Saturday 25th April I enjoyed meeting up with BeWrite Books, Cait and Alex, along with Mike Hunt and poet extraordinaire, Sam Smith. The event was to network, something all writers and small press need to do more these days. I manned a table as the British branch of Adventure Books of Seattle. Knowing how difficult it is to sell books and magazines at these events I put my hand in my pocket and visited each table. At the Bewrite table I was spoilt for choice and selected Insatiate Archer by Hunter Taylor because the medieval fantasy theme appeals to me and reflects my own Xaghra’s Revenge novel in writing. At the small press Green Arrow table I bought their anthology and a novella. I shared a joke at the Lulu press table (the one when their executive, Henry Hutton, forgot to bring a sample book to his first demo in the UK and so I sold him a copy of Dimensions – ie a Lulu book back to him – hah.) I found a UK Authors writer to chat to. He didn’t seem to know about the UKAway weeks so I excited him about our weeks in Cyprus. A wandering photographer agreed to snap me. So thanks to Colin Jones of Parallax Consultancy for the photo on this page. I actually appear a little slimmer when cowering behind my books. Note copies of Exit, Pursued by a Bee, the stunning risque cover art for issue 4 of Escape Velocity magazine and, hello Gary Baker, even your Ardly Effect was on show. One buyer. I’ll keep the money in lieu of royalties for Escaping Reality hah.
As I packed up, I rushed around to collect my purchased books from Green Arrow and BeWrite, only to forget that I hadn’t paid the gorgeous Cait for Insatiate Archer. I could be done for shoplifting! I emailed her at BeWrite and she said I didn’t have to pay, just enjoy the book. Wow. It is on my list of books to read and review. My friend Peter Tomlinson, of the Petronicus Legacy fabulous books, recommends Insatiate Archer so I am salivating already.
The new slimmer Geoff! Must be feeding on string beans?
Sounds like a good event with friendly folk and good contacts.
A question I’ve been mulling over for a while now is how many books and magazines I buy from writers I know. Skipping over the expenditure issue, which isn’t that great unless I start buying in the hundreds, the main thing which concerns me is that I will struggle to make the time to read the books.
Having someone buy your work is a great feeling, but having them give you some feedback, or even just email you to say how much they enjoyed it, is even better. The marketer in me also wants people to read the things I write, because then there’s more chance they will tell others how great it was and we all know how much worth a recommendation has.
As I currently have a pile of books waiting to be read and what little time I have to read things is split between these and giving feedback to other aspiring writers, buying someone’s book or magazine feels slightly disingenuous as I know all I’ll do is add it to the pile. I might as well just give someone the cash and let them keep the book to sell to someone else, because all I’ll really be doing is donating to them anyway.
My question, I suppose, is what is better for you – having someone buy one of your books and never hearing any feedback, or having someone read a story and tell you what they thought about it?
This has also made me think further on the subject and led me to another question – as an up and coming author is it better to just give away your work (or at least cover costs) to gain exposure, or sell your work at full rate so you look and feel like a fully fledged writer?
Leigh, thanks for reading my blog and for making such valid points. IMO an aspiring writer is in promo mode for years. Better then to sell cheaply or give books away to readers who will review or at least natter about it to others. Like you, I buy to support fellow new writers and have piles of them. Nevertheless, I get through most, (foresaking those which failed to hook me by the end of chapter one) especially if I force the TV off.
As a reviewer I receive pre-published books from mainly sf and horror. In theory I could fill my reading time free for life, but I also buy books because I want to read other stories to fill my head with ideas.
Cheers
It’s a shame there weren’t more buyers at the Festival on Saturday. But it was good to see everyone and have a natter! I do hope you enjoy Insatiate Archer…