Peschel Press Newsletter for March 2023

Welcome to the Peschel Press Newsletter for March 2023!

Welcome back! It’s March so the weather has yet to decide what to do; let winter slip away or welcome spring with open arms. At the moment here in Central Pennsylvania, it’s both. It makes for challenging days.

We’ve got four events coming up for sure and two possibles.

On Thursday, 27 April through Sunday, 30 April 2023, we’ll be at Malice Domestic, the cozy mystery convention. We’ll debut Agatha Christie, She Watched! This will be our third Malice but our first one as members of Sisters in Crime. Will that make a difference? I don’t see how it could, but we wanted to support the organization that puts on Malice. We’ll chat up plenty of people and have fun. Will we sell books? We’ll know Sunday evening.

We’ll be back at Cupboard Maker Books for their local author weekend on Saturday, 6 May 2023. We’ll be showing off our books (including Agatha Christie, She Watched!) from 3 p.m. until 4:45 p.m. They’ll have local authors rotating in and out all day and Sunday too, so stop by anytime. You’re sure to find a new author you’ll love.

We have a brand-new event for us on Sunday, 7 May 2023. We’ll be part of Forty Elephants! This is a vintage & handmade market for artisans, taking place at Mount Hope Winery outside of Manheim. This is where the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire takes place every year from late August to Halloween. Forty Elephants prides itself on not having the same stuff you see everywhere else. They’re serious about vintage: everything needs to be 80s or older. Their other category is handmade and unique. We fit into this category because we write our own books, rather than reselling used paperbacks. It’s a good bet we’ll be the only indie writers at the show. It’s all day and it’s free. You do not know what you’ll see at Forty Elephants. If the organizer does what she did last year, there will be food trucks and vintage cars on display too.

On Saturday, 13 May 2023, we’ll be at Hershey Art Fest somewhere in the sea of canopies wrapped around the Cocoa Beanery and The Englewood Barn. I’m positive that this time, the weather will be glorious. This festival is run by the Derry Township Historical Society. Their long-range plan is to become a destination art show, probably lasting two days. Each year is bigger and better than the last (if the weather cooperates).

We’ve got two other tentative shows. They’re tentative because although I’ve applied, I don’t know if I’ve been accepted.

First is the Gaithersburg Book Festival (https://www.gaithersburgbookfestival.org/) on Saturday, 20 May 2023 in Gaithersburg, Md. This is a huge book festival, with hundreds of authors, author events, and 20,000 visitors. We’ll know in a few more weeks. If you’re a reader or a writer and in the area, this is a must see.

And finally, this year we hope to be part of Old Annville Day on Saturday, 10 June 2023. This big arts and crafts festival takes over eight blocks of Main Street in Annville, Pa. If you’ve never visited Annville, it’s a charming, historic town east of Hershey. Lebanon Valley College is located right off Main Street. As with Gaithersburg, we’ll know in a few more weeks.

The Importance of Volunteers

Which brings me to how events — whether they’re huge book festivals like Gaithersburg or local celebrations of history like Old Annville Days — are run by volunteers. A giant event like Gaithersburg or the much smaller Chocolate Town Book festival here in Hershey will be sponsored by the town or the library so it looks like it’s got paid staffers. It doesn’t. The town employees or the librarians run the event in addition to their job. The festival is extra work over and above what they’re already doing. If a civic group, like the Friends of Old Annville are running the show, it’s all volunteer from top to bottom. The same is true of Malice Domestic or a comic book convention or the cat show.

Volunteers. They do it because the event matters to them, enough to donate time and life energy to run an event. What’s more, the volunteer staff may change from year to year as people get tired, get burned out, or move away, or handle life’s changes.

So what does that mean when you’re applying to an event as a vendor? It means be patient! It means be polite! It means keep careful records, especially if you return year after year, because you may know more about what was done in the past than the current volunteer running the show.

Volunteers, like everyone else, vary wildly in dedication and competence. The most competent volunteers may be difficult to work with while the pleasant people make promises and don’t get anything done. But keep in mind, they’re all doing it because they want to be part of something bigger.

Keep careful records so you know what happened the previous year and the year before. Knowing past procedures that worked may get this year’s application processed more easily. It means you can explain to the new vendor liaison that someone needs to be on hand at the hotel loading dock so you can unload your books when you arrive. Don’t assume the previous volunteer passed on complete procedures.

Read the FAQ carefully, along with the terms of service. Sometimes, your question will be answered there.

Ask lots and lots of questions, writing down the answers and who you spoke to. Note date and time as well. If you know other authors who’ve done the event in years past, ask them for tips. Plan to be early, in case something happens.

If someone can’t help you, ask to speak to someone else until you get where you need to be. Be patient and polite and eventually, you’ll get your answer. You may need to push, especially as the deadline gets nearer and you’ve got to make those hotel reservations.

Since you’re working with volunteers, how do you even know when you’ve been accepted? For very small events, the only clue is if they cash your check. Smaller events won’t cash your check if they don’t accept you as it’s too much hassle to cash the check and then issue you a refund. A larger venue may cash your check but if they decide to say “no,” they’ll issue you a refund. If you don’t want to rely on your check being cashed as a “yes,” then as the date nears, ask if you’ve been accepted.

Again, be polite and patient.

Do NOT advertise that you’ve been accepted at an event until you’ve actually been accepted. You’ll notice that I listed Gaithersburg and Old Annville Day above as potential events.

That’s what they are: potential events that we have applied to.

The newsletter is the only place I list them because I can explain that they are potential events, not confirmed. Those events won’t get listed on our Instagram feed , our website, our Twitter, or our Facebook page. Those social media sites are public. The newsletter is not.

That other point about volunteers running an event (or paid staffers!) is that they may not do as good a job as you’d like advertising the event. It’s up to you, dear reader, to advertise an event as much as you can. I’ll discuss more on that subject next month.

Volunteers run events, but if you want a better event, you should do as much as you can at your end. Be polite, be pleasant, be professional, keep careful records, and advertise where you’re going to be.

You can make the event better and help ensure the volunteers come back next year, to do it all over again.