Finding the Good in a Bad Book Table

Most of us have been there. You spend hours preparing for an event, invest in inventory, block off your calendar, and line up help at home to cover responsibilities.

At the end of the day, you pack up nearly all the books you had set out in hopeful anticipation—frustrated, dejected, and probably with less cash than when you started (unless you thought ahead and brought your own food and drinks).

Did you watch piles of shoppers walk past your table and wonder what was so wrong with yours?

Did potential readers even show up at the event?

Before you spiral into the pit of despair and self-loathing, consider this saying that gets thrown around in my other business: “Nothing comes back void.” Or, if you want to go Biblical with it, remember Romans 8:28: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

God even works in those disappointing book tables. Here are the good things I’ve learned to look for.

If there were crowds of people ready to spend money, and they weren’t stopping at your table, this is an opportunity for growth.

Was it the wrong audience? Did you bring a sci-fi book to a rom-com book fair?Did your setup get dwarfed by those around you? One time, I had a table between two stores that built walls for their booths. It felt like being in a human-sized dog crate for a week, and we practically had to grab people to notice us.Do you need to be more active to draw people in? In my course, I talk a lot about techniques for attracting potential readers. It might push you outside your comfort zone, but in a busy, overstimulating atmosphere, you’ve got to find a way to stand out.

Of course, sometimes there just aren’t any shoppers. It’s hard to make a sale to the bugs crawling on the sidewalk, and sometimes it feels like they’re the only living creatures around—aside from other vendors. That happened to me this week, which is what inspired this blog post.

I skipped church and my son’s baseball tournament, woke up early, spent hours preparing and loading, drove to the event early to get a good spot, got set up… and then, crickets.

I think there were more vendors in attendance than shoppers during the five-hour event. Between buying a friend’s book and lunch for my daughter and me, I actually spent more than I made. So where’s the good in a day like that?

Relationships.

It’s an opportunity to build and grow them. One of the hardest parts of working for yourself is the lack of community. Yet here I was, surrounded by about 40 other authors and business owners. We chatted, watched each other’s tables during breaks, shared information about local events, and swapped notes on upcoming conferences.

I don’t regret attending the event—I only regret not planning ahead and bringing lunch. It was still worth the afternoon for the connections made. Nothing comes back void. God works it for good.

I also learned more about what makes an event successful. Unless significant marketing dollars go into attracting shoppers, it’s usually best to set up at places that already have consistent foot traffic. There are exceptions, of course, but so far this has been my biggest takeaway from my book table experiences.

Low-sales events can be disappointing, but if life gives us lemons, we may as well add sugar and water and make lemonade.

If you want to learn more about how to make your book events a success, be sure to check out my course, How to Sell More Books from a Table. I can’t bring shoppers to an event, but I can share tips and techniques to draw them to your table.

Check out the course!

If you liked this, you might also enjoy these blog posts about selling books in person:

Where to Find Readers: 3 In-Person Selling Opportunities for Authors

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