Around the Venue

Another Lakeshore Arts Festival is in the books. I'm not sure I'll do it next year. It is expensive. It's two days. It's outside so you have to deal with the weather. The event runs for a full 8 hours each day. Last year I did not cover expenses. This year I just barely broke even.

Anyway, here was my canopy partner for this weekend. Lori Hudson, fellow author. We've known each other for a lot of years, but I'd never been right next to her before. We had a good time getting acquainted. We have a lot more in common than writing books.

I am beyond jaded with vendor events. I'm not much of a shopper anyway, and I see tons of beautiful artisan and fine art stuff all the time at these venues. I did see some pottery I liked- blue patterns.

This was creative. If you can't even keep succulents alive, you can have a garden of stained glass ones.

As usual, the fancy lawn sprinklers were right across from us. They are mesmerizing to watch. They always sell a lot of them despite being pricy.

It was hot. I am beat. Feeling slightly crabby. Sorry... I know that's not quality. I am NOT setting an alarm clock for tomorrow morning. That will help relieve the crabbiness!

Miles hiked in 2025: 305.8- just around the park

See Jean's Hobbies

Fruitport Library

 Today was a vendor event at the Fruitport Library. They really do a nice thing for authors. The tables are free for the first 12 who sign up. They have free coffee and provide free lunch (taco bar from Qdobas).

It was held in conjunction with the Friends of the Library used book sale.

There were tons of book options (and CDs and DVDs). The Friends did an amazing job of sorting their offerings, including a special holiday section and gift packages.

In my experience, books-only events don't usually pull in enough traffic. I thought maybe having it organized by a library would change that. Well, not really.

But, I've got no complaints. I had additional ideas for the day... take a hike afterwards (I thought it lasted until 3, but it was really 4), so there wasn't enough time to do that before dark. I thought I'd get some groceries on the way home, but I didn't bother.

Bottom line... I met a lot of new-to-me authors, sold a few books, but came home tired. I'm going to chill with a book because I have to be back out the door in the morning for bell choir.

See Date with a Polar Bear

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

  The Scottville Senior Center has a regular event (I think monthly) for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren. This month they invited several local authors to come and give short presentations about books/writing/being creative.

Left to right are "moi," Brad Reed and Rachel Gaudetter, and Debbie Nellis. I have the Dubois Files mystery series for young readers, Brad and Rachel have a picture book featuring their photography called They Call Me Eagle Eyes, and Debbie has four picture books featuring a turtle named Max who tells people about things on Mackinac Istand. It was a nice selection.

The Center was disappointed because they had a number of people sign up who didn't show up. That also means they have a lot of food left over from the dinner to deal with. So it was a smallish group, but they were enthusiastic. Here Bill Kerans, the director of the center, is taking a picture of Brad and Rachel presenting their book.

This is Debbie and her husband, with her books.

The Senior Center gave each child a notebook, markers, and a pencil to help inspire them to be creative. Also, each family/kid got to choose one book from each author.

Afterwards, Debbie and I talked a while about the self-publishing business.

Other than that, I managed to walk about 1.5 miles before the dinner, and worked on various projects.

See Senior Center Program

Bring Your Chicken to Work Day

Meet Kay-Kay, a Silkie Chicken.

Not only did Jean bring her chicken to work...

...but she wrote a children's book about Kay-Kay!

So, it was yet another vendor event. How many pictures of canopies and stuff do you want to see? That's what I thought. I was sharing a tent with Melanie Hooyenga who writes young adult stories. I'll just show you this one.

Some authors did quite well, and some didn't do well at all. I did moderately well. At least I'm now in the black, so that's always a plus. The weather could be iffy tomorrow which makes me really glad that I'm out of the stress zone. One can never be sure from one event to another.

It's good to be back with my author friends, discussing author-y things... and chickens.

See How to Sell Books- Bring Your Chicken

Dinosaurs Didn't Read

  Dinosaurs didn't read and look what happened to them.

In fact, the dinosaur was so uneducated, it threatened several authors. I think it chose our tallest author because it couldn't even see us small people.

But then it came and got my books. I don't know if it wanted to eat them or try to read them.

