The 8th Annual Harlem Book Fair was held on July 22, 2006 on 135th Street in New York City. This was the third time I had exhibited at the fair but the first time as an exhibitor representing my main company, RJ Communications (www.SelfPublishing.com, www.BooksJustBooks.com). Previous years I exhibited as The Junior Writers Foundation, a non-profit I helped found which helps school children learn about book publishing as well as publish the children’s stories in book format. This year I was going to devote solely to talking to self-publishers.

I arrived two hours prior to the opening of the fair to set up my booth. While I had my booth number and a pretty good idea where my booth was supposed to be located, it didn’t take long to realize that I was in the middle of shear chaos. There were no booth numbers marked on the ground. Other exhibitors, who had arrived earlier than me, had started “squatting” pretty much anywhere they pleased. Most of the volunteer staff walked around with clipboards, scratching their heads, utterly helpless when it came to making any sense of what was unfolding. As a bonus, there were several giant black clouds, overhead, looking like they were going to bust loose any moment. I had paid for a booth, a tent, two tables and four chairs.

Two hours later, at the time the show officially opened, I had nothing. I felt a little better when I met my friends Susan Driscoll and Diane Gedymin from IUniverse and they were “boothless” as well and had spent a whole lot more money than me to be a show sponsor, not just an exhibitor. About a half hour into the show, with the help of fair founder Max Rodriguez, I had a 10×10 spot of blacktop I could call my own. An author/publisher in the same predicament as me had a 10×10 empty space next to me. Keep in mind this was just empty space at this point, no tents, no tables, and no chairs. I promised my new neighbor that I would defend our new found real estate, while she got her books from her car, from the dozens of other exhibitors who were still wandering around looking for a place to call home, for the day. Soon one of the show helpers brought two tables, which, at least, helped stake out our claim. Then just as the skies started to bust, a single tent showed up on the scene. It took about two seconds to decide that either, my new neighbor and I were going to be closer neighbors than we had originally planned, or one of us was going to get awfully wet. We chose to share the booth. No sooner than we had moved the two tables and our books undercover, it started to pour. It rained and rained. Booksellers and buyers were huddled everywhere there was cover trying to stay as dry as possible. Then, after about a half an hour the rain stopped.
What happened next was truly a sight to behold. Within minutes of the last drop of rain, the streets were full and everyone was starting to sell books. Once things settled in at my