Are you ‘Book Fair’ ready?
We have all got different ideas about how to sell our books. One way may not suit another. If you are serious about attending such events and selling your books in this way, you might want to get yourself kitted out with the right gear. For those who want to enter into the world of book fairs and festivals, we have put together some ideas and links for essentials.
Tables:
Tables are often provided and where this is not possible you will need to bring your own. Here is a link that will give you an idea of what you will need. Tables are usually a standard size of 3ft x 6ft NB: To protect the venues’ flooring, the tables will nearly always need to have rubber feet.
Heating & Lighting is supplied:
All venues are heated and lighting is usually perfectly adequate. Most organisers do not permit heaters or lighting as this raises the insurance and health and safety stakes. You may need to wear layers as temperature can change rapidly and doors are continually opening and closing.
Pull up Banners:
Pull up banners are brilliant advertising and promotional marketing purposes. They come in a range of sizes. You can get floor or table top banners designed to your own specification. With your book cover/s, website and contact details beautifully displayed.
Author Copies:
You will need to order your author copies well in advance (at least 4 weeks before the event), to ensure that they arrive in time. We often get asked about quantity as no one has any idea of sales or footfall at any given event. If you are going to be attending several book fair events, you can adjust your stock accordingly.
Bags:
You can buy a multitude of different bags in small medium or large quantities for your customers from eBay or Amazon. The paper bags allow you to add stickers or even a stamp with your website/name or contact and they look really good. The beauty of these is that you can prepare them in advance by adding a complimentary bookmark or flyer about your books.
Trolley:
This is an absolute must, especially if you have a glass back! Boxes of books can get heavy, not to mention the packed lunch box!
Bookmarks:
Insurance:
All fairs, festivals and markets require that stallholders must have public indemnity insurance to cover themselves, their products and the people they serve. Some organisers will have already organised a subsidised discounted rate which is added on to the organisers overall annual insurance fees. You can alternatively purchase your own insurance which will cover you for a year to attend several/multiple organisers’ events.
Stewards:
Most events of any kind will have stewards. These are in place to assist both stall holders and visitors. They are generally lovely and will be on hand to help where they can.
Money/Payment Facility:
You need to decide how you would like to take payment. If it is just cash, then you’ll need to make sure that you have a good float of change. If you want to consider taking credit cards, you can use one of the main online card facilities such as SUM UP or IZETTLE. Both are easily uploaded to the device of your choice and then any monies are directed straight into the bank account of your choice. Cheques are being phased out and in general, most buyers prefer to use a card. Don’t be put off by this, they are very simple to set up.
Food & Drink:
Many of the book fairs and festivals will have an adjoining café and some may have facility for a light lunch. It’s always best though, not to rely on that! There is nothing worse than being hungry especially while you’re standing around for eight hours.
Honestly, once you have all the tools, you will be well prepared and ready to attend as many or as few events as you want to.
From my own experience, it’s usually a great day with shedloads of comradery and laughs.
Lincolnshire Authors have planned three book fairs for 2021 and will be booking four in 2022 in Louth, Skegness, Lincoln and Stamford.
We look forward to meeting authors, book lovers, and readers.