental break. What’s yours?  

Choosing The Right Name For Your Character by Marilyn Meredith

Writers often agonize over what to name a new character, wanting it to suggest something about the person’s personality and their part in the plot.

Over the years, I’ve heard/read much advice about naming characters: If writing historical fiction, make sure the name was in use during the time period.  Don’t give all your characters names that rhyme or start with the same letter.  For modern times, use the names that were popular during the time the person would’ve been born.

The popularity of names changes along with the years.  For the last few years, parents are giving their newborns older names. In my own family we have an Ethan, Emily, Olivia, Madeline, Eleanor, Priscilla and recently I saw a newborn given the name, Genevieve.

Biblical names have always been popular such as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—but some of the Old Testament names are also finding favor like Jeremiah, Asher, Adriel, Julius, and Abigail. And of course, Adam, Nathan and Nathaniel are still popular.

In my own family we have some of those names I’ve already mentioned, but on the more unusual side we have girls named Aria, Aleena, Avyanna and Khloe.

When I was naming my own children I thought naming my first daughter Dana, after a Russian ice skater was so clever, only to find a few years later that many others gave their daughters the same name.

The Internet has made it so much easier to find the names for a character. You can look up ethnic names, what names mean, and even unusual names.  But you still have to choose the one you think fits your character best.

When I was trying to choose a name for a Native American heroine, I used my great-grandmother’s name, Tempe Crabtree. No, she wasn’t Indian, but the name sounded right to me. Because I live in an area similar to the setting for the Tempe Crabtree series, for names of new characters, I often pick names from graduation programs, finding a first name or last that sounds like the person I’m going to depict.

Do any of you have other ideas for choosing names for characters in your books?

Tangled Webs Blurb: Too many people are telling lies: The husband of the murder victim and his secretary, the victim’s boss and co-workers in the day care center, her stalker, and Detective Milligan’s daughter.

Link: https://tinyurl.com/yabj9z9f

Marilyn Meredith is the author of many published novels, including the award-winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, the latest A Cold Death from Mundania Press, and coming soon, Spirit Winds. Writing as F. M. Meredith, her latest Rocky Bluff P.D. crime novel is Tangled Webs, from Aakenbaaken &Kent. She once lived in a beach town much like Rocky Bluff. She has many friends and relatives in law enforcement. She’s a member of MWA, two chapters of Sisters in Crime and serves on the board of Public Safety Writers Association. 

ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE

Albert Payson Terhune & Lad

When I was a little girl, I galloped everywhere on my imaginary horses across the fields of my grandparents’ farm next door while leaping ditches and logs. I was going to have hundreds of horses on a ranch out west someday. While in this stage, I read every horse book in our small rather dark library at the rural school I went to. I read them not just once, but two or three times, until I discovered a book by Albert Payson Terhune, Lad, a Dog. And thus began my love of collies that’s never ended.

Albert Payson Terhune was born in 1872 in New Jersey. He graduated from Columbia University, and from 1894 to 1914, he worked as a reporter for The Evening World. His first wife died at age 23, nine months after they married and four days after giving birth to their daughter, Lorraine.  Eventually, he married again, and they never had children.

Terhune settled in the summer home of his childhood, Sunnybank in 1912 and made it his permanent residence. With his wife, he started raising and breeding rough collies. Sunnybank Kennels became the most famous collie kennels in the United States, and most collies today can trace their lineage back to these collies.

In addition to raising collies, he started writing stories about his dogs. He first published short stories about his collie, Lad, titled Lad Stories in various magazines like Red Book, Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal and The Atlantic Monthly. From short stories he started writing novels. The first book published about his dog in 1919, was Lad a Dog. The novel was a best seller in both adult and young adult markets, and has been reprinted over 80 times. It was made into a feature film in 1962.  In his lifetime, he wrote sixty books, mostly about his dogs.  He died in 1942, and today his estate, Sunnybank in Wayne, N.J. is maintained as Terhune Memorial Park. Someday, I want to visit it.

