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In 2022, I started setting up a booth to sell my books and art prints at outdoor festivals and markets. Prior to that, I’d been doing indoor book signings at libraries, bookstores, and local shops.

Setting up an outdoor booth doesn’t seem like it should be all that different from an indoor one� but it comes with a whole new set of challenges! Wind and rain are my biggest obstacles, but even the sun is a factor that can melt candles, yellow art prints, and create condensation inside protective plastic sleeves.

(By the way, if you’re an artist, I HIGHLY recommend protecting your art with plastic coverings! Although I try to reduce my plastic use as much as possible, it’s worth keeping your products safe so they aren’t ruined by raindrops, mud, or even sticky fingers at a festival.)

I’ve compiled a list of supplies that you should have on hand if you want to be fully prepared for just about anything an outdoor event can throw at you.

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This article contains affiliate links. To learn more about how these types of links are used on this website,Ìý.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Commercial-Grade Tent with Sides

When I first started doing outdoor events, I was on a shoestring budget. The cheaper, the better. I got the cheapest 10×10 pop-up tent I could find at a department store.

It was better than nothing. But I quickly realized that sides were an absolute MUST to protect my products, and the sides that I purchased separately didn’t fit the tent snugly at all. I struggled with gaps, extra fabric, hooks, and bungee cords trying to make it work� and it wasn’t an attractive setup at all.

Trust me when I say that, from personal experience, it is 100% worth investing in a commercial-grade tent that comes with sides designed specifically for that tent frame!

Starter commercial tents really aren’t terribly expensive. My next tent (shown in the photo below) was a that cost less than $140. It came with four sidewalls, sandbag weights (although you have to supply your own sand), stakes, and ropes. However, despite the claim that it’s waterproof, the canopy did have a tendency to leak a tiny bit. It lasted about three years, which is pretty good for a lower-end intermediate tent.

For my next tent, I’m looking at two of the most popular brands � and . Specifically, I’m searching for a tent that has an awning attachment to provide a little extra sun protection. These run about $250.

So, if you’re on a budget, I recommend getting a commercial-grade tent even if it’s a lower off-brand version to start. It’s worth paying an extra $100 for a tent that comes with sidewalls and has a good frame rather than the cheapest pop-ups. I’ve seen so many pop-ups completely destroyed in bad weather! They don’t hold up in the wind, even with weights.

When shopping for a tent, keep in mind that some markets have restrictions on tent colors, so white is going to be your safest bet.

Weights/Stakes

Speaking of weights, you absolutely NEED to have weights for your tent!! Markets can and will expel you if your tent isn’t secured, as it’s a hazard for their patrons and other vendors if a gust of wind blows through and your tent becomes a kite.

Some vendors use cinder blocks, large sand bags, or big water jugs for DIY weights. For me, space is an extremely limited commodity in my car, so I invested in . I purchased two sets and also use small sand bags on top of the weights. (You can see them in the photo above.)

Most markets will be on asphalt, so while you should also have stakes for your tent, the weights are more important.

Lockable Cash Box

I definitely recommend spending $20-$30 on a for both indoor and outdoor events. It’s more secure than a cash bag, and you really don’t want to carry a lot of cash on your person, either. Pay attention to your money and make sure you have a place tucked away behind your booth to keep it safe.

Foldable Chair or Stool

Again, I’m always cognizant of space in my car. I can’t afford to give up valuable space for large chairs, so I had to hunt for compact options. I use that are surprisingly effective and more comfortable than they look!

If you aren’t as restricted by car space as I am, then your options won’t be as limited. Just make sure you remember to bring something to sit on! It’s such a basic necessity that it’s easy to forget about it while you’re going through your usual inventory checklist.

Bungee Cords

Another lifesaver! During windy events, having a supply of bungee cords on hand can make the difference between having a semi-secure display vs. everything blowing over.

A vendor friend once teased me when he saw all of the different colored bungees I had in a variety pack I’d purchased. “Do you think you have enough bungee cords?� he asked. Not long after, we were at a windy event, and I’d used almost every single bungee I had to secure my booth display. Naturally, I had to point it out to him and tell him that yes, I did have enough bungee cords.

It’s a good idea to have different sizes on hand. I recommend starting with a ranging from 10� to 48� cords. I also have that can stretch across the sides of my tent to help secure the sides if they’re billowing in a strong wind and knocking into my display.

Zip Ties

Not always necessary, but good to have just in case! Again, I recommend buying a so you have different sizes depending on what you need to secure.

Scissors

If you have zip ties on hand, then having scissors in your supply pack is a must. Even if you don’t use zip ties, it’s still wise to have a good pair of scissors. They’ll come in handy more often than you might think! I do recommend getting a good pair of so you don’t accidentally cut or stab yourself reaching into a bag.

Large & Small Clips

Having clips is almost as important as having bungee cords. I use that have rubber tips, which not only improve the grip, but also reduce potential damage if you’re clipping products. For outdoor events, you’ll also want to have to secure signs and banners, tent sides, tablecloths, etc.

Clear Shower Curtain Liners

I know, this seems like a strange item to include on the list, but hear me out. I’ve done a lot of events, and here in the Midwest, rain is a frequent obstacle that’s not always predictable. The weather can change in an instant, and since I’m an author and artist, my products are extremely susceptible to water.

Having clear shower curtain liners on hand gives me a way to quickly protect my work while still keeping it visible to customers.

The photo below shows my booth at an event that suffered from heavy rain showers and strong winds all weekend. I had to get creative with bungee cords and shower curtains to protect my books, art, and other vulnerable products while still making sure everything was visible to patrons walking past.

While it’s not exactly ideal, my books are still prominently displayed at the front without getting damaged, my signs are still readable, and people can see what I have before they decide whether to come into my tent. I didn’t lose a single product over the rainy weekend, which is a huge accomplishment!

The shower curtains have been a lifesaver on more than one occasion. In a pinch, I can throw them over my tables to save my products before making more aesthetic adjustments. And, for overnight outdoor events, I usually drape the curtains over my tables as an extra precaution just in case a storm blows through and the tent leaks. are a cheap (under $10) way to be prepared for bad weather and keep your products safe yet visible.

Power Bank

I recommend having at least two types of power banks on hand. , easy to fit into a pocket to charge your phone or other small devices on the go. I also recommend have one that’s more heavy-duty, capable of powering lights and lasting longer under heavy use.

I chose so I can leave it out in the sun if I forget to charge it prior to the event. If you want to be even more prepared, you can go for a much beefier . These should cover all of your basic needs without the need to invest in a generator (unless you require a lot more power your particular setup).

Folding Cart, Wagon, or Dolly

For some events, you’ll be able to pull directly up to your spot and unload straight from your car. But unfortunately, for many others, you’ll have to cart everything to your location, so you’ll need a method of transportation for both indoor and outdoor events.

Many vendors favor a that can usually handle somewhere between 200-350 lbs. I opted for a instead since it doesn’t have sides and allows me to transport wide objects, like my tables, that hang over the side. It can handle up to 200 lbs and has managed just fine with totes full of heavy books. However, the smaller wheels in the front aren’t great in gravel, mud, or rough terrain, so that’s something to keep in mind depending on the types of events you expect to be doing.

I’ve also used a in the past, but not only did it take more trips back and forth to unload, but I also had more accidents with totes falling off the dolly and getting damaged. I’ve seen some vendors use a , which would be a better option than just a dolly by itself.

Branded Banner or Signage

One of the biggest signs of an amateur booth is a lack of signage. When I see a booth that has no branding, signs, banners, etc. and just looks like an average purchase sitting inside a tent, not only does it give an unprofessional appearance, but it’s also not enticing to customers if they don’t know what kinds of products are in the booth.

Some vendors string a large across the back of their tent. Others rely on or have their customized branding directly on their tent canopy. I’ve also seen some use .

(Warning: keep in mind that most pop-up vinyl banners won’t last in high winds, even if they’re secured!)

However you choose to display your business and/or name, make sure you have some kind of sign, banner, or branded display so people can identify your booth.

Clear Card Protectors

As an alternative to laminating my price cards, I bought so I can easily swap them out if necessary. The sleeves are technically marketed for business cards, Medicare / Social Security cards, et cetera, but I save time and money by changing out the cards if my prices and/or products change rather than having to laminate a new batch.

(And, if you don’t laminate them or protect them in some way, they’ll likely be bent, torn, or damaged by water/dirt over time, so you really do need some form of protection if you’re using price cards instead of stickering all of your products.)

Twist Ties & Rubber Bands

I can’t count the number of times I’ve been packing up and wished that I had packed rubber bands. are also good to have on hand. These are supplies that aren’t at the top of your list but definitely come in handy when you need them!

Small Fire Extinguisher

It’s not uncommon for markets to require vendors to have a small fire extinguisher in their booth. Make sure you have a and not just a fire-extinguishing spray, as those might not be accepted.

Cooler & Water

STAY HYDRATED! Again, I say this from personal experience. I was terrible about remembering to bring water when I first started vending, and it’s easy to get dehydrated during hot summer events. If you have the space for a you can fill with ice to keep your drinks cold, that’s great!

If you’re limited on car space like I am, then bring a small, soft cooler than can be shoved under a seat or between boxes more easily. Check out , which are specifically designed to be compact for portability.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Pens & Markers

You’ll definitely want to keep some pens and markers tucked in your cash box or in supply bag for easy access. Whether you need to sign paperwork, mark a price change, or tally your inventory sheet, you’ll likely need a pen and/or marker at some point during an event. It’s one of those bare necessities you don’t want to forget.

Paper Towels

Messes happen. Especially at events that have kids! You’ll need to be prepared to clean up spills, wipe down your tables, clean products, or even use for personal needs such as wiping off makeup or blowing your nose. It’s worthwhile to buy some cheap paper towels for events.

BONUS: Lights (For After-Dark Events)

Whether you’re using plugged into your power bank, battery-operated hung on your tent frame, or to illuminate your products, you should be prepared for the occasional after-dark event. Lights are good even for events that end around sundown when there’s still a little daylight, but some artificial lights in your tent will really make it glow, show off your products, and help you stand out from the dark tents all around you.

If this article was valuable, you might like some of my other posts:

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Did you know that you can earn extra commission when you sell your books through certain third-party retailers?

It almost seems like breaking the rules to do this with your own books, but it’s not. And you can earn commission on other books and products, too � not just your own. As you build your following, affiliate links can prove to be more and more lucrative.

First, what is affiliate marketing?

In a nutshell, it’s when a blogger, influencer, content creator, etc. enters an agreement with a business to promote certain products or services with a unique link. This link allows the business to track how many people you send to their website. If those visitors complete a particular action such as making a purchase or requesting a quote, the business rewards you with a commission.

That commission varies based on the business and agreement. The most common reward is a percentage of the sale, usually 10% or less. However, some businesses offer a flat rate, especially if the incentive is for a lead-generating quote or signup rather than a purchase.

Affiliate links are generally NOT going to be pay-per-click (PPC) like ads often are. This means that simply sending a visitor to the business’s website isn’t enough to earn a reward; the visitor has to become a customer or lead by following through with an action on the site.

Some businesses, like Amazon, operate their affiliate program in house, while others outsource it through a large global platform such as Awin, CJ, ThriveCart, or Impact. In this article, I’ll discuss the foundation you need to have established before you start applying for affiliate programs, and then I’ll share four author-friendly platforms that will allow you to earn commission when you’re promoting your own books.

After all, since you’re promoting them anyway, why ·É´Ç³Ü±ô»å²Ô’t you want to set yourself up to make a little extra money?

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This article contains affiliate links. To learn more about how these types of links are used on this website, .

