Durham Read Local Festival: in review

First of all, I really, really hope this event happens again next year!

It was great, and went really well. The proceeds go to the local library, so it's a good cause. And it's a great way to connect with readers on the community level.

Summer Kinard and I manned a booth together and had a fabulous time.

Summer has great design sense and set up a great booth.

Thanks to Mary, who brought me a teapot--which
became the 'hat' for our drawing! We gave a gift certificate
to a local gourmet chocolate/tea/coffee shop and a couple
of e-books to the winner.

I signed some books!

So here's the breakdown for authors/writers on what I learned:

I had a newspaper photographer comment that wearing a shirt that matched the colors of my book was great for picture-style-sense. So, consider that a hint--match your books because it makes publicity photographers more likely to snap your picture!

We sold a good handful of books, which in a window-shop style event with tons of great competition (I ended up buying a couple of books myself!) is better than expected. Even better was the number of readers we got to talk to, many of whom signed up for our newsletters. It might have helped that we were offering a drawing with a gift certificate to a coffee/tea/chocolate shop a couple of blocks away, but there were a few who only noticed the giveaway sign after signing up--win-win!

We also offered a nice deal for the fair, which helped. I talked with another author who was offering a discount for 2 or 3 books, but not for a single book; she said no one took her up on that, though she sold a few of the first book. Offering a discount on each book did seem to help our sales, and throwing in a party favor--cute wax candles Summer had found--for buying more than one book made us a couple of extra sales.

Since we had different books, most buyers who bought more than one bought a book from each us (sampler-style). Most of those who bought two, bought the book they wanted, and then the book from the other author for a friend/family member with different tastes. So pairing up with another author helped us both, and I think it was helpful that our books weren't perfectly matched in genre (inspirational paranormal romance + contemporary fantasy).

Book covers were a huge draw. Never think covers aren't important. And bright colors attract eyes. So if you're thinking of doing a festival event, go for color and make sure your brightest book is front and center.

On the whole, a great event. Be sure to have a place for potential readers to sign up for your newsletter and some kind of promo material (bookmarks, postcards) for potential readers with heavy bags and light wallets to take home for later.

Durham Read Local Festival

The Durham Read Local Festival is happening this weekend! If you're in the area, drop by Durham Library on Saturday, or Durham Central Park on Sunday.

You'll catch me sharing a booth with awesome local author Summer Kinard, who writes books with freegans and lucha libre; and faith, tea, and love.

That's right. Freeganism, friendship, a scrapbook romance, and a luchadora in Can't Buy Me Love: 

Hurts from her past keep freegan Vanessa Fauchon stuck in a dead end relationship that feeds her

heart about as much as an unvarying diet of stale bagels feeds her body. When she digs a scrapbook from the dumpster, the last thing she expects is to fall in love with the sexy Latino man in its pages. With the rich friendship and hands-on love of her strong and zany female friends – a luchadora, a yarn-bombing midwife, a professor and foraging partner, a psychic Jewish grandmother, a savvy fellow bartender, and her deeply religious, unofficially adopted mothers – Vanessa heals from her past and begins to build the graceful life she thought was out of her reach. Her love story with Javier seems on course for a happy ending, until Vanessa is publicly humiliated and loses Javier's trust. Faced with losing Javier for good, Vanessa must decide if she's willing to fight for what she loves.

And check out her new release, The Salvation of Jeffrey Lapin:


After 125 years of demon possession, Jeffrey Lapin wants to end his life of torment. A failed suicide attempt puts him in touch with Maddy, an Orthodox Christian police officer whose helping hand burns Jeffrey's skin. Her touch shows him the solution to his problem: he will convert to Orthodoxy and say goodbye to the world when he gets baptized. But Jeffrey's so focused on dying that he overlooks the first part of baptism: the exorcism. Parted forever from the demon that tormented him, Jeffrey has to learn to live as a Christian, free from the demon but not his own tendencies to mess up.

With compassion and coffee, confession and cake, Jeff's new Orthodox family teaches him to accept the grace given him to live into true eternal life. Strengthened by new habits of faith, Jeffrey finds a new direction, purpose, and maybe even love.


Come and by see us Sunday!

NC Writers Conference: Review

And I'm back from the NC Writers' Conference!  It was held in Greensboro, NC, on April 30 (today, in other words.) 

Most of the sessions were for memoir, poetry, or publishing with regional (small) publishers.  There was a lot of advice for aspiring poets looking to publish their work, and the exhibit hall had several small publishers advertising, as well as several poetry magazines.  There was an open-mike reading at the end of the conference, and the key-note speakers were poets, who talked about how they'd gotten to be well-known and published.  After lunch, there was an author reading, where the workshop readers got to read excerpts from their stories/poems.  I especially enjoyed Ed Schubert's short story, a very humorous science fiction piece.  There was also a chance to sign up to take the workshop readers to lunch.

