Independent’s Day

As I’ve made clear more than once, marketing is not my favorite part of life as a semi-independent author. Essential, yes. Enjoyable, not so much. But there is one big exception to my instinctive dislike for self-promotion, and that’s getting out and meeting readers and other writers. So when the local library approached me to show up at something they called the Independent’s Day Book Fair, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. I figured that whatever happened, I could hang around for a couple of hours chatting with other local authors, and that in itself would be worthwhile.

The first step, of course, was to ensure that I wasn’t the only member of Five Directions Press invited. I talked to my pals and the librarian in charge of organizing the event, and we agreed that we would all try to make it, sharing a single table to keep plenty of seats available for other folks. Between the initial contact and the event, Five Directions Press grew—and life intervened, as it tends to do—but in the end, five of us appeared yesterday with all eleven of our published books (a twelfth is due this fall), free bookmarks to give away, and our lovely Five Directions Press banner.

It was a lot of fun. We didn’t sell as many books as we hoped, but we made some great contacts and developed a healthy sense of how much excellent writing self-published authors are producing, from nonfiction to poetry. We got to hear a lot of interesting short talks from other writers and gave a short presentation of our own about Five Directions Press. So many thanks to the organizers, our fellow-participants, and the readers who chose to attend.

A happy Independence (Independent’s) Day to all!