On Saturday I had my first book signing event. I took a small table at my village’s Christmas Fayre. It was really busy and I sold 32 of the 40 books that I took along. It certainly exceeded my expectations.
The practice in talking to people: explaining what the books were; how I had started writing them; what each book was about; was really useful. I still hope to get some bigger book store signing events, and more radio interviews. But you have to start somewhere.
The table next to me were selling Christmas decorations. The man I was talking to bought a set of my books for his wife. He explained that she is an avid reader and budding writer, a member of a local writing group, Corsham Writers. Hearing that thrilled me because I had been searching for a local writing group without success.
Ever since I started writing the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures, I had been longing for a peer group to comment on my work. I’ve learned a lot that could help their writing. The shared learning experience that I had enjoyed on the Open University creative writing courses is a fading, pleasant memory. Before the Covid lockdown, the Malmesbury Advertiser that drops through our letter box once a month, included an advertisement for a Malmesbury Writing Group. I have been searching it since lockdown ended, but they haven’t advertised since.
Diane, who is chair of our village shop committee also spoke to me about stocking my books in the shop, so I must follow up on that. The man on the stall next to me had a very useful looking gadget. It was a small card reader that connects by Bluetooth to your phone. I’ll certainly buy one before I do another similar event. It’s called Square Reader. All in all, it was a great success, because word of mouth will ripple out about my books, but mostly I’m overjoyed to have found a writers group. I know that other writers can help me, and I hope that I can help them. I’ve learnt so much on this journey: self publishing, the software available, marketing, reviews, research. Now I have to knuckle down and write a short piece with a Christmas theme for my first group meeting.