Are Events Ever Worth It?

KittenEV said:

Hi all.

Content: My boyfriend's mother is a self-published author and she goes to conventions all the time to sell her books so I got the idea from her that that could be a good thing to do with my book. Keep in mind she has a completely different genre than I do and she sells hardcovers for $25 a book which nearly all the royalties go to her since she has tons of books already printed.

My dilemma: I don't have the funds to print a whole bunch of books, pay for the table cost, and the hotel needed for said conventions. And by my math I would need to sell about 4,000 books in a weekend to even cover the cost of all that.

So, my question is, are events ever worth doing? From an outside perceptive, it just likes like a money trap since I can't possibly sell that many books in a single weekend and thus the entire event would be a loss.

What are your opinions?

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I think, in THEORY, that it's not how many books you sell AT the con, but how many books you sell BECAUSE of the con. It's all marketing: People learn about you and your books, and they go home and buy them later, or tell their friends about you and your books.

I did 2 con appearances that involved signing/selling books. These were both set up by my publisher (a Big 5). At the first one, I sold 3 copies; at the second, I sold 5. I also had a lot of marvelous conversations with readers - not always of my stuff, either, since I was sharing space with other writers (who were also great to talk to). It was a lot of fun.

As to whether I recouped my costs? Almost certainly not, even if you take word-of-mouth into account (although that's frustratingly unquantifiable). On the other hand, that's 8 readers I might not have reached before, which pleases me for that reason alone.

I think, if you're going to do this, you have to see it as a long-term career investment, and not something that's going to show you immediate financial benefit. And I can't even tell you it's worth it as a long-term career investment. But it's a nice way to meet people - not just readers, but other authors. Networking might not make you millions, but there are days when it can keep you sane.

Events can be worth it for different reasons. But not ones that you have to pay big bucks to attend, and not when you only have one book published. Concentrate on writing and publishing more books and don't worry about promoting them till you have three our four out there. Really.

What does she write, what conventions does she attend, and what to you write? Some genres are more organized that way than others.
But (from a non-writer perspective), no way I'd spend thousands (and print up books that I normally wouldn't) on the off-chance that I might sell a few, when I'd need to sell thousands to make up the costs.

Have you been to any of these events that she sells at? Spend way less than thousands and go to a couple, just to scope the place out. Look at what's selling, look how people set up. How do people and authors interact? Can you see yourself doing what the authors are doing?

I went to 'rock and gem shows' for a while. For rockhounds, mineral collectors, craftspeople, like that. There was one woman who had a little table, selling her book. It was a lovely big coffee-table book about various stones and where she had found them. The photography was gorgeous, the production values excellent, and she had sold none of them.
The people there were interested in actual rocks, etc. The ones who liked pictures already had picture books, the ones who wanted information had proper reference books, and the ones who liked taking pictures had their own pictures of rocks.
But in general, they were not there to buy books. Rocks, yes; tools, sure, but not pictures.

If the events your boyfriend's mother goes to are for a genre-not-your-own, her experience may be totally different from your potential experience.