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Before You Apply for an Affiliate Program

It’s tempting to start applying for affiliate programs as soon as your book is published, but the reality is your chances of being accepted are slim to none if you don’t already have a solid foundation in place. You need to:

Build a Professional Website

I started learning about affiliate marketing in 2020 when I joined . (Side note: I’m no longer a member. Not because the program wasn’t valuable, but because I didn’t have enough time to manage another blog. I also wasn’t earning enough to justify the monthly cost to maintain my website on their platform when I needed every penny to cover the editing/publishing costs of my next novel.)

Prior to 2020, was mostly a personal résumé where I shared my poems, short stories, art, photography, and news about my , which I published two years after starting the blog.

While I do still occasionally post that type of content, my blog has evolved into a much more robust online entity exploring deeper topics about writing, publishing, marketing, and sharing business tips for authors, artists, and other creative entrepreneurs. This evolution is much more appealing to brands who are considering whether or not to partner with me and let me represent them on my site.

Drive Steady Traffic to Your Site

One of the first factors a brand will consider is the value of your website and/or social media influence. If you aren’t bringing in regular traffic, there’s not much point in having ads or affiliate links that hardly anyone will even see, let alone click on.

The majority of my blog posts target specific niches with keyword-rich content that populates in search engines. I went from bringing in one or two hundred visitors a month to an average of more than 5k per month.

That may not be a ton of traffic compared to high-performing sites, but it’s a healthy, steady flow that continues to increase as I publish more articles on relevant topics and build my website’s authority. The traffic to my website is strong enough for brands to feel more confident accepting me into their affiliate programs. Focus on building your site traffic before you start applying for affiliate programs.

Define Your Niche

If your goal is to work with affiliate groups, your website needs to have a consistent identity beyond simply promoting your books. Self-promotion is necessary, but it’s not likely to win over many brands if that’s the entirety of your website.

How can you branch out to capture new audiences from search engines? Are you interested in educational content to help coach new writers? Or perhaps you’re an avid reader and want your blog to be filled with book reviews, reading lists, and author interviews. Or maybe you want to discuss the nuances of the world-building process for sci-fi and fantasy authors.

There are many directions you can take (I wrote a post with if you need more inspiration), but before you start publishing, consider your niche and target audience so your website content has a consistent tone, voice, and topics.

Consider Your Marketing Strategy

Most affiliate program applications will ask you how you plan to advertise the brands who accept you. For example:

Organically incorporate links into your contentPlace ads on your websiteShare discount codes and special promotionsPromote via email campaignsCreate product review videosPost on social media

You don’t need to provide a detailed step-by-step marketing plan, but you will need to provide a general overview of how you plan to promote your affiliate partners so they can decide if your strategy aligns with their goals and expectations.

(Keep in mind that many businesses forbid affiliates from bidding on keywords related to the brand.)

If you feel like you’re ready to start exploring affiliate options, let’s dive in to four potential starting points that will work with your books!

1. Amazon

Whether you love or hate Amazon, there’s no denying that your books really HAVE to be on this platform if you’re going to be a successful author.

The good news is you can earn extra commission on your own book sales if customers purchase on Amazon with your affiliate link! And, not only does the commission apply to the direct product link, but it also applies to other items a customer adds to their cart after clicking your link, so it’s not just your books or other featured products.

If you’re going to seek out affiliate partnerships, Amazon is ideal to hit the ground running since it’s such a powerhouse where the majority of your online book sales will likely be. You don’t have to publish through KDP to take advantage of the affiliate program.

Amazon associates typically earn between 1% and 10% commission, although some categories can go as high as 20%. It’s not a lot, but it does add up to give you a little boost of passive income deposited directly into your bank account. Amazon also offers special bounties and promotional rates. You can sign up for Amazon’s affiliate program .

Amazon’s affiliate platform is pretty straightforward. Their , “We look for associates who are a value-add for Amazon customers � if you’re a passionate reviewer, stylist, content creator or curator who would like to refer your audience to products on Amazon, you may be the right fit.�

Keep in mind that even if Amazon accepts your initial application, you then have to make it through a trial period by generating at least three qualified sales within the first 180 days (personal sales don’t count).

Amazon notes, “In our review, we check all of the Sites you’ve provided (websites, mobile apps, social network pages, and Alexa skills) to ensure that they meet our customer experience bar. All Sites must have robust original content (even when advertising is removed) â€� a good rule of thumb is at least 10 posts. They must be publicly available (for example, they should not be a closed group, or behind a paywall).ÌýUnsuitable SitesÌýcannot participate under any circumstance. This is what we’re looking for in for each of these categories. Please review these carefully before your submission and during your review period, as we will reject applications if they do not meet these standards. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to reassess an application once it’s been rejected.â€�

Generating an affiliate link on Amazon is easy once you’ve been accepted. All you have to do is navigate to the product page. At the top, you’ll see a button in the right corner that says “Get Link.� Simply click on it, copy the link, and paste it into your content.

In the top left, you can also see the commission percentage based on the product category. In the screenshot below showing my first book, you can see that the Books & Textbooks category earns 4.00% commission. However, if a customer adds my book to their cart and continues shopping, then I’ll earn commission on the other products they purchase as well.

Full disclosure: the majority of my Amazon commissions don’t actually come from my books. My top performing post for Amazon product clicks is actually an article I wrote about . This wasn’t a topic I wrote for the sake of peddling products; it was a genuine problem that I faced as an artist and solved after extensive trial and error, and I wanted to help other artists who were struggling with the same issue. The affiliate links were organically incorporated into the content.

Amazon did, at one time, allow affiliates to generate links with product images so customers could see the product, price, rating, etc. Unfortunately, that’s not a feature they have anymore.

2. Bookshop.org

If you aren’t already familiar with Bookshop.org, allow me to introduce this gem of a website!

Bookshop.org directly supports more than 2,000 independent bookstores by donating the profits from their online sales to either a customer’s selected local bookstore or to a profit pool that is divided among all of the participating stores.

Below, I’ve shared some screenshots I took from the to show you their process and how the funds are distributed.

As an affiliate, you’ll have the opportunity to build your own page with a profile picture, banner, biography, and curated lists of books. Not only can you share your own published books, but you can also build other lists, too! For example, your favorite reads, writing resources, inspiration, etc.

Here’s a look at my Bookshop.org profile:

At the top of the page, you’ll notice the “Choose a Bookstore� option. This is where you can select your preferred bookstore that will receive the profits.

Directing your fans to Bookshop.org instead of big retail corporations (looking at you, Amazon) is a fantastic way to earn a little extra commission yourself while also supporting independent bookstores, so it’s all for a good cause.

3. Libro.fm (Awin)

If you have an audiobook and opted for a wide distribution strategy, chances are your audiobook is available on .

Customers have the option to sign up for a monthly membership or buy audiobooks à la carte. This platform, much like Bookshop.org, allows users to select a local bookstore to support, so whenever they purchase an audiobook, that bookstore receives a share of the profits.

As an affiliate, you receive commission if a customer uses your link to complete a signup or purchase. The Libro.fm affiliate program offers a 10% commission on each audiobook and audiobook gift membership, and a 30% commission on each new monthly membership with a 30-day cookie window.

Libro.fm’s parent affiliate network is Awin, which is based in the UK with headquarters in Germany. Before you can , you must first and be accepted into their affiliate program.

Awin is a reputable platform that’s been around since 2000. In 2017, it absorbed ShareASale. Between Awin and ShareASale, they’ve racked up over 30k advertisers (brands) and (aka affiliate participants).

On a personal note, their application was the most frustrating out of the half dozen or so that I’ve done. In order to authenticate applicants, Awin requires a valid credit card so they can charge $1 (which is refunded to you with your first payment) and verify that the account is legit. However, thanks to 3D security on most cards, my payment failed because it was flagged as fraud. There is no backup payment option, and Awin’s support team told me that I needed to contact my financial institution.

I spent twenty-five minutes on the phone with my bank trying to authorize the payment. Even after we’d navigated around the 3D secure feature that was initially blocking the transaction, the payment still failed because the charge was coming from the UK. My bank had to put a temporary travel notice on the card to finally allow the foreign charge of a single dollar to go through.

Once you jump through all of the hoops to complete your application, Awin is relatively easy to navigate. I preferred ShareASale’s interface, but that’s being phased out by the end of 2025.

4. Barnes & Noble (CJ Affiliate)

Barnes & Noble also has its own affiliate program, which is operated through CJ Affiliate (formerly Commission Junction). You guessed it � before you can , you first need to .

CJ is one of the largest global affiliate platforms with , including NordVPN, Intuit TurboTax, Bed Bath & Beyond, J. Crew, Blue Apron, Priceline, and Office Depot. However, in my opinion, it has the least user-friendly interface among all of the affiliate programs I’ve tried. Because of this, I admittedly haven’t explored the platform much outside of applying to Barnes & Noble’s affiliate program.

Still, B&N is a major book retailer that still has some clout, so if you’re building up your list of affiliate options when promoting your book titles, it’s worth considering.

5. Other Affiliate Opportunities

The four I posted above are excellent starting points for authors to earn commission while marketing their books. If you joined a global affiliate platform like Awin or CJ and you’re interested in expanding your affiliate partners, check out some of the other brands that are on those platforms. You’ve already taken the first step of setting up a profile on there anyway!

But also, be on the lookout for additional opportunities as you grow your affiliate networks. Two of my most lucrative affiliate programs fell into my lap out of the blue thanks to blog posts that I’d written with zero expectations of getting any financial benefits from them.

The first came from a about joining a NetGalley co-op. At the time, the business hosting the co-op didn’t have an affiliate program. I just wanted to share my experience for other authors who might be considering using NetGalley to market their books.

Years later, the business owner reached out to let me know that she’d started an affiliate program and I was invited to apply. Now, every time someone finds my article, clicks my affiliate link, and joins the co-op, I earn a flat commission. It’s a relatively small amount, but it averages to about 3x the ad revenue I make from my website.

The second situation was similar. I wrote a comparing two liability insurance companies that I’d used as an entrepreneur setting up my booth at festivals, conventions, Renaissance faires, and markets. Again, not exactly a popular post for my fans and followers, but one that could be important for creative entrepreneurs who were in the same boat I’d been in. When the post was published, I wasn’t earning anything from it.

Later, I discovered that the insurance company I use (and recommended in the article) had a referral program, so I updated the post to include my referral link. To my surprise, I started getting steady rewards! Every time someone completed a quote, I earned a flat commission in the form of an Amazon gift card.

Unfortunately, the referrals maxed out with a yearly cap, which I reached in just a couple of months� but imagine my surprise when a representative from the company contacted me directly to invite me into their affiliate program instead, which has no cap on earnings and pays with direct deposits instead of gift cards! Even better, she kindly offered to send me a bonus for the rewards that I’d missed in between the switch!!

These two programs bring in steadier commission payments than the other programs that pay a small percentage of a sale. But I never would have found them if I hadn’t been publishing articles about my experiences as an author and exploring affiliate marketing. That’s why I recommend staying alert and checking into new programs if you’re regularly blogging. You never know when another door is going to open�

If this article was valuable, you might like some of my other posts:

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When I published my first novel in 2018, I thought I had done enough research to be reasonably well prepared. But as it turned out, I still had a lot to learn, and I made some rookie mistakes along the way.

That’s exactly why I have this blog! So I can share what I’ve learned and help other new indie authors avoid some of those pitfalls that caught me off guard early in my career.

One question that wasn’t even on my radar when releasing my first book was whether or not I should make the books returnable. This was a topic that hadn’t come up during my research and really didn’t seem like an important question I needed to consider. But it is, and in this article, I’ll explore the pros and cons of this decision.