And that's the end of the tale.

Selling books for 8 hours is a long day. Two in a row. Only 6 hours tomorrow. Several of us went out to dinner afterwards and that was a good time. I'm in the black on the event. Tomorrow is all profit. Yippie!

See PFS- Spiral Cactus

Some Days Are...

  I had decided to do a small vendor/craft event to be sure I had all my stuff in the right places again. I was hoping to make a little bit of money, but didn't expect it would be a big show. Today was the day.

Well, it was poorly attended, and I didn't even make my booth fee. But it does get my head back into the swing of doing this. Some days are like this. The worst part was that the building was freezing. But we all survived.

There is no other news, except I am trying to put a few more things away yet this evening. Om gets home tomorrow.

See Books Leaving Footprints

How to Sell Books- Bring your Chicken

  Day two at the Muskegon Arts Festival was MUCH better. We had to deal with some wind, but there was no rain.

It's all about the "hook," the sales pitch, the hawking, er "chickening..."

Meet Millie, one of Jean's chickens (a Polish bantam). She's a sweetie, and Jean decided to bring her to the show today.

Was Millie an attraction? Sure!

Jean said Millie did a good day's work selling books, and I got to hold her for a while, too!

The elephant, er... mastodon, was getting a lot of attention today. It seems it was part of a scavenger hunt.

Someone thought that a parrot would give good advice about what to buy.

Oh, and some of the time, there was the actual work of selling books happening.

I did OK. It was an expensive event, so I think my bottom line wasn't spectacular, but not too bad. I haven't figured it up yet. But good promo and time with other authors. And my canopy didn't get wrecked which did happen to a few people. I'm beat, but all will be fine tomorrow.

See The Elephant in the Room

The Elephant in the Room

  The elephant was literally in the room today. Or at least on the same street. Today and tomorrow are the Lakeshore Arts Festival in Muskegon. This is a huge outdoor festival.

The real elephant was the rain. There were a few moments here and there of no rain. OK, maybe only less rain. It really didn't seem to deter people from coming.

Over the course of a few years, Jean Davis has managed to negotiate for a nice space for the Michigan Authors group. A few cancelled because of the weather, but most of us showed up. We just used lots of plastic bags to keep the books covered.

However, it was supposed to run until 5pm. Around two, the rain became heavier, and the word came around that due to the threat of severe weather they were closing the show down immediately. We did get completely soaked trying to tear down in the really heavy rain that did not let up.

Now I'm spending the night with Jean. I'm sorry to tell you that I didn't take pictures of her very cute chickens and ducks. But she also has a really nice flower garden and I have a couple of pictures of that from the bedroom window.

Tomorrow's weather looks to be slightly better. That would be good. We will be open from 10-3.

See Lakeshore Arts Festival 2019

Two Hour Time Lapse

  I'll tell you the end of the story first. The event went pretty well. Everyone sold a little bit, and a couple of people did fairly well. Almost all of the traffic was from people who drove by today and saw it going on. Very little attendance from my promotion on Facebook. No one thought it was a waste of time, so that is great!

Here's what the yard looked like at quarter to eight, when I went down to start setting up my tables. I wanted to be pretty much done before vendors started arriving, so that I'd be available for questions.

Things were humming by quarter to ten.

I don't think a single car stopped until after 11 am. However things picked up considerably in the afternoon with a fairly steady trickle of browsers and customers.

My friend, Cathy, brought her caramel corn and loomed hats. I put her right next to me so we got to visit a fair amount.

A lot of my baked goods sold. The rest can go in the freezer. All of the bread is gone, and quite a few of the cookies. I sold a few books.

I'm trying to get into an event in Baldwin this coming weekend. First on the waiting list. Perhaps there is some hope for 2020 financially if places begin being brave enough to host events. If I don't get in, the next one I'm sure of is in December, although it may be cancelled.

Would I do it again? I would, but the point of this was to provide a space for vendors who are hurting for events this year. In most years, there are plenty of more highly organized things going on. Would it be productive to do again? I'm not sure. I have a great location. I have room for about four more booths, but after that I'd be in trouble on parking. At most events, the vendor fees go either to the entity hosting the event or for some charitable cause. If I were going to take money from vendors, I would need to provide better promotion and an amenity or two.