On the other hand, lunch would have probably been more impressive, had it not been in the university cafeteria, and had the cafeteria realized there was a conference and thus had more stocked than the Chick-fil-a. 

I would have gotten much more out of the conference, in fact, had I been a poet or a memoir writer.  However, Edward Schubert's seminar in the morning was quite helpful, a small panel for marketing science fiction.  And Angela Harwood's afternoon seminar on marketing yourself was useful.  Although the small press for which she works only publishes one fiction novel a year (everything else is nonfiction), she made a point to try to address to fiction writers as well.  I also took home some very pertinent ideas for e-marketing myself.

Point in fact: Blogs.  She suggests that blog posts should be frequent, and short.  Frequent posts keep your blog high on the list.  Short blogs are more likely to be read.  Harwood suggested 3-4 sentences at a time; she made the point that a blog shouldn't be a journal, but method for connecting with readers.  Clearly, I need to update more: I'm thinking I may go to a 3-posts-a-week pattern.  I might try for one long, informative post and two shorter tidbits.  She also suggested that no more than 50% of either tweets or blog posts should be about your book - the rest is networking, drawing in a new audience and keeping your readers interested.  All good advice.

Overall review: For a non-poet, a C.  There were a limited number of seminars, and the options for fiction writers were minimal.  Most of the focus was for small publishers or self-publishing, which isn't much help if you plan to write a novel and get a paycheck for it.  Still, I did get some very helpful ideas, and I met a few people.  I won't attend again until I have money to spare - I don't think I got quite enough out of it to pay for the cost of the conference ($165, and gas and food.)  But, I did get something out of the conference, so I won't count it as a loss.

For a poet, an A.  I'd recommend serious poets attend for the contacts and the publishing advice.  If you're not planning to make money off writing, but can afford to do it only as a hobby, it's also worth attending.  I found out about several small writing "boot camps," including one run by Orson Scott Card.  They're very expensive, but include from one to six weeks of intensive writing seminar, including food and board.  Would I go?  No.  I have neither the time nor the money.

If I could afford $600 (before hotel and travel), I would go to the RWA conference in New York.  I can't.  But StellarCon, RavenCon, and ConCarolinas are all within plausible distance and price, as is Moonlight and Magnolias.  I can't help but think about the contacts I could make at a conference dedicated to my genre!  Time for me to go digging for conference information... after a nap, that is.  u.u-zzzzzz

NC Writers' Events

For my fellow writers, events and links (in 2011):

ncwriters.org -> There is a conference in Greensboro, Saturday, April 30.  Details on the site.  Anybody want to carpool?  It's a one-day event, leave Raleigh by 6:30am to make it to registration.  We can crash at my place Friday night if you're interested.

Saturday, April 2, 6:30pm: Workshop (Writing2Publish) at bookstore by Whole Foods on Wade Ave.  Take beltline exit 4 towards Cameron Village; it's just off the ramp to the left.

There's also a very large conference in the fall, late Oct or early Nov.  Dates haven't been announced yet for this year, but it appears to be a huge event.

NCwriters also has links to several other NC writing associations of various kinds.

Romance Writers:

www.rwa.org/: Romance Writers of America.  For people looking to make a living off writing romance, or at least seriously considering publishing a romance book.  Must-join to join the next link:

www.heartofcarolina.org: Romance writers of North Carolina.  Next meeting: March 12, 1-3pm, Cameron Village Library.  Jenna Black, Lisa Shearin, and Virginia Kantra are all members, FYI.  ;)  Meets 1/month.

There's a major Romance convention in NY June 28-July 1.  Will juggle finances to see if I can go.

That's my latest information on the happenings for 2011.  Since I present well in public, personally attending conferences and events will be beneficial to getting published.  Although joining professional associations is expensive, as is attending conferences, for me it's a networking investment.  I don't know personally anyone who has professionally published MY subgenre of writing (paranormal romance!), so it's up to me to make connections and get myself out there.

Fees I'll have to look at:

Romance Writers of America: $125
Heart of Carolina Writers: $25
NCwriters: $75

NCwriters April Conference: $99 (members), $150 (nonmembers)
Romance Conference: (unsure: must be a member to register.  But will also have to pay for room for stay (4-day conference!) and purchase food.
NCwriters Fall Conference: Probably more than April, since it's more than one day! 0.0

Since my budget is already strained, it's going to be interesting to see what I can do.  But I'll try!

Also, I found through these resources the following couple of articles:
 http://www.sabrinajeffries.com/zindex.cfm?fuseaction=author&pageID=11
http://www.sabrinajeffries.com/zindex.cfm?fuseaction=author&pageID=13

A couple of useful links.  I'm now considering marketing my second novel as a Sci-fi to scifi publishers.  Why? Because if my series pans out well, I still won't be able to publish more than 2-3 books a year in from a single publisher.  So, it makes sense to switch between two genres.  Since my second book lends itself more to scifi (with a little romance) than to romance (with a little scifi), I think this is actually a good thing.