Table of Contents (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Bookstore Policy

Before you decide whether you want your books to be returnable or not, you first have to ask if you want the possibility of bookstores carrying your novels on their shelves.

Most bookstores will refuse to order copies if the books are nonreturnable.

This was a lesson I learned the hard way. I originally published with , which did NOT give authors the option to make their books returnable. (I don’t know if they’ve since changed this policy.) You can imagine my surprise when B&N stores told me they couldn’t order copies because my books were nonreturnable.

Let me repeat that because it’s exactly as ridiculous as it sounds. Barnes & Noble stores would not order my books, which were printed and distributed through Barnes & Noble Press, because the books couldn’t be returned� even though they came from the company’s own press!

Crazy, right? This is what I meant when I said I thought I’d done my research, but this issue had never even occurred to me.

Wide vs. Limited Distribution

Ultimately, your decision to make your books returnable is tied to your overall distribution strategy. Are you going wide or limited?

With wide distribution, your books are available to a variety of libraries, schools, universities, and third-party retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Apple Books, and most independent bookstores.

On the other side of the distribution coin is the limited method, which typically means an author has elected to focus 100% on Amazon to take advantage of KDP’s promotions, marketing tools, Kindle Unlimited, and other benefits that aren’t available to authors who aren’t Amazon-exclusive.

There are pros and cons to both strategies. Just because one method works particularly well for an author doesn’t mean that it will be the best choice for you, so it’s important to consider how you want to market and sell your books.

In my case, I prefer the wide distribution model even though the majority of my online sales still come from Amazon. I like making sure my books are accessible to as many people as possible on as many platforms as I can (and I don’t trust Amazon to have exclusive rights considering they have a of sometimes shutting down accounts and screwing authors out of royalties).

By going wide, that meant I had to make my books returnable. It was the only way to ensure retailers and librarians would even be willing to order� and that’s only half the battle. There’s still a stigma around self-published books; even though my series has been well received with good reviews and even a few awards, some bookstores and libraries still occasionally decline my request to carry my books because they didn’t come from a traditional publishing house.

If you choose to be Amazon-exclusive, you don’t have to take on the added risk of making your books returnable because the vast majority of bookstores and libraries will not carry your books anyway. It’s not uncommon for them to have a strict policy against Amazon books and refuse to order from KDP.

Risk to Indie Authors

If you decide to make your books returnable, understand that your decision will come with some risks. To fully illustrate this, let me explain how indie authors earn royalties.

is my current distributor. They allow me to set a suggested retail price and custom wholesale discount on my books. To keep it simple, I’ll use whole numbers. Let’s say my paperback costs $7 to produce, and the retail price I set is $20. IngramSpark lets me choose a wholesale discount between 35% and 55%, so let’s use 50% to keep this example nice and neat. Remember that IngramSpark has to make money too, so after the print cost is subtracted, they take 30% of the remaining royalties, leaving me 70%.

With these sample numbers, if Amazon orders a copy of my book to sell on their platform, they’re paying IngramSpark $10 for the book (50% of the $20 retail price I set, although they can turn around and sell it for whatever price they want). From that $10, another $7 is subtracted to cover the cost of printing the book, leaving $3 in royalties. IngramSpark will take 30% of that, leaving me with only $2.10 in my pocket for that single book that a customer will buy on Amazon for $20.

(This is why self-publishing can be VERY misleading when distributors advertise that authors get to keep 70% or more of the royalties. Technically, the statement is correct, but that number is drastically lower after the print cost is subtracted. Realistically, I actually earn about 18% of the retail price after the print cost and Ingram’s share are factored out.)

Okay, we made it through the math! As you can see, it’s the retailers, not the authors, who make the most money when it comes to selling books. But what happens if Amazon orders too many copies and wants to return them?

Here is where the risk comes into play. Guess who has to cover the reimbursement and shipping charges for returns? (Hint: it’s not IngramSpark.)

Let’s say Amazon ordered 20 books and wants to return them all. Even though they paid IngramSpark $200 (plus shipping) for those books at 50% off the set retail price, I made only $42 in revenue from that transaction. Now, I’m on the hook for that $200+ for the returned books.

The good news is I don’t have to pay that upfront. IngramSpark deducts my incoming royalties until that balance is paid, and then they’ll start sending me payments again. The bad news is returns can be costly, especially if retailers are ordering a lot of copies upfront and then sending most of them back. Large quantities of returned books can be devasting for indie authors.

I will note that the majority of my book sales are not online. I set up a booth at markets, festivals, and conventions to sell them in person. I also encourage my fans to purchase directly from me through my personal website rather than a third-party retailer. On the rare occasion a retailer returns my books to IngramSpark, they’re shipped to me so I can resell them. So, it’s not a total loss as long as they’re in good condition, but it’s still frustrating to lose those recurring royalty payments until the balance is back down to zero.

If your wide distribution model relies on selling primarily through bookstores, be aware that high returns are a big risk you’ll be taking on.

Conclusion: Yea or Nay?

Making your books returnable is a personal decision that depends on your distribution model and marketing methods. There’s no right or wrong answer � it’s entirely up to you!

Hopefully this article helped to shed a little more light on wide vs. limited distribution, self-publishing royalties, and the risks and benefits involved with making your books returnable so you can make an informed decision.

If this article was valuable, you might like some of my other posts:

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I published the first novel in my back in 2018. At the time, I was still working a full-time day job and learning how to navigate the overwhelming challenge of marketing my book. I was a self-conscious introvert who had experience in customer service but not in sales, and I was very uncomfortable talking about myself and my work.

Fast forward to 2025, and I’m only a few months away from releasing the fourth novel in my award-winning series while juggling an average of 40-50 events every year. I set up my booth at various markets, art fairs, festivals, Comic-Cons, Renaissance faires, gaming conventions, and other events in the Midwest.

Compared to my low return on investment with digital marketing campaigns, I’ve found much more success in a personal, grassroots approach where I can meet people in person, show them my books and art, engage with them in conversations, and build meaningful connections. There are so many books on the market, and people are inundated with so many ads every day that it takes a LOT to break through that noise with digital campaigns. Meeting readers in person has a much more valuable impact when it comes to not only book sales, but also turning readers into true fans who are excited to support you.

It took me several years of hard work and trial-and-error to develop my brand and feel confident talking to people at these events. Don’t get me wrong � I’m still a self-conscious introvert! � but I’ve learned various techniques, strategies, and talking points to help me sell more books, and in this post, I’ll share some of those tips with you.

Table of Contents

**This article contains affiliate links.

1. Develop a Unique, Eye-Catching Aesthetic

In another earlier this year, I shared some ideas to help authors develop a cohesive and eye-catching brand aesthetic for their booths.

Whether you’re setting up a table at a local book fair or a full-size booth at Comic-Con, you have a limited amount of space to catch the attention of passersby. Every vendor around you is also competing for their attention. You don’t necessarily need to be flashy in order to stand out, but you DO need to have an engaging, cohesive, visually pleasing display that makes people pause and want to take a closer look.

In my case, I accidentally became known as “the girl with black feathers� after I started utilizing feathers as a simple prop for my social media photos and table early in my career. From there, I slowly built up my personal aesthetic by adding a fantasy forest backdrop, a pair of crows (Onyx and Shadow), a spiraling tower of my books, art, maps, and even a small vaporizer that glows orange to mimic the look of flames and smoke. At relevant events, I also cosplay in my protagonist’s outfit.

At a minimum to start, you’ll definitely want to invest in a vertical banner so your name and relevant information is large, visible, and easy to spot. I had originally started with a horizontal vinyl banner but quickly realized that I often didn’t have a wall behind me to attach it, so a retractable vertical banner was a much better way to utilize space. Caution, though: if you’re doing outside events, they don’t hold up very well against the wind and need to be secured!

(I ordered mine from , but there are a lot of comparable for less.)

Don’t stress about building an elaborate display at all once. If you can, take some time at events to browse the best booths and pay attention to why those particular displays are working. I built up my booth display over several years. Do it incrementally, one step at a time. You might experiment with different ideas and then pay attention to customer reception. If something isn’t working, change it!

2. Initiate Conversations

One of the biggest blunders an author can make is hiding behind their table without making eye contact or engaging with potential customers.

Trust me, I know � most of us are introverts, and adopting a confident social mask that goes against our natural instincts can be nerve-racking! One of my rookie mistakes in the beginning was assuming that other customers preferred the same treatment that I wanted as a shopper. When I roam down aisles browsing booths, I don’t necessarily want to engage with vendors and feel pressured to converse or make a purchase.

But from a seller’s standpoint, making that initial person-to-person contact truly does make a world of difference.

I recently spoke with author, game designer, and public speaker Bryan Donihue about his experiences at various conventions. He talked about the importance of engagement and how that simple strategy shift enabled him to easily outsell other authors at events, sometimes by 10x or more when comparing book sales afterward!

While his competition sat behind their tables and scrolled on their phones, completely disengaged unless a customer took the initiative and asked them about their books, he changed the layout of his booth so he could sit in front of his table and make valuable face-to-face connections with people. He then took it a step further with a unique marketing approach:

“Instead of hiding behind the table and merch, vendors at shows and events need to be out front and available to connect with the passersby. We use a small card that has some short literary form on it to hand out to everyone who passes.

Our current card is a ‘Bigfoot Ballad�. When we hand someone a card and ask them, ‘Did you get our Bigfoot Ballad, yet?� we make a connection to that person. Usually we get a smile or a quizzical look. But the most important reaction we get is when they stop and engage with us. When they stop, we get to have conversations and talk about our products. Having those conversations that lead to sales is worth far more than the few pennies each card costs us to hand out.

It’s all about conversations and introducing yourself and your wares to the passersby. That’s what drives sales. And you cannot do that by hiding behind your table and display.�

� Bryan Donihue,

There’s a reason I’ve found a lot more success with in-person events than digital marketing� and it’s those personal connections. When you can connect with a person, they aren’t just investing in your book; they’re investing in you.

That’s a tall order for authors who are introverts! It’s a lot easier to separate yourself from the process and try to let the book sell itself without too much personal involvement. After all, isn’t that the point of having a great cover and of your novel? So people will be intrigued by the cover, read the back, and eagerly make the purchase without you needing to say much?

But, as I discovered with my own strategies, and as Bryan proved time and again when he outperformed the authors around him, engagement and connections do have a direct impact on sales. If you can start a genuine conversation with someone, your chances of turning that interaction into a sale drastically increase. Even if it’s not a full sale right then and there, it could become a social media follow or newsletter signup that potentially turns into a sale down the road.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 3. Showcase Your Genre & Comps

I was flabbergasted when I watched this strategy work in real time on my own assistant!

At the end of an event, we left my booth to visit another author, , across the vendor hall and do some networking. As we drew near, I noticed that he had a sign on his book that said: “Hazbin Hotel meets Good Omens.�

My assistant spotted it as well and exclaimed, “Good Omens and Hazbin Hotel? I LOVE both of those!� She immediately grabbed the book and read the back. Needless to say, she left the convention with an autographed copy in hand.

This inspired me to adopt a similar marketing strategy. I already had a sign under my books indicating 1.) the unique genre blend and 2.) the highlight that not only had the books won awards, but also that I was a local author.

(Bonus Tip #1: capitalize on the local aspect whenever you can! People love supporting locals! I’ve had people buy a book without even reading the back JUST because they were excited that I was local and they wanted to show their support.)

After observing firsthand how powerful and successful Spencer’s comps had been with my assistant, I decided to test out that method myself. I added a sign at the top of my first book listing three comps and then, for readers who were interested enough to want more, a short list of relevant keywords (example: “found family� and “morally gray characters�).