A man of his time, he is now criticized by some for his racist depictions of minorities, hill people, and so called half-breeds that peopled New Jersey less idealized than Sunnybank. I don’t remember that in the books I read, but then I was a child. All I remember is the beautiful place he wrote about and the collies making me a lifelong lover of these beautiful, intelligent, and loyal dogs. Terhune died in 1942 before I started reading his books. I still have a few of them.

Excerpts from the Stories of the great Sunnybank Collies, I found online under this title.

Sunnybank: “There are woods running down from the road – just woods. Not a dinky park. And a drive wound down through them, a furlong or so, to a gray old stucco house with dark woodwork and with wisteria all over it and a comfy green barn set back in the trees.”

“There was a glorious big collie asleep on the steps, and there were glowing flowers in tubs and boxes on the gray veranda, and flowers and vines everywhere and stretches of shade-dappled grass.”

 

“The lawn was on a kind of point that ran out into the lake; and all around the lake were soft green hills with bluish mountains beyond. They circled The Place as if they loved it and as if they were guarding it from harm.”

“And down to the left, close by the lake, there was a line of weeping willow trees. They were trailing their leaves into the blue water. Over the whole Place a strange light seemed to hover just then. Perhaps it was only the sunset. Or perhaps it was the blessing of God!”

Terhune adds, “I make no apologies for quoting this rhapsodic word picture. To me, it is Sunnybank, to the life.”

His Tombstone

Can you see why I fell in love with the place as well as the dogs, especially Lad? In this section  he also wrote: “Here, with the Mistress and the Master whose chum he was, dwelt Sunnybank Lad; glorious mahogany-and-snow collie, whose eyes had a Soul back of them. Here Lad lived out his sixteen years of staunch hero-life and of d’Artagnan-like adventure. Here he died, in the fullness of serene old age. Here he sleeps near the house he loved and guarded.”

My  younger sisters with Dusty taken with my Brownie camera

I finally got my first collie when I was sixteen. Dusty was a stray that showed up one day. Not a full collie but mostly collie. We roamed the fields and woods together. I had her until I got married, and then because I was living in an apartment and couldn’t have a dog, my parents gave her to a farmer. Throughout my married life I had more collies, almost all of them strays or ones the owner didn’t want anymore, but all were pure collies. After I moved to the small farm I have now, I didn’t have a collie until a little over ten years ago. I lived alone, was teaching full time and didn’t think it fair to have a dog.  But when I saw an ad in the paper for a free collie, I answered the ad and got a white collie. I only had her for a few months. While I was on vacation, she came down with encephalitis and died within a day or two.

Molly with me on our morning hike

By then I decided I wanted another Collie. They’re not easy to find anymore, but I finally located someone a distance north of me who had two puppies still available. That’s when I got Molly, a six-week old little ball of fluff I fell in love with. Molly lived until she was almost five years old, and then developed grand-mal seizures, and became paralyzed in the hind quarters. She’s buried in a garden near my home. I later learned a certain kind of heart worm pills should not be given to herding dog breeds. Maybe that’s what caused the problem.

Maggie in my garden

Next I got my adorable, beloved Maggie. She was eighteen months at the time, and I was told she didn’t show well because of various faults the breeder pointed out. It wasn’t long before I figured the biggest fault she had for someone who wanted to show dogs was she was timid. There is no way she would go prancing into a ring with head up looking happy about being surrounded by strangers and yapping, barking dogs. She’s come a long way since those days.  I also found out the day after I brought her home, when her previous owner called to see how she was doing, she’d been muted and that’s why she didn’t bark. My California daughter who paid half for her (thinking I needed a dog to protect me) told me to take her back and get my money back. I told her, “Mary, you paid half and I paid half. You own the back half and I own the front half, and I don’t care if she barks.” Well, she does bark. She just doesn’t have the shrill bark that most collies have, but I can hear her even if I’m in the house and she’s outside.  

 

My sixty-two pound shaggy, hugable, lovable Maggie

I have to open the gate to the sunroom now. I banished Maggie there because she wanted to join in the long distance phone conversation I was having with my sister Catherine. She’s telling me it’s time to come out now that I'm off the phone.

Have you ever read an Albert Payson Terhune book?

Do you have a favorite breed of dog?