View from the Table this Past Weekend
In October, fall teased us like an inconstant lover. Here one day bringing a hint of cold, and then she’s gone out of town for a few days. Oh, sure, she left a not. We weren’t being ghosted. She wasn’t ready to settle down. Didn’t know what to do, and she needed time to clear her head.
The first sign of a change appeared when the township sent us an email shifting from the 31st to the 1st. Heavy weather was coming, they said, and they were right. One day it was warm enough to open the windows, and the next the leaves were blowing off the branches, the rain was coming down, and on Saturday we woke up early to drive to the high school to set up and we had to scrap frost off all the windows first.
We have done the Winter Arts Show for five or six years. It was our coming-out show, with the books, banners, cookies, and swag. Pretty much the same strategy we’ve used ever since.
We have the drill down cold: pre-stage in the living room, load the car the night before, drive to the school to set up, return home to pick up whatever I forgot (nothing this year, although later I had to return to print more cookie recipes).
We set up in the same location. It’s a great spot: On the corner opposite the darkened windows of the library, near the cafeteria. It’s a good sport, gets a lot of traffic, and we haven’t seen a need to agitate for a better spot.
Sales were fine. Gave away a lot of cookies (we ran out, actually). Gave away a lot of cards and catalogs. Some people remembered us from past shows. Most of them were there for Christmas gifts, or lawn ornaments, or just to walk around and mingle. We’re fine with that. Books are not a high-priority item. Knowing that takes the pressure off. We can have fun, talk to people, listen to their stories.
At a show like this, every sale is a win.
Shippensburg BookFest 2019
We were here for the inaugural show last year, and were pleasantly surprised at how much fun it was. Good mix of authors and a lively, sometimes eccentric cast of visitors, followed by a top-notch dinner down the street.
If anything, this year was even better. Sold more books than last year but also met Dave, an online book reviewer who we might be doing business with. We haven’t worked with reviewers, and the positive ones we’ve seen we haven’t exploited as we should, so it was a good opportunity to get our feet wet, so to speak.
I also talked to Lynne Reeder, a poet and author, about how she and her students launched the first literary magazine at West Perry High School. They had no budget and no experience, so they had to figure it out as they went.
The result looked really good. Colorful pages, lively layout, varied content. The print quality looked as good as any square-bound magazine. I’m looking forward to reading it this week.
I also talked to J.L. Delozier about her three-book series of thrillers. Our talk was interrupted when I had to race back to our table to sign a book, which was a shame because I wanted to hear about “Con Me Once,” her next book. Just the tag line — “Three superhero wannabes. One femme fatale. Millions in mob cash. This con is on.” — Made me want to find out more.
I spent a lot of time with Sandy Nork, a fellow member of Write Club, who recently published her first mystery “Special Risk,” featuring Valerie Sloan, an insurance investigator searching for a stolen guitar.
We also saw some familiar faces from previous shows, like Tory Gates and Sheri Queen. There were customers like Ben, a military aficionado with whom we discussed Civil War and World War I armaments and tactics. We even had customers who took our catalog and returned to buy a book.
Afterwards, we stopped again at CJ’s American Pub & Grill. Teresa was jonsing for a hamburger as rare as the law allows and sweet potato fries, while I had the pulled pork with South Carolina BBQ sauce. A delicious meal after a day spent discussing and selling books capped off the perfect weekend.
Now we have four more at Cupboard Maker books, including one at the pop-up store at Colonial Park Mall.