Right away, I overheard encouraging snippets of conversations when people recognized my comps and were drawn to the books. This method also helped to cut down on the amount of work I had to do to pitch the books in some cases since readers who enjoyed my comps already had a decent idea about what to expect with my book series.

I’m still experimenting with the way I display this signage, but I definitely recommend giving it a shot! Just make sure the comps you choose are at least somewhat well-known. If you pick a limited niche that people won’t recognize, you’re defeating the purpose of having comps in the first place.

Bonus Tip #2: display a QR code to sell the ebook and/or audiobook version of your novel. This encourages people who prefer digital books to download it right there when it’s top of mind� much better than handing them a business card or bookmark and expecting them to follow through later. As a bonus, you can so you earn extra revenue when customers use your link to make a purchase!

4. Master Your Sales Pitch

Also known as an “elevator pitch� (the amount of time it should take you to pitch your book during a short elevator ride with a stranger), this technique can be one of the most challenging marketing hurdles for authors. It seems like it should be easy, right? Just a short, snappy sales pitch, only a few sentences.

And yet, nothing screams “lack of confidence in yourself and your work� quite like clumsily tripping over your words or, even worse, boring a customer by droning on and on until they’re looking for an opportunity to escape.

The more you practice, the easier your sales pitch will flow. Ideally, you’ll pick up the skills to take cues from your listener and adapt the conversation as needed so it’s more of a back-and-forth discussion rather than a one-side promotion. For more tips about developing your go-to elevator pitch, .

5. Offer Bundle Discounts

If you have multiple books and can afford to take a small hit to your profit margin, I highly recommend offering an event-exclusive bundle discount that encourages customers to buy multiple books from you at a time.

Your revenue will be higher when people purchase directly from you as opposed to ordering later from Amazon or other third-party retailers that take a large chunk of your profit, so if there’s a chance to convince a customer to buy several books right there at the event, take it!

Bundle discounts really do work. In some cases, people will still prefer to start with one book to see how they like it before they commit to more books or a full series. (And I totally understand because I’m the same way!)

But in others, people will jump at the opportunity for a deal. Especially for the chance to snag a set of autographed books directly from the author. I recommend a stacked bundle option, which is what I use. For each book that a customer adds to their bundle, they get an extra $5 off. This allows them to still get a deal even if they don’t commit to buying ALL of my books.

Another option is to offer an omnibus, which is a large volume containing several novels that were originally published separately. This is another technique that Bryan uses to great success (and one that I’m also considering now that I have enough books in my series for this). Bryan is able to upsell his omnibus by letting customers know that they can purchase his books individually or save money by purchasing them all together in a single volume. He saves money on print costs, and customers save money, too.

Have you tried any of these sales and marketing techniques? How did they work out for you?

If you’d like to connect and stay up to date with my books, blog, art, and more, sign up for my !

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For entrepreneurs who travel, snow and cold weather aren’t huge factors influencing their event season. But if you’re like me and your business hasn’t reached a big enough scale to warrant traveling south in the winter for markets, there’s a serious lull from mid-December through early spring.

(Even if you do travel, most people are all shopped out after Christmas, so the start of the new year is slow until consumers are ready to start spending again.)

Surviving the winter bills and having enough financial reserves to cover vendor fees for the new season have been some of my biggest challenges as a full-time author and artist. My business is still fairly new; it evolved from a side gig to a career in 2022, so I’m entering my third year as a full-time entrepreneur. Every year, I learn more and more, and I’m better able to strategize my methods. I’m a big advocate of finding ways to diversify, especially when it comes to finding passive to supplement direct sales. While my tips are applicable to many entrepreneurs, they’re especially geared toward fellow authors, artists, and creative solopreneurs.

Here are some of the tools and methods I use throughout the year to help prepare for my 6-8 week break after the holidays:

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***This article contains affiliate links.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Point-of-Sale Auto Savings

I use as my point-of-sale (POS) system for transactions. With Square, you can set up one or more savings accounts and dictate what percentage of your card sales Square automatically deposits into those accounts.

This method has helped me set aside money to pay the sales tax I’m supposed to be collecting at events. Doing it manually didn’t work well because it was way too tempting to keep saying, “Next time� I need this money for inventory/bills/vendor fees, so I’ll set some aside after the next market.� And then the next� and then the next� same old song and dance, not enough money being tucked away to make the payment when the sales tax was due.

In addition to auto-saving my sales tax, I also have another savings account set up to passively siphon money into an account I don’t touch until I absolutely have to for winter bills. Saving on autopilot has made a world of difference for me since I just don’t have the discipline to do it myself after every event.

External Savings Account

Square’s auto-savings are easy and convenient, but I also tuck money away into another external savings account. I recommend using an external account instead of your regular banking account because again, it is WAY too easy and tempting to tap into those savings when they’re visible and accessible every time you log into your bank app.

For me, I chose , a British universal bank that has branches in at least 50 countries outside of the UK. Their online savings account program has 4.15% APY (the for savings accounts, according to Bankrate’s survey of institutions as of the week of March 31, 2025!)

With Barclays, you have:

24/7 access to your fundsAbility to transfer between your Barclays account and other banksDirect depositNo minimum opening balanceNo monthly fees

In addition to manually transferring money after good events (at my discretion after considering my current pending and upcoming expenses), I also set up a recurring auto-transfer at the beginning of each month.

Subscription Content

I recently published a about the pros and cons of subscription-based content such as Substack and . Building subscriptions brings in regular, predictable sources of income that can be a real boost to help alleviate the slack when event season ends.

While authors and artists can tap into subscription-based online content, other entrepreneurs can get creative to introduce subscriptions into their business model. For example, a candlemaker I know launched a candle subscription service last year. Since he has a consumable product, he can send products to his customers on a recurring basis.

Affiliate & Referral Programs

lf you have a blog, as many creative entrepreneurs do, then I highly recommend finding ways to monetize it. One of the best ways is by participating in affiliate and referral programs.

Basically, this means that you can earn money by including links to products and/or businesses on your website. If someone clicks on the link and performs a specific action, such as adding an item to their cart, completing a purchase, requesting a quote, et cetera, then the company sends you a small commission as a thank-you for sending the customer through your personal link.

In my experience, a successful affiliate and referral strategy comes from creating honest, quality content. I don’t peddle products and waste blog space with sales pitches; I write about my experiences and, when appropriate, include links to the products/services I use.

Here are some examples of my top revenue-generating posts:

In 2020, I wrote a about my experience joining a NetGalley co-op to promote my first ebook. At the time, the business running the co-op didn’t have any kind of referral program, so I didn’t receive any sort of direct benefit� and that’s okay. The main purpose of my website is to share tips and information for indie authors and creative solopreneurs while building my online presence and authority. But last year, Victory Editing contacted me to let me know that they’d implemented a referral program if I wanted to sign up. Now, when indie authors find my blog post organically because they’re interested in NetGalley, I receive a small payment if they click on my link and join the same co-op that I was in.In 2023, after wasting money and spending months trying to figure out how to make necklaces that featured my artwork and graphic designs, I finally found a solution, and I shared it in a . That post is now one of my top-performing posts from other artists who had the exact same problem and searched for answers online. In that post, I included Amazon affiliate links to the products I had used, and I regularly receive commissions from Amazon every month. I didn’t push those products; I simply informed people of the tools that I had used. Those links were organically incorporated into my content.In 2023, my business had finally grown enough to warrant investing in liability insurance. However, I struggled to find an affordable provider. After doing my own research and testing out two different policies from different companies that specialized in small businesses and artisans, I wrote a last year about my experiences with both companies and my personal recommendation for authors and artists. Later, I learned that the insurance company I use offers a referral program for up to $250 per year, so I took advantage. I maxed it out in the first three months of the year just from people finding my article, clicking my link, and requesting a quote.

Are you seeing the pattern? I’ve found that publishing posts with the sole purpose of selling products isn’t a successful strategy� at least, not for me. Instead, I’m produce high-quality content addressing real issues that I personally faced and overcame because other people are also searching for those solutions. Just by sharing my experiences, I’m earning passive income from blog posts that I would have published anyway.

**Note: you have to sign up for affiliate/referral programs. If your website is new and/or isn’t drawing much traffic yet, be prepared for rejections. It takes time and consistence to build up to this stage.

Print-On-Demand Merchandise

Does your business present an opportunity for apparel featuring your logo or art? If it does, but you aren’t ready to take on the extra stress of production, inventory, shipping, customer service, et cetera, you might want to seek out a print-on-demand (POD) company.

I have designs for sale on and � two of the most popular POD merchandise platforms.

This isn’t a huge source of income for me, but I let the money I collect from these online sales sit in my account until I need it. POD merch is convenient because I don’t need to worry about production, inventory, storage, shipping, or customer service. The company takes care of all of that for me.

I will say that RedBubble and Spring each have their own . I both like and dislike aspects of both platforms, and I wish I could take certain aspects from each of them and combine them into one ideal POD platform.

Cash Rewards Apps

I use several different apps and Chrome extensions when I’m shopping for business as well as personal items. I’ll let the rewards rack up during my busy season and then tap into those cash redemptions during the slow season if I need a little extra boost to cover bills.

There are TONS of rewards apps and extensions on the market, but here are the ones I’ve used regularly and had the best luck with:

gives me cash back on gas. Since I travel to events almost every weekend, this really adds up over market season! (Use promo code C757VA when you to get a $10 bonus on your first purchase.)

provides cash back when you upload digital and print receipts. Certain items on your receipt will give you more points, but you get credit just for uploading the receipt even if there aren’t any items eligible for a special promotion. Unlike many apps, you don’t have to waste time hunting for specific coupons prior to doing your regular shopping, which is why I like Fetch. I can make my regular grocery store trips and upload the receipts afterward. Rewards accumulate slowly, but I build them up during market season and then cash them out for digital gift cards to help me during the slow season. ( with my referral code PJ3QCE, and we’ll each earn points when you snap your first receipt!)

invests a small percentage from many purchases into a stock portfolio. If you were going to make the purchase anyway, why not let that company invest free money into your account as a thank-you? This app also gives you options to set up recurring investments from your bank account, set up a checking account, and activate “round ups� for your credit card. In a nutshell, this means that Acorns rounds up every purchase to the next dollar and invests that spare change. So, if you spent $4.70, Acorns would round that purchase up to $5 and take that $0.30 to invest. (I will say that due to increased security measures with my bank, I have a hard time getting this feature to work.)

automatically searches for and applies coupons for a lot of websites. In some cases, I also earn cash back (but it’s a very small amount). Honey is connected to PayPal, so when I’m ready to redeem those points, they go straight into my PayPal account.

turned out to be a pleasant surprise with the amount of cash back I received. Their coupons don’t always work, but some of the companies I use regularly for my business, such as Vistaprint, offer a decent amount of cash back in rewards. In only a few months, I earned more than $80 back on purchases that I was going to buy regardless of any extra coupons or rewards.

Don’t expect to be earning a ton of money this way� but remember that small amounts add up over time. Let them accumulate during your busy season.

Donations & Tips

Asking customers for tips can feel awkward (it certainly is for me!), but opening the door for donation opportunities can generate a little extra revenue for your business. Whether that means setting out a tip jar on your table at events or enabling tips on Square when customers pay with a card, try to think of creative ways to make donating available, even if it’s not something you actively push too hard.

I use to collect donations on my website. Although I don’t get a ton of tips, I usually end my blog posts and newsletter with a callout. It’s not uncommon for someone to find one of my articles particularly helpful and send me a small $5 donation as a thank-you for solving their problem or directing them to a resource they needed.

