Getting Ready for a Book Fair

The day has arrived…

(Well it had arrived since it was yesterday)

And Now I can report on it.

First, what I forgot.

Duct Tape! There was a wind and since I had not anchored my poster boards, they kept blowing over a bit. Along with that would be clear paperweights which could hold down the flyers.

Colored Pens… I have a few nice ink pens with exotic colors that I used to use, and would be a trip to sign the books in. Thought about taking them early on, but forgot when it came time to pack up and go.

Now, here is how things looked as I had them all assembled before leaving…

And then the table setup at the event

Notice that the left side was Regency Assembly Press (RAP) and the right side Xchyler Publishing with the Xchyler banner displayed below.

And what it looked like from my side of the event

Things we know when doing this now, don’t compete against the local air show… (They didn’t seem to have an announcement about their activity when the Friends of the Library chose the date) Hammer the local papers until they agree to mention it before the event and to also make sure they send people to cover it, and at least take photos. Get a banner to ensure all those who drive by also know of the event.

Our community has a great deal of retirees and I would guess most don’t use social media so much that they would hear about it that way. Ask perhaps the local market, at our end of town it is a big thing, to put a 2 x 3 poster up.

In any case, you might guess we had a low turn out. But I had a good time. I got to talk about my books. I got to meet other writers. I found out about another event to go to, and I sold some books. For RAP and for Xchyler Publishing.

(My table had the most books displayed, while others had just a few books out.)

So it was not a successful as I had hoped, my table neighbor said he sold 17 copies in an hour and a half at the Menifee Arts festival, but still better than selling nothing. And as one of my fellow blogger/writers has urged and challenged us all, go to a book festival, participate, and more will follow…

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Getting Ready for a Book Fair

Today I put all the items I will be selling this coming Saturday into Square

I figure it will be good to take Credit Cards if I am so fortunate. I will have 16 different books to sell, and even recommend a few others.

I have copies of all my works in mobi, pdf, and epub. Should I sell digital editions for the same price as the eretailers sell them for and then email them to the customers?

I also then worked on Flyers for the books making the flyer template I designed a few years ago a Pages Template. Then cutting a pasting and importing while I watched Football all day.

After that I signed up on authorgraph.com all my so I could sign digital editions for any purchaser.

My last step of the day involved in the project was using ArtRage on the iPad. I will have the iPad with me. Another way to digitally sign books I thought was to take a copy of the cover, place a white mask that is transparent over a part of it, and then while the customer is with me, open that template on my iPad. Sign it with my stylus, and then share with an email to the customer of this new signed cover.

It was a multi part project, with layers and savings and I wrote the whole thing down:

Using ArtRage
For the Cover Template
Start New Drawing 
Use Layer (fourth from right) 
Import Image by using button next to ‘New”
From iPad Book Covers folder
Opacity 100% (middle button)
Lock (button on right)
From iPad Book Covers folder
Name layer “Cover Layer”

Create new layer (fourth from right)
Name “Write Background”
On this layer add an irregular faded transparency to write on
Save the template
Choose Color in right corner–Make white
Choose Tool in left corner–Choose pen, sixth from top
Make design, closed
Choose paint bucket and fill
use Layers button, set transparency to 40%

Create new layer
Name Signature
Choose Color to a dark color Black, Red, Blue
Use Pen (3 fingers up increase brush size)
Sign

Use Gallery button and save a copy
Go to Gallery
Send by Email with 2nd button from left

Sign an image
Open the gallery and choose the correct cover with transparency
Sign with a stylus
Email image to customer

Thoughts on whether I should sell the digital editions would be appreciated…

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Getting Ready for a Book Fair

The Books from Xchyler Publishing arrived to sell:

8 Books, two copies of each and 4 of the anthology, Mechanized Masterpieces which has my short story in it. The story is of course Micawber and Copperfield and the Great Diamond Heist of 1879

I dug out my bookmarks and saw that we have only The Shattered Mirror and The End of the World. But well over a hundred in total so I am not going to make any more.

Four T-Shirts with Logos and 4 hats for sale. The T-Shirts will be $15 each and the Hats are a steal at $20.

Now to find the Business Card template.

I think it needs a little redesign. I have more books now, and perhaps don’t need to show all titles this way.
I think I should do fifty for the weekend.

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Getting Ready for A Book Fair-Poster 2

The last of the books arrived today for the Regency Assembly Press series.

That’s 8 physical books for sale.

And I will be showing my one copy of Castles Customs and Kings to try and spur sales of that as well.

Today, I present the 17 x 22 poster image. I’ll get the posters sent off to the printer tomorrow. After comments. Anyone want to chime in? You can see on the background at 25% opacity, that I made the dancers much smaller, an Inch long. I did this to the first poster for Colonel Fitzwilliam’s as well. I will have flyers made for my other books that speak to what they are, on the same motif as the Colonel’s Poster, Maybe card mount one 8.5 x 11 for each of the other books. They will be the ECO Agents, YA tale. The Omnibus of the first 3 Trolling Stories, and my Genghis Khan story.

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Getting Ready for a Book Fair

Continuing on in getting ready for the Book Festival…

It is getting time to order the rest of the materials.

The word is that I may be using the X banner so then I do not have to go have one made for Regency Assembly Press.

Thoughts about that?

Well onto Posters.

I designed the 11 x 17 tonight. The question in my mind is are the dancers in the background too large? Should I scale them down to a smaller size in repetitive patterns?

Here is the look:

I do not mention that you can also purchase for ereading devices. Your iPad, Kindle, Nexus. Should I? Should I just mention that when talking to the shoppers? There will be a stack of the books in front of the Poster. And I will take Credit Cards and Cash (No Checks at public events.)

Thoughts?

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Getting Ready for a Book Fair

Continuing on in getting ready for the Book Festival…

It is getting time to order the rest of the materials.

I am unsure if I will be using my own banner or that of Xchyler Publishing. My own, in it’s current iteration will be:

I popped the colors of the dancers to 50% and made sure that you could see the full scene at the top and at the bottom.

Then they come through since the white of the block is at 85%

For the poster I still don’t know what to do. What size.

I have this in mind though. Make one at 11 x 17 and one at 17 x 22 and then see how they do. The 11 x 17 will probably be for just Colonel Fitzwilliam’s Correspondence since that is my biggest seller.

The Larger one may be for a collage of the other Regency novels I have for sale. The sizes in scale look like something like this:

and

these are with the Regency dancers in Gray Scale at 30% opacity. I will overlay the Book covers and the marketing blurbs on top of them.

Imagine what these will be with a stack of books next to and in front of the posters. (I shall do my best to remember to take pictures at the event of course)

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Getting Ready for a Book Fair

Continuing on in getting ready for the Book Festival…

One of the thoughts about the poster is how it would look another way…

Here with the sub imprints not mentioned, less of the transparency from the dancers under the nameplate.

Also I have updated the generic web page that lists all the books:

http://www.davidsbooks.regencyassemblypress.com

And here is what the new additions look like:

This way I can have a poster with links, send emails to those who sign up and I talk to but do not purchase, or do purchase one book, but later think to get others.

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