Saturday 24th of August 2024 marked the first ever Indie writers festival held at the Te Manawa library. As an indie author, a stallholder and a participant, the festival experience was both scary, beautiful, tough and exciting.
I am grateful to Te Manawa for not only hosting this festival but for allowing me and my humble story scrolls to have a table. I was a little bit underprepared and extremely overwhelmed. Most of the stall holders had tablecloths and some tables had decorations. Most had signs with what they were selling along with the price. I had a table and 14 story scrolls. I had sold a total of 2. This was not completely a bad thing because hey, at least I sold something and I was mighty happy about that. On the other hand, this experience had taught me that there was still a lot for me to learn before I could sell in the double digits.
Network and promote.
My good friend, Shan (CTO of Prose weaver) had his stall next to me and he sold three copies of his book, Six Sentinels. This was amazing since this his goal had been to sell two. What had helped both myself and Shan to sell our writing was network. I really shouldn’t call my friends a ‘network’ but they are definitely a big part of it. Now I know for next time to better promote the event. By promoting the Indie Writer’s festival, I not only provide better foot traffic for Te Manawa but I increase my chances of selling my writing (even if it’s only within my network of friends and family). I learned to not be afraid of getting your work out there and letting people know that there is something to buy.
Visual merchandising
Another learning curve was visual merchandising. I had my humble story scrolls which were short stories between 1 and 4 pages long rolled up and tied by a rubber band. The shape of my product (a scroll) was meant to create a sense of intrigue and mystery. However, because I did not use cardboard, some of the scrolls were a little bit filmy and dented. Another negative about story scrolls was that people could not read first before buying. Only a sense of mystery would garner people to pick up a scroll and try their luck with it. This was not as big of a plus as I had thought and even two dollars these days is a lot to part with.
Next time…
I hope that the librarians at Te Manawa saw the value in Saturday’s Writer’s festival and that they will keep organizing this every year. At the end of the day, I had promised myself that this time next year, I would have a book to sell. Who knows what will happen but my wish is now out there in the universe.