Initially, I just had a regular PayPal button on my website, but it didn’t bring in any revenue. I found BMC to be a better solution because it sounds much more friendly and casual to say “buy me a drink� instead of “send me a donation.�

(If you’re thinking about using Buy Me a Coffee for donations for your own business, useÌýÌýto sign up!)

Collaborations & Partnerships

ln 2020, I had the exciting opportunity to partner with Old Soul Artisan and collaborate on a that was inspired by my . In addition to purchasing this candle to sell at events, I also earn commission from the business’s online sales.

I’ve partnered with a few local artisans on other projects, but those setups didn’t include regular commission payments. As your business grows, consider ways you can team up with other businesses to cross-promote and, if possible, earn commission.

My advice � take the chance, even if you’re nervous. When I approached Old Soul Artisan, my résumé was much less impressive than it is today, and I really didn’t think I had much of a shot. But I sent her a copy of my book, and she loved it!

Preorders

This year, I timed the release of my upcoming book to capitalize on during my off season.

Preorders provide a flow of revenue so I’m able to cover upfront costs of inventory orders and other publishing/production expenses. (After all, I can’t sell books in person if I can’t afford to order them in the first place.)

If you’re launching a new design or product, consider the timing of your release and how you can maximize that influx of revenue to coincide with the predicted ebb and flow of your normal income.

I hope these tips help! Do you have other tools or methods to help you save money for your slow season? Share in the comments!

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Last year, I hit a major benchmark � surpassing 500 newsletter subscribers!!

A regular newsletter is one of the most basic (and potentially impactful) marketing tools an entrepreneur has in their arsenal. It’s also an underestimated, underutilized asset for creative solopreneurs.

When I published my back in 2018 and started doing book signing events, I hadn’t considered the importance of a newsletter. I had a blog and social media pages, but I was still figuring out the best ways to communicate with my early audience.

I made a habit of talking to other authors at events and paying attention to the creative ways they displayed their books, merchandise, and promotional materials. Having a newsletter sign-up sheet at events was one of the first lessons I picked up.

However, even after starting my newsletter, it took me a while to start understanding the true value and opportunities� and even longer to realize how to set reasonable goals for my newsletter. In this article, I’ll discuss some ways your newsletter can benefit your business beyond simply trying to sell products to customers.

**If you like the “Books are Magic Portals� button in the featured image, that’s one of my graphic designs! The buttons are available for purchase .

Table of Contents

Related post: read for my monthly newsletter.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to Measure Your Newsletter’s Impact

One of my discussed the importance of prioritizing quality over quantity when it comes to blogging.

Writing meaningful content targeting a specific audience pays off. Don’t just take my word for it; look at the change in traffic from the first four years of my blog serving as more of a personal portfolio vs. the next four years when I became much more strategic with my posts.

It took me a few years to realize that this strategy applies to newsletter marketing, too. For a long time, I was focused on the wrong key performance indicator (KPI). I was preoccupied with trying to get as many signups as I could� without paying attention to whether the people signing up were genuinely interested in the content I was producing.

I knew other authors had thousands of newsletter subscribers. My numbers were pathetically small in comparison.

So, I tried to entice new subscribers by promoting that each new email signup would be entered into a prize drawing. It did seem to work, and I was pleased by that success at first� until I started to become frustrated with other performance metrics. Primarily, the unsubscribes and low open rates.

Naturally, I assumed that something must be wrong with the content. Was I emailing too frequently (even though it was only once a month)? Did people not enjoy my newsletter? Did they think it was spam? Were my headings weak and uninteresting?

I finally realized that my performance metrics were at odds, and I couldn’t have it both ways. Did I care more about how many subscribers I had, or the percentage of those subscribers who were genuinely interested in reading my newsletters? If people were signing up JUST for the chance of winning prize and then unsubscribing right away because they didn’t actually care about my content, that was negatively impacting my other KPIs.

I decided to eliminate the prize enticement. Then, if people signed up for my newsletter, it was because they wanted to be on my mailing list.

This move allowed me to stop focusing so much on the number of my subscribers and pay more attention to the quality of my audience. That meant I had subscribers who were much more likely to:

Actually open and read the newsletter, improving other KPIs such as open and click ratesFollow updates I shared about upcoming publications, pending projects, product launches, and other newsClick on links in the newsletter to visit my blog, learn about my books, follow me on social media, etc.Take advantage of sales and promotionsSubscribe to my exclusive content on Make a small donation by

In all honesty, I went for quite a while without really seeing many benefits of having a newsletter other than sharing periodic updates with my audience outside of social media. And that, of course, can make you start to doubt yourself and wonder if you’re wasting your time.

But lately, after faithfully since , the benefits have become apparent.

6 Ways I Leverage My Monthly Newsletter

You can see the clipboard for newsletter signups in the middle of my display (I covered the email addresses with a postcard to protect personal information).

1. Sales

Of course, the first benefit of a newsletter most people think of is the opportunity to sell products to customers. This is why businesses pour a lot of money into their email marketing campaigns. While this definitely isn’t the primary focus of my newsletter, it’s worth putting at the top of the list since many entrepreneurs DO use their newsletter for this purpose.

A year ago, I finally got my up and running, which meant I could sell a lot of my art products that had previously been event-exclusive. I could also sell autographed copies of my books instead of having to redirect people to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. (which meant I lost a good chunk of revenue from those third-party retailers). Prioritizing direct sales was a major step forward in generating revenue that I could then reinvest in my business.

I had a slow rollout, adding a few products here and there to slowly build up the website over time, and I made sure to feature the new additions in each newsletter. That did result in some sales that came through just hours after the newsletter was published each month. I wasn’t getting flooded with orders, but there was definitely a correlation between the newsletter feature and the online sales.

With a list of email subscribers, you also have an online audience open to sales, exclusive online deals, and other promotional opportunities� although you’ll want to be careful not to spam them! Make the expectations clear when people sign up. If they’re expecting your emails to be primarily informative, then you’ll risk losing subscribers if they feel you’re taking advantage and bombarding them with marketing emails instead.

2. Information & Upcoming Events

In my case (and for many other authors as well), my newsletter is the best place to keep my audience informed about works in progress, recent accomplishments, upcoming events, and more. This is the primary reason people subscribe to my newsletter � they want to be kept in the loop so they know what I’m currently working on and where/when they can find me at a local event in their area.

My event schedule is listed on the homepage of my , and I make sure to post reminders about the next event(s) on Facebook and Patreon, but not all of my fans are on social media. The newsletter is a good way to actively send my schedule out to my followers rather than rely on them to seek out the information on their own or hope that the social media algorithms are putting my posts in their feed.

3. Subscriptions & Donations

The newsletter is an opportunity to let people know what kind of premium content they’re missing on other platforms. It’s one thing to say, “Please subscribe! You’ll get all these perks!� But it’s another to share a list of your recent posts so potential subscribers can see firsthand exactly what kind of content you’ve been publishing. It also offers proof that you are posting consistently.

My newsletter provides a way to introduce new fans to my Patreon community and show sneak peeks at the exclusive content I share there, including timelapse videos of my art, Q&As with fans, early book cover reveals, behind-the-scenes posts, and more. The newsletter can be a way to easily share samples and teasers without feeling spammy. For example, my newsletter subscribers can see the latest monthly artwork I drew, but my Patreon subscribers get to actually watch me draw it in a timelapse video that I link in the newsletter. The finished art is still a valuable part of the free newsletter, of course, but fans can go even deeper if they want to invest in Patreon and get a sort of backstage pass behind the process.

In addition to subscriptions, there are also opportunities to collect donations as well. I don’t often get many donations on , but I do include a simple callout at the bottom of each newsletter (and a variation of this graphic at the end of each blog post as well):

Asking people for money/donations isn’t something I’m very comfortable doing, so this is a passive way for me to make the option available without being obnoxious about it. And this invitation does bring in occasional donations from people who read my content and appreciate the hard work that goes into everything.

(Are you thinking about using Buy Me a Coffee for donations for your own business? Use to sign up!)

4. Website Traffic

Any reputable platform for your newsletter should let you see a record of outbound clicks, even if you’re using a free service. My newsletter always includes several links to my website, including my recent blog posts, the landing page for my book series, and any other relevant links. It might be a small blip, but it’s still extra traffic back to your site, and you can track this data to see which links are being clicked.

This interconnectivity is great for search engine optimization (SEO). My websites “talk� to each other quite a bit by cross-linking. Visitors on my regular website can easily navigate to Substack to subscribe to my newsletter and read past issues, while my emails are full of links that circle back to both my primary website, ecommerce shop, Patreon, etc.

5. Project Updates & Preorders

Not all of my followers are on social media. And I’m seeing more and more people drastically scaling back their social media time, which means I can’t expect them to be getting all of the updates when I post announcements there.

Hence, the importance of the newsletter, which has also proven to be a good way to encourage preorders for books before they’re released. If the majority of your audience has subscribed because they care about what you’re doing and want to be at the forefront of your next project, then you can take advantage of that engagement by sending updates straight to their inbox.

(By the way, did you know that you can ?)

6. Goal Accountability

Perhaps one of the best advantages of publishing my newsletter on a regular schedule is the accountability it forces on me.

I am a notorious procrastinator, which means it would be VERY easy for my projects to fall by the wayside. The newsletter creates a self-imposed series of deadlines for me. It goes out on the first Monday of each month (unless there’s a holiday, in which case it’s delayed by a week).

For each newsletter, I make sure to have at least two blog posts published and a new featured art piece for the month. That often means I’m very busy during the last week of the month trying to make sure I have all of that done in time for the newsletter. Without that deadline, my blog would likely have long stretches of inactivity.

The artwork is also important because watching timelapse videos of me drawing new art is a for my Level 2 and 3 subscribers. Between the newsletter and Patreon, I have deadlines and incentives to make a new art piece every month, which has also helped instill a sense of accountability.

(The biggest challenge for me is actively setting aside time to draw� and it’s so easy to keep putting that off! My art is a secondary branch of my business after the books, but doing a new drawing every month keeps me practicing to improve my skills, generates new art that I can incorporate into my inventory and my upcoming art/photography/poetry book that’s in progress, and provides content for both Patreon and my newsletter.)

There are a lot of benefits to having a monthly newsletter beyond simply trying to get more sales. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a race. It might take a while to start noticing some of these benefits.

It’s okay if building your audience ends up being a slow process. Trust me � it’s better to have a small, highly engaged audience than a big group that can’t be bothered to open your emails. If you’re going to measure KPIs, I recommend focusing on the quality of your content rather than the number of subscribers or frequency of your emails.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The post first appeared on .

Last year, I hit a major benchmark � surpassing 500 newsletter subscribers!!

A regular newsletter is one of the most basic (and potentially impactful) marketing tools an entrepreneur has in their arsenal. It’s also an underestimated, underutilized asset for creative solopreneurs.

When I published my back in 2018 and started doing book signing events, I hadn’t considered the importance of a newsletter. I had a blog and social media pages, but I was still figuring out the best ways to communicate with my early audience.

I made a habit of talking to other authors at events and paying attention to the creative ways they displayed their books, merchandise, and promotional materials. Having a newsletter sign-up sheet at events was one of the first lessons I picked up.

However, even after starting my newsletter, it took me a while to start understanding the true value and opportunities� and even longer to realize how to set reasonable goals for my newsletter. In this article, I’ll discuss some ways your newsletter can benefit your business beyond simply trying to sell products to customers.

**If you like the “Books are Magic Portals� button in the featured image, that’s one of my graphic designs! The buttons are available for purchase .

Table of Contents

Related post: read for my monthly newsletter.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to Measure Your Newsletter’s Impact

One of my discussed the importance of prioritizing quality over quantity when it comes to blogging.