This evening, I get to crash. Tomorrow is another day.

See Ready for Tomorrow

Quiet Adventure Symposium 2020

 
The Quiet Adventure Symposium is a really big annual event held at Michigan State in Lansing each year. I'd actually never even made it to one as a spectator/consumer. A little too far away from me for a casual drive. But my friend Robert talked me into going this year and trying to get table space. Even fairly late in the year I did manage to get a table.

I'm leading off with this picture because this is what we all need to be doing to secure the future of resources for outdoor lovers... taking the kids to fun events like this, and then getting them outside. What you maybe can't see is that this booth was for a nature center and the kids were petting a coyote skin.



There were two chapters of the North Country Trail Association there promoting the trail. We got everyone together for a picture. It was neat to see so many good friends.



Here's my booth. Notice the brand new table banner. I'm really happy with the way it looks- very readable from a distance- which was important to me. I've been studying other people's and that was one of my priorities. Also, since I was almost exclusively trying to sell the trail books today, I set up a little trail through my "forest" of two fake trees, and put my toy camper girl with her tent under the trees. That was a big hit. Sorry I didn't take a closeup of it, but I'll get one next time. It did draw quite a few people in.



Robert was there to help me man the booth, and we were really busy talking to people almost non-stop, so it was really good to have more than one person there.

I saw quite a few people whom I know, in addition to the folks manning the NCT booths.

And! I finally got to meet Loreen Niewenhuis (Great Lakes advocate and hiker). We have emailed and spoken by phone for a number of years, but this was our first face-to-face meeting. Another awesome adventurer.



All good, but I'm temporarily peopled out. I did OK. Sold quite a few books, but it's an expensive venue, and it's 200 miles from home, so you have to sell a lot to make any money.

I'm spending the night near Lansing, and tomorrow I head... somewhere. Stay tuned.

See Patch Jacket Update

Expo, Ka-POW

 
And so, this year's book sales events begin. Michigan Authors have a nice little subdivided booth space at the Lansing Women's Expo. It's the first time I've done this event, which lasts three days. Traffic was moderate, with some down times. In the slow spaces, Andrew Smith helped entertain us. The huge boxing gloves from the booth across the way were fun.



I met Ron Rodemacher who writes about Michigan Back Roads. Neat books. His sidekick is Bob the painted turtle.



There were occasional fictional characters walking through. I saw Batman and Catwoman, and another lady in battle dress. This appears to be a Southern Belle, but I don't know if she was supposed to be a particular one. She's posing with authors Andrew, Jean Davis, and Lori Hudson.



Now I'm spending the night with a trail friend. Two more days of the event. I haven't broken even yet, but hopefully Saturday and Sunday will be busier.

See Grand Traverse Commons

Linda's Book Launch

 
Today, my friend, Linda Sandow, had her book launch. She is the artist who did the cover work for my children's books. She is the author of this book, and also did the cover art for her own book.

The title is Jacob Castle and Gliding Swan. This is historical fiction based on her own family history of a Mennonite man who married a Shawnee woman in the 1730s. She has been able to find enough information about the family and the times that the book is more of a fleshing out of the characters than actual fiction.



This would be an excellent book for anyone from about 5th grade on up, and somewhat younger children would certainly enjoy having it read to them.

The cake also has the art work on it!



Linda read one chapter out loud. We've heard a lot of the book in writers' group over the three years she's been working on this. I was sort of hoping she'd read about the flood on the Roanoke River, and that's exactly the passage she read.



The book is available on Amazon, or from Linda. It will probably be for sale at the Ludington Art Center, too. Got my copy! I'm looking forward to reading it straight through instead of in segments several weeks apart. This is a well-written book with interesting glimpses into life in the 18th Century.

In other news: I have to confess that I couldn't keep up my work pace yesterday. About 3 pm, my brain just said, "done." However, I got back to business today. I'm working on the Index. Talked to the printer this morning, so I'm really in the final week now.

See Betsy's Book Launch