The results are in…Are holiday bazaars a good place to sell books at Christmas?
The answer is NO!
Maybe if you had a targeted non fiction book such as one that explored the local area, or highlighted a certain hobby…
But even then, I would say, probably not.
http://kriswrites.com/2011/04/06/the-business-rusch-promotion/ recently wrote a blog that confirmed this conclusion. (Wished I had read it before I signed up) She is a well known prolific Oregonian author writing under several pen names, depending on the genre her book falls into. I have mentioned her before in recent blogs, so check her out.
She said that even when she attended a cross genre book signing event, success wasn’t strong.
Best results for her came at the recent Powell’s book signing last November when thirty popular science fiction writers cozied up around a table directly after the close of Orycon. (Local science fiction/fantasy convention) People came specifically for the books and to meet their favorite science fiction authors. They loaded up.
Even then, she and her husband, Dean Wesley Smith, went for the reunion with old friends, rather than any staggering profit.
So, that marketing avenue investigated and crossed off.
I may, however, attend the Northwest Publishers Convention here in Portland in July. Anyone coming there is coming to buy books, not holiday trinkets.
And I won’t freeze to near death.
I did have time to read a very interesting new scifi book this week called The Humans by Matt Haig. It uses a concept I have thought about myself and have explored a bit in my next book.
The story is about an alien that comes to Earth and assumes the form of Professor Andrew Martin, a famous mathematician who makes a break through discovery on the Reimann Hypothesis that would advance civilization light years giving them immortality and a disease free existence. The leaders of the Vonnidorian civilization feel the humans are not ready for the advances it would bring, so they want to obliterate all traces that would lead anyone to it.
Our alien protagonist is put to the task.
It lands on Earth and assumes the body of Professor Andrew Martin after others have abducted and killed the original. The alien finds himself living in a dysfunctional family whose son has been ignored and the wife put second to the Professor’s most important career. Feelings are bitter and estranged.
His job is to find out who knows about the discovery and erase all knowledge of it by killing them, using his extraordinary alien powers. These powers enable him to control bodily functions, such as stopping a heart or influencing human thoughts.
Of course, he gets caught up in the lives of the individuals of his family and his fellow mathematicians. What at first he judges as contemptible and ugly, he grows to understand and value.
A very interesting book with comments on what it means to be human as an alien mind stumbles around trying to make sense of our world.
As an example: He leaves his supposed son a list of ninety-seven thoughts on his computer. Number seventy-four says, “A quark is not the smallest thing. The smallest thing is the regret you will feel on your deathbed for not having worked more.”
A quirky book of laughs, pathos, philosophy and action that most will enjoy.
ScifiBook Review 