Writing meaningful content targeting a specific audience pays off. Don’t just take my word for it; look at the change in traffic from the first four years of my blog serving as more of a personal portfolio vs. the next four years when I became much more strategic with my posts.

It took me a few years to realize that this strategy applies to newsletter marketing, too. For a long time, I was focused on the wrong key performance indicator (KPI). I was preoccupied with trying to get as many signups as I could� without paying attention to whether the people signing up were genuinely interested in the content I was producing.

I knew other authors had thousands of newsletter subscribers. My numbers were pathetically small in comparison.

So, I tried to entice new subscribers by promoting that each new email signup would be entered into a prize drawing. It did seem to work, and I was pleased by that success at first� until I started to become frustrated with other performance metrics. Primarily, the unsubscribes and low open rates.

Naturally, I assumed that something must be wrong with the content. Was I emailing too frequently (even though it was only once a month)? Did people not enjoy my newsletter? Did they think it was spam? Were my headings weak and uninteresting?

I finally realized that my performance metrics were at odds, and I couldn’t have it both ways. Did I care more about how many subscribers I had, or the percentage of those subscribers who were genuinely interested in reading my newsletters? If people were signing up JUST for the chance of winning prize and then unsubscribing right away because they didn’t actually care about my content, that was negatively impacting my other KPIs.

I decided to eliminate the prize enticement. Then, if people signed up for my newsletter, it was because they wanted to be on my mailing list.

This move allowed me to stop focusing so much on the number of my subscribers and pay more attention to the quality of my audience. That meant I had subscribers who were much more likely to:

Actually open and read the newsletter, improving other KPIs such as open and click ratesFollow updates I shared about upcoming publications, pending projects, product launches, and other newsClick on links in the newsletter to visit my blog, learn about my books, follow me on social media, etc.Take advantage of sales and promotionsSubscribe to my exclusive content on Make a small donation by

In all honesty, I went for quite a while without really seeing many benefits of having a newsletter other than sharing periodic updates with my audience outside of social media. And that, of course, can make you start to doubt yourself and wonder if you’re wasting your time.

But lately, after faithfully since , the benefits have become apparent.

6 Ways I Leverage My Monthly Newsletter

You can see the clipboard for newsletter signups in the middle of my display (I covered the email addresses with a postcard to protect personal information).

1. Sales

Of course, the first benefit of a newsletter most people think of is the opportunity to sell products to customers. This is why businesses pour a lot of money into their email marketing campaigns. While this definitely isn’t the primary focus of my newsletter, it’s worth putting at the top of the list since many entrepreneurs DO use their newsletter for this purpose.

A year ago, I finally got my up and running, which meant I could sell a lot of my art products that had previously been event-exclusive. I could also sell autographed copies of my books instead of having to redirect people to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. (which meant I lost a good chunk of revenue from those third-party retailers). Prioritizing direct sales was a major step forward in generating revenue that I could then reinvest in my business.

I had a slow rollout, adding a few products here and there to slowly build up the website over time, and I made sure to feature the new additions in each newsletter. That did result in some sales that came through just hours after the newsletter was published each month. I wasn’t getting flooded with orders, but there was definitely a correlation between the newsletter feature and the online sales.

With a list of email subscribers, you also have an online audience open to sales, exclusive online deals, and other promotional opportunities� although you’ll want to be careful not to spam them! Make the expectations clear when people sign up. If they’re expecting your emails to be primarily informative, then you’ll risk losing subscribers if they feel you’re taking advantage and bombarding them with marketing emails instead.

2. Information & Upcoming Events

In my case (and for many other authors as well), my newsletter is the best place to keep my audience informed about works in progress, recent accomplishments, upcoming events, and more. This is the primary reason people subscribe to my newsletter � they want to be kept in the loop so they know what I’m currently working on and where/when they can find me at a local event in their area.

My event schedule is listed on the homepage of my , and I make sure to post reminders about the next event(s) on Facebook and Patreon, but not all of my fans are on social media. The newsletter is a good way to actively send my schedule out to my followers rather than rely on them to seek out the information on their own or hope that the social media algorithms are putting my posts in their feed.

3. Subscriptions & Donations

The newsletter is an opportunity to let people know what kind of premium content they’re missing on other platforms. It’s one thing to say, “Please subscribe! You’ll get all these perks!� But it’s another to share a list of your recent posts so potential subscribers can see firsthand exactly what kind of content you’ve been publishing. It also offers proof that you are posting consistently.

My newsletter provides a way to introduce new fans to my Patreon community and show sneak peeks at the exclusive content I share there, including timelapse videos of my art, Q&As with fans, early book cover reveals, behind-the-scenes posts, and more. The newsletter can be a way to easily share samples and teasers without feeling spammy. For example, my newsletter subscribers can see the latest monthly artwork I drew, but my Patreon subscribers get to actually watch me draw it in a timelapse video that I link in the newsletter. The finished art is still a valuable part of the free newsletter, of course, but fans can go even deeper if they want to invest in Patreon and get a sort of backstage pass behind the process.

In addition to subscriptions, there are also opportunities to collect donations as well. I don’t often get many donations on , but I do include a simple callout at the bottom of each newsletter (and a variation of this graphic at the end of each blog post as well):

Asking people for money/donations isn’t something I’m very comfortable doing, so this is a passive way for me to make the option available without being obnoxious about it. And this invitation does bring in occasional donations from people who read my content and appreciate the hard work that goes into everything.

(Are you thinking about using Buy Me a Coffee for donations for your own business? Use to sign up!)

4. Website Traffic

Any reputable platform for your newsletter should let you see a record of outbound clicks, even if you’re using a free service. My newsletter always includes several links to my website, including my recent blog posts, the landing page for my book series, and any other relevant links. It might be a small blip, but it’s still extra traffic back to your site, and you can track this data to see which links are being clicked.

This interconnectivity is great for search engine optimization (SEO). My websites “talk� to each other quite a bit by cross-linking. Visitors on my regular website can easily navigate to Substack to subscribe to my newsletter and read past issues, while my emails are full of links that circle back to both my primary website, ecommerce shop, Patreon, etc.

5. Project Updates & Preorders

Not all of my followers are on social media. And I’m seeing more and more people drastically scaling back their social media time, which means I can’t expect them to be getting all of the updates when I post announcements there.

Hence, the importance of the newsletter, which has also proven to be a good way to encourage preorders for books before they’re released. If the majority of your audience has subscribed because they care about what you’re doing and want to be at the forefront of your next project, then you can take advantage of that engagement by sending updates straight to their inbox.

(By the way, did you know that you can ?)

6. Goal Accountability

Perhaps one of the best advantages of publishing my newsletter on a regular schedule is the accountability it forces on me.

I am a notorious procrastinator, which means it would be VERY easy for my projects to fall by the wayside. The newsletter creates a self-imposed series of deadlines for me. It goes out on the first Monday of each month (unless there’s a holiday, in which case it’s delayed by a week).

For each newsletter, I make sure to have at least two blog posts published and a new featured art piece for the month. That often means I’m very busy during the last week of the month trying to make sure I have all of that done in time for the newsletter. Without that deadline, my blog would likely have long stretches of inactivity.

The artwork is also important because watching timelapse videos of me drawing new art is a for my Level 2 and 3 subscribers. Between the newsletter and Patreon, I have deadlines and incentives to make a new art piece every month, which has also helped instill a sense of accountability.

(The biggest challenge for me is actively setting aside time to draw� and it’s so easy to keep putting that off! My art is a secondary branch of my business after the books, but doing a new drawing every month keeps me practicing to improve my skills, generates new art that I can incorporate into my inventory and my upcoming art/photography/poetry book that’s in progress, and provides content for both Patreon and my newsletter.)

There are a lot of benefits to having a monthly newsletter beyond simply trying to get more sales. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a race. It might take a while to start noticing some of these benefits.

It’s okay if building your audience ends up being a slow process. Trust me � it’s better to have a small, highly engaged audience than a big group that can’t be bothered to open your emails. If you’re going to measure KPIs, I recommend focusing on the quality of your content rather than the number of subscribers or frequency of your emails.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The post first appeared on .

Every event is a gamble.

Last year, that was a lesson that was hammered home for me again and again. Even setting up at repeat events I’ve done three or four years in a row came with unexpected surprises. A streak of success is not a guarantee that a particular event will be good every time.

Case in point: I set up at a festival during the summer. Historically, that festival had been great for me. The first year I did it, I sold out of paperbacks of . Each year was better than the last, despite major thunderstorms disrupting the festival in 2023.

But this last time� my sales were down a whopping 85% year over year (YOY) despite the festival being packed with foot traffic.

As you can imagine, I was disappointed. And the blows kept coming. The following weekend, I attended a convention that had been another regular success on my schedule two years in a row. My revenue was down 70% YOY.

On the flip side, some of my new events turned out to be a pleasant surprise when I sold out of almost all of the books I’d brought with me despite the foot traffic being way below my expectations. One festival I’d never done before outperformed many of the repeat events that grossly underperformed compared to previous years.

Finding good events is challenging, especially when you can’t count on regular annual events being successful every single year. The market is unpredictable, which is why I like to hunt for new events each year to replace not only the bad ones, but also the mediocre ones. I strive to continue refining my strategic approach to my event calendar by supplementing a mix of new and regular events.

So, when hunting for new events, how do you boost your chances of targeting ones that have a high chance for success? In this post, I’ll break down 10 key factors to help you decide whether an event is worth taking a chance:

Table of Contents1. Professionalism

When you’re researching a potential new event, what is your first impression when you come across information for it? Does the event have a professional website and logo? Photos? Sponsors? Is contact information easily accessible?

Do you feel confident that the event coordinator put time and effort into creating a public profile that reflects proper planning, organization, and investment?

Or does it have an amateur vibe with poor graphic designs, typos, unprofessional fonts, bad stock images, and limited information?

Your impression is probably going to be similar to how potential patrons see the event. If it looks like it was slapped together without much thought and planning, it probably was.

2. Marketing (EspeciallyÌýOnline)

Does the event have much of an online presence at all? Is there an official Facebook event page and/or posts on other social media platforms?

Is the event coordinator advertising in other ways? For example, paid ads, radio features, flyers, local publications, signs, billboards, etc.

I’ve had instances where a vendor or patron recommended an event to me, but when I searched online, I barely found a trace of it. No official website. Mentions on social media but no event page or photos. A lack of any online presence is usually a telltale red flag that:

This is probably a new event, which means it doesn’t have an established following.The coordinator isn’t doing enough to reach new people. If a simple Google search doesn’t bring up any information about the event, how are people supposed to find it and decide whether they want to attend?There’s a possibility that it might be a scam. Some scammers try to get vendors to fill out bogus applications and pay a booth fee for an event that doesn’t exist. If you can’t find much information about an event, proceed at your own risk!!3. Attendee Interest

Most events have a Facebook page at a bare minimum. This can help to gauge how much interest there is for an upcoming event.

Now, to be fair, a lot of people go to events without taking the time to mark “going� on the Facebook event page. But seeing how many people have expressed interest in attending can help you weed out events that have low potential.

For example, here is a screenshot of taken less than two weeks before the festival:

Ideally, you want to see responses in the thousands (depending on the type of event).

If a few hundred people have responded, it could still turn out to be a decent event. Sometimes, small events are better for me than large ones because there are fewer vendors and therefore less competition. In those cases, you’ll definitely want to make sure you are targeting your niche market.

But if the number of interested attendees is only in the dozens, it doesn’t bode well. You want to seeÌýsomeÌýinterest.

4. Event History

Is this a brand-new event, or a well-established one that occurs regularly?

New events are riskier, especially if the event coordinator hasn’t hosted before. They also have to work harder to get the word out and convince not only vendors to take a chance, but also patrons.

Established events have the advantage of building upon their existing audience and growing through word-of-mouth recommendations as more and more people attend every year.

Search for photos, reviews, posts, articles, and other information from past events. Photos are especially helpful for gauging the amount of foot traffic to reasonably expect.

If itÌýisÌýa brand-new event, check out the coordinator’s résumé. Have they hosted other events in the past? What experience do they bring to the table?

5. Location Demographics

When I first started doing events, I wasn’t looking into demographics before traveling to unfamiliar towns. The best example of why this was a mistake was when I ended up at a fall festival in a quaint little town that ended up being smack dab in the middle of Amish country.

I’m a fantasy author. The town was beautiful, but as you can imagine, the Amish are definitely NOT my target demographic for my . Needless to say, that event was a disappointment. I was way too far out of my niche.

When checking demographic data, I primarily look at two key points: income and education.

Obviously, higher income areas mean a better chance of patrons have more disposable income (and therefore being more likely to spend money on nonessential products like art and books). In low-income areas, people are looking for bargains. I understand that, and I sympathize, but I’m not going to devalue my hard work and haggle over my prices when I already don’t have very high profit margins on most of my products to begin with. It’s already a tough balance between making my books/art accessible enough for people while still bringing in enough revenue for me to survive and invest in my business.

As for education, it’s not that I have any bias against people who don’t have a college degree. Rather, I’ve found that higher educated areas tend to correlate with a more open-minded population that has a deeper appreciation for creativity. Frankly, I don’t enjoy setting up my booth in tiny, ultra-religious communities where people think fantasy books are the devil’s work and I’m a witch trying to corrupt the local children down a dark path of sin. (Yes� that’s happened to me before. I was accused of being a Satanic cultist at a small-town festival. Mothers were pulling their children away from my tent. If they’d taken thirty seconds to actually have a conversation with me, they would have realized that I was just there to sell my fiction books and art.)

Key takeaway here: if you’re looking at an event in a town or city you aren’t familiar with, research the demographics of the area before you commit. The extra digging is worthwhile!

6. Word of Mouth Recommendations

As you continue to do more and more events, and as you chat with other vendors, pay attention when vendors recommend successful events they’ve done in the past.

If multiple vendors speak highly of the same events in the region, you’ll definitely want to check them out. Likewise, if vendors warn you about certain coordinators, con runners, and events, make sure you take notes so you remember to avoid those.

Pay attention to the type of vendor recommending the event to you. Is their target niche similar to yours? For example, someone who sells balloon animals to kids is going to have a very different perspective of an event compared to a fine artist selling oil paintings.

7. Booth Cost

There’s usually a correlation between the cost of a vendor booth and the success of an event. Not always, but usually.

From my experience, if you’re paying less than $50 for your booth, you should set lower expectations. Low-cost booths are a great way to get started and fill gaps in your primary schedule, but ideally, you’ll want to have at least one higher-priced event per month.

I like to aim for the $50-$200 range for vendor fees at this stage in my career, although I sprinkle in a few that are more expensive to test the waters as I continue to grow.

Keep in mind that the cost of a booth isn’t necessarily an accurate gauge of how successful the event will be. The Amish fall festival I mentioned earlier had a higher booth fee than other events I’d done� which led me to incorrectly assume that meant it would be a better event with a bigger crowd of people, and it wasn’t. I should have done more research. The booth cost is just one of many factors you need to consider.

8. Target Audience

Make sure the type of event will attract the right kind of audience for your business.

I’ve learned to avoid craft shows and farmers markets for the most part, as they just don’t bring the right kind of crowd for me.

Another red flag is when trick-or-treating is incorporated into October events. Logically, from an event coordinator’s perspective, it seems like a good idea that attracts families and encourages patrons to visit every vendor’s tent.

But it doesn’t translate into sales. The kids just want their free candy, and then they want to move on to the next tent before their parents have time to browse or shop. The vendors almost always have to supply their own candy, and bags of Halloween candy aren’t cheap, so it’s an extra expense. I also have to deal with the added frustration of kids thinking that since the candy was free, my products (especially my vinyl stickers) are also free, so I have to keep a very close eye on my tables.

You’ll want to seek out events that either directly target your specific audienceÌýorÌýhave such a wide reach that your customers will be included in the mix (festivals are a good example).

I’ve recently found good luck in targeting crossover events. For example, I set up my booth at my first gaming convention last year. I don’t sell games, nor I sell gaming products such as D&D figurines or specialty dice. But I found that people who like games are also likely to enjoy reading books, and people weren’t just purchasing the first book in my series; they were buying all three books at a time. This is also the case at comic-cons. I don’t sell comic books, but many of those fans also appreciate novels, and most of the people who attend conventions are prepared to spend money.

My advice is to experiment with different types of events to see what works the best for you. Sometimes, obscure events end up being extremely successful. You might be surprised when you zero in on your niche!

9. Juried Applications

If an event is juried, that’s a good sign. Yes, it means there’s a chance you won’t make the cut (I’ve been denied on several occasions, and it sucks). BUT it means that the bar is set higher, so if you do get accepted, that indicates:

The coordinator has higher quality standards, and you’ve met them.Your products fit with the theme, vibe, and (hopefully) the target customer base.Not just anybody can pay for a booth space, and a curated event has a higher chance of being successful when patrons know there won’t be low-quality vendors.10. Vendor Lineup

If possible, see which other vendors are on the roster for the event. Some places post a list of vendors, but others don’t.

Low-quality vendors can destroy the vibe and ensure that people don’t come back again. Having a few of these vendors in the mix isn’t necessarily going to have a huge impact, but if you notice a lot of them, that should be a major red flag.

The types of vendors I prefer to NOT see on the list:

MLMs â€� aka “multilevel marketingâ€� companies like Mary Kay, Scentsy, Pink Zebra, Color Street, et cetera. These vendors typically present themselves as if they’re small businesses, but they’re not. It’s a pyramid scheme. They order all of their products from the parent company; they don’t actually make, create, or design anything themselves, and there are aÌýtonÌýof representatives all selling the same types of products. At the very least, if an event coordinator allows MLMs, they should limit booths to only one representative per company. If they don’t, they could end up with several booths for the same MLM (which is a giant red flag).Corporations â€� I don’t know about you, but when I’m having fun at a festival, I’m not interested in gutter guards, phone carriers, bathroom remodels, and roofing estimates. We’re already bombarded every day with nonstop ads; corporate booths aren’t something I want to see, especially if they outnumber the artisan vendors.Resellers â€� The “entrepreneursâ€� who buy cheap merchandise in bulk from Temu, Wish, Shein, and other companies overseas and then resell it at a low price. They’re easy to spot and usually have baskets of various gadgets, accessories, and knickknacks on their tables. These vendors cheapen the whole event, and, in some cases, affect the mindset of customers who see their ridiculously low prices for mass-produced wares and then criticize the artisan vendors for charging too much for their unique, handcrafted items.Churches, schools, and political organizations â€� There’s usually nothing inherentlyÌýwrongÌýwith these informational booths, but it’s usually not the time and place for them, especially if there are a lot of them. These vendors should occupy a small ratio of the vendor lineup if they’re present.Religious and political merchants â€� This is a personal preference, but with tensions as high as they are, I don’t like seeing inflammatory merch at non-religious, non-political events, especially when they’re supposed to be family-friendly and vendors are selling products that say things like “F*ck the Presidentâ€� or “Nonbelievers are going to hell.â€� Againâ€� it’s just not the time or place when people are trying to have a good time. These booths can definitely have a negative impact on patronsâ€� moods.Amateur newbies â€� I know this sounds harsh because we all have to start somewhereâ€� but when there are a lot of booths for hobbyists who clearly still have a long way to go before they’re truly ready to start displaying and selling their work, it’s a negative reflection on the quality of the entire event. It’s okay to have a few amateurs scattered among seasoned artisans, but if that ratio skews too heavily toward low-quality beginners, then customers see the overall event as unprofessional. It’s better to be a new vendor surrounded by many seasoned veterans (a great opportunity to network and take notes!) than to have a great booth surrounded by amateur crafters and artists who drag down the quality of the event as a whole.

This long list is exactly why I advocate for juried events that minimize or eliminate these types of vendors to prioritize experienced artisans, crafters, local businesses, baked goods, etc. instead of allowing a free-for-all for literally anyone who wants to pay for a spot.

Final Thoughts

Even if you check every box on this list when considering new events, there’s no guarantee the event will turn out the way you hope. However, keeping these tips in mind when researching will help you reduce the number ofÌýbad events on your roster so you can be more strategic with your schedule.

Keep experimenting! Try new events and see which ones work the best for you. Like I said, I was pleasantly surprised to find some crossover niches when I branched out of my comfort zone. I recommend going for a balance of broad exposure and targeted markets.

Broad exposure is going to be your festivals and larger conventions where there are a LOT of people, including (but not explicitly) your ideal demographic. More foot traffic = more opportunities to make connections, and usually less competition because there will be a wide variety of vendors as well.

Targeted markets are going to focus on your specific audience. For me, as an author and artist, that’s going to be art festivals, book fairs, comic-cons, gaming conventions, etc. However, keep in mind that a targeted market is likely going to mean higher competition among a smaller group of vendors who are mostly appealing the same type of people.

Think of it this way: at a festival, I’m usually the only author there. If an attendee likes fiction books, they’re probably going to stop in my booth! They didn’t come to the festival for books, so my booth is a pleasant surprise. But what percentage of the crowd falls in that category? 20%? More? Less? There’s really no way to predict how many of your people are going to be in the mix at general festivals.

Contrast that with a book fair where pretty much everybody who comes is going to be a reader. Yes, that’s my target demographic, but those patrons now have 30+ other author booths to browse, so my competition is a lot steeper. Is it better to have little to no competition at an event that might have my demographic scattered in the crowd, or a lot of competition at an event that’s 100% inside my niche?

This is why I suggest having a mix of events on your calendar. There are always pros and cons. Until you try them for yourself, you’ll never know for sure!

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When I was first starting to do book signings, my table setup was incredibly simple.

A stack of books. A handful of business cards and bookmarks. A vinyl banner on the wall.

It was about as basic as it could possibly be.

(Photo from my very first book signing at a local shop in La Porte, IN)

That was six and a half years ago. Since that first book signing, I’ve done more than 170 events ranging from bookstore signings and library meet-and-greets to large festivals, conventions, and markets.

Over time, my setup has evolved into a much more elaborate display now that I’ve added supplemental products tied to my award-winning , plus I’ve incorporated my artwork into my business as well. When I have a full 10×10 space, I set up two separate tables � one for the book and related merch, and the other for my art prints on various products.

**My outfit depends on the type of event! For regular festivals and markets, I’m usually dressed in nice street clothes. But for conventions, you’ll find me cosplaying as the protagonist from my series.

Build Your Booth Aesthetic

That’s quite an upgrade between my first signing and the more recent photos, right?

Trust me, it didn’t happen overnight. It’s been a slow yet steady evolution over the last few years of doing events.

There was a moment early in my author career on that made me realize I was on the right track.

Rewind to 2019 as I was setting up for an author panel at Barnes & Noble in Racine, WI. My display at that time was still minimal, but as I was arranging my books, a fellow author preparing for the panel said, “Oh! I know you! I saw your photos on Instagram. You’re the girl with the black feathers.�

He was referring to the fake black feathers I regularly use for my product shots on social media and my display when setting up for book signings. They’re relevant to my books, which feature crow spies and a man who shape-shifts into a raven.

While I appreciated the overall aesthetic, I hadn’t realized just how much the props had defined my brand until that author said he recognized meÌýbecause of the feathers. That extra element had left a powerful impression on him.

So, it started with feathers, and I continued to build my personal aesthetic from there. I have a pair of baby , Clover and Thistle, who guard my tip jar, and they always draw attention (I have to keep an eye on them to make sure nobody walks off with one of them). A pair of crows, Onyx and Shadow, now watch over my booth from a perch I made using a tree branch. I hang a behind my banner to help illustrate the fantasy elements of my books, and I also have a (new!) mini lighted humidifier at the back of the display to add a subtle yet eye-catching flame/smoke effect without compromising safety with an actual fire.

If it’s part of my display and not something I’m selling, then it was carefully chosen with the intention of building my brand’s visual aesthetic and helping me stand apart from the dozens, sometimes hundreds of other vendors competing for patrons� attention.

Aesthetic Tips & Starting Points

For authors, artists, and other creative vendors, there are many opportunities to incorporate a unique element into your display to help you stand apart from the other vendors. Some examples I’ve seen (and used myself, depending on the event):

Using an on-brand tapestry as a backdrop for your boothAdding decorative elements such as stones, shells, crystals, driftwood, etc. around the productsStacking books in an Instagram-worthy spiraling towerHanging fake leaves/vines/flowers around the tentUsing a textured tablecloth designed to look like wood (or another object/material)Creating an antique look by using lace, velvet, battery-operated candlesticks, quills and inkwells, etc.Coordinating all display stands, shelves, boxes, etc. to match (specific wood stain, paint, all metal materials, etc.)Playing music that fits the visual aestheticEnhancing the display with lighting, such as using fairy lights to create a soft, inviting glow or spotlights that highlight specific productsAdding pops of color with flowers (usually fake)Dressing up in fantasy cosplay or a period-specific attire

When you’re doing events, it’s easy to be preoccupied with your own setup and sales, but I recommend taking some of your free time to study the booths around you and see what other vendors are doing. Pay close attention to the ways they make their booth stand out. You don’t want to explicitly copy them, of course, but you can find inspiration and think about how to spin a concept to highlight your own brand.

First, you’ll want to identify your desired aesthetic. Do soft, natural textures complement your style? Or is the striking contrast of metal or black paint more suitable? You need to know what kind of mood you want to set before you start adding extra elements into your display.

As a reminder, I didn’t add the black feathers just because I liked them. They wereÌýrelevant. I have a chapter in my first book called “Black Feathers,â€� not to mention raven and crow art as part of my display. Now, with Onyx and Shadow, the feathers are actually more of secondary element. (I also can’t always use them at outdoor events if it’s too windy.)

Be mindful about your choices and find props that enhance your products rather than distract from them. After all, you don’t want people to be so focused on your display that they completely bypass your products!

Is there a notable, recurring element you can pull from your books, art, or other products? What kind of story are you trying to tell? When someone sees your booth for the first time, what kind of impression do you want them to get? How can you stand out with a unique, creative display?

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The fourth novel in the series is one step closer to publication! On the twentieth of January, I sent the manuscript to the line editor for the next phase. In this post, I’ll share important updates and exciting news about Lab Rat.

Table of ContentsCover Reveal

Last week, I shared the cover of Book IV on social media to celebrate the end of the beta reading phase, the beginning of the line editing stage, and the launch of preorders on my website.

The front cover features Jay while following the same shadowed half-face pattern of the previous three books in the series.

I experimented with a new Photoshop technique to achieve the texture and color of Jay’s gray hair, and his determined expression is more reminiscent of Axel on the cover compared to the passive expressions of Reese () and Cato (). However, Jay is known to have a knowing little half-smile when he has a plan, so my goal was to capture that intense look.

Publication Steps & Expected Timeline

Lab Rat is now sitting at right around 160k words after additions I made based on beta reader feedback. That puts the novel between A Fallen Hero at 154k and Phantom’s Mask at 194k.

Based on the word count, the line editor has estimated a six-week turnaround time, so I’m expecting to receive her edits in early March.

During these next five weeks, I’m focused on finishing the cover (the front is pretty much done, but the back still needs work), starting to format the interior file, and some other projects that I’ll discuss in the next section.

The line edit is the most intensive part of the editing phase. Once the manuscript is returned to me, I fully expect a LOT of notes, revisions, corrections, et cetera. To be honest, it can be a blow to the ego to see all the mark-ups, but it’s a necessary part of publishing to make sure the novel is high quality. My line editor will check everything from grammar and punctuation to story pacing, detail consistency between the books, worldbuilding feasibility, character development, and more.

So, what does the publication process look like moving forward?

I’ll spend several weeks (minimum) going through every mark-up on the manuscript. Until I dive in and see how extensive those notes are, I won’t know how long this task will take. It’s always possible that extensive rewrites might be necessary, which would add more time.
Once I finish editing, I’ll transfer the manuscript into the new hardcover file that’s sized with the proper margins, page sizes, chapter headings, et cetera. I do this in Microsoft Word (which I know isn’t the best program for formatting, but it’s one that’s accessible to me and I’m familiar with), and I have to be careful because Word can be a bit finicky sometimes. I’ll paste the novel in sections (sometimes full chapters, sometimes smaller sections if there’s a character POV break) while keeping an eye on everything to make sure the formatting doesn’t get glitchy.
With the manuscript formatted based on the hardcover’s dimensions, I’ll have an accurate page count and will be able to adjust the spine of the cover image appropriately so it’s wide enough for the number of pages.
I don’t let Word go crazy with automatic hyphenations, so I go through and manually approve or reject the program’s suggested hyphenations with the justified margins to make sure the formatting looks good. I also check for potential issues such as ellipses being split between lines or breaks falling in weird spots.
Once the cover and interior files are both finalized and exported into PDF files, it’s time to upload them into IngramSpark’s database. I’ll also fill out the necessary metadata that allows booksellers, libraries, etc. to catalog and locate the book. This includes the ISBN, synopsis, keywords, genre, target audience, etc.
It usually takes one or two business days for IngramSpark to approve the files. If there’s a problem, they’ll notify me that I need to make a correction. If there’s not, then I can proceed with ordering a proof copy.
After the proof copy arrives, I’ll read through the book one more time and mark any issues I find. These could be missed typos, tiny formatting issues, lines that I want to edit, et cetera. My brain processes the writing differently when it’s on a book page rather than a computer screen. I don’t know why, but it does, so I often have some changes that I want to make.
I’ll go back into the digital file to make the necessary corrections, then repeat the process of exporting the document, uploading it to Ingram, waiting for approval, and then, finally, it will be time to order the first books! I will order the first print run before approving the book for distribution through other retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

So, when will the book be released? Sorry, but I still don’t have a specific date yet. After I finish the line edit, I’ll have a better idea. Realistically, I think we’re looking at late spring or early summer. Just a few more months!!

NEW Materials in Development for Lab Rat

In the , you might have noticed that the featured artwork was a little different than usual. Rather than sharing my usual art timelapse video on Patreon like I do every month, I explaining the proposed layout of Project Alpha as I sketched out the rough concept.

A few weeks later, I explaining how that original concept sketch had evolved after I made some changes. (These videos are available for purchase if you aren’t a Patreon subscriber. They’re both about 20 minutes long and can be purchased for $3, which is the lowest price Patreon allows me to set.)

If you hadn’t already guessed, that final floor plan is going to be drawn in the same style as the Saros Manor floor plan I published in Book III, which means that IV will have an extra map joining the .

In addition to the new map, Lab Rat will also include some extras that haven’t been published in the other books:

Pronunciation GuideCharacter ListGlossary

All of these new pieces are currently in progress while the line editor is working. I’m excited about these additions and think they’re really going to enhance the series!

What Readers Can Expect in Book IV

I’ve already discussed some of the aspects I’m excited about blog and in more depth . But, now that we’re much closer to publication, here are some teasers about what fans can expect in the fourth installment of the series:

Trauma� so much trauma! (Be prepared)The origins of Cato’s relationship with his lab-familyA look at the evolution of “Before� Cato from the prologue of AFH vs. the current version we know throughout most of the seriesMore depth into Agent Kovak as an antagonistAxel’s backstory and secretsDrastic character development that will alter the current dynamic of the lab-familyMore of ECANI’s capabilitiesA scene in Ero’s POV for the first timeIntroduction to the Mirror Realm and Spirit RealmNew characters and powersHow Beta Readers Felt About Lab Rat

“My mind is blown that I can be so attached to a group of ghosts, but author Sara Noë has built such believable, relatable characters. Book IV, Lab Rat, takes the reader to a much deeper understanding of the Alpha ghosts and keeps you riveted to your seat. The definition of ‘family� continues to be redefined through the well chosen words of the author.�

“Lab Rat exceeded my expectations; it was a fantastic addition to the Chronicles of Avilésor: War of the Realms series. I found myself crying, laughing, and genuinely surprised on several occasions. It was such an incredible book that I even canceled a movie night just to keep reading, and it was definitely worth it! 100/10�

How to Preorder Book IV: Lab Rat Collector’s Bundle

Preorders are LIVE on my website!

For those who preordered Book III last time, I’m doing it a little differently (and much more efficiently) this time now that my ecommerce website is up and running.

Fans can preorder the Book IV Collector’s Bundle to receive an autographed hardcover from the first print run, the five buttons I designed for the novel, a new bookmark featuring Jay from the cover, and a tea light of the .

These hardcovers will be numbered and have special stickers to verify that they’re from the first batch of books (like I did with BOTE).

At this time, I don’t know how many books will be in this first batch. For Book III, I did fifty. For Book IV, the number of preorders I receive will help me determine how many to order. The earlier you order, the lower the number you’ll receive. (Example: #15/50 instead of 48/50)

Also available is the Lab Rat hoodie with Jay’s silver eye and the words “Chronicles of Avilésor� on one sleeve and “War of the Realms� on the other. This specialty hoodie, along with many other designs I’ve made, is available on my through Spring.

Stay in the Loop

There have been a lot of Book IV updates over the past few months! on social media is one of the best ways to see timely announcements.

If you’re not already , that’s a great way to get a regular recap of what’s going on.

But if you want early access to content BEFORE I announce it publicly, the best place is going to be .

I offer three membership tiers on Patreon with varying perks based on the monthly subscription. The Human level is only $5/month but still gives you a lot of perks such as having your name listed in the book acknowledgments, opportunities to win prizes at events, exclusive promotions, event reminders, and early announcements.

My Kálos and Alpha tiers ($10 and $15 per month, respectively) provide even more benefits. Depending on your tier, you can read sneak peeks and deleted scenes, submit questions, participate in polls to influence the books, see the cover in progress while I’m working on it, watch me create my monthly art features in a timelapse video� you can even have a place or minor character named after you!

Patreon is a place for top fans to dive way deeper into the Chronicles of Avilésor than they can anywhere else. These subscriptions also help to support me. I don’t talk about how expensive it is to publish books� but this isn’t exactly a secret either since my line editor has her rates posted on her website. The line edit by itself is going to cost me over $1k. (And that’s less than it cost me for PM and BOTE since those were bigger books!)

That’s JUST for the line edit. I have to juggle a ton of additional business costs, including the hosting service for my websites, liability insurance for my booth, vendor fees to book events (these can range from about $50 to $1500 depending on the event, although I typically stay under the $400 threshold), inventory costs to order books so I have them to sell, and the list goes on. Plus, you know, the general cost of living and paying my personal bills.

Patreon is mutually beneficial because fans get perks and bonus content while also helping to support their favorite creators. $5 a month isn’t much, but it does add up! And it truly does help me continue being able to publish books and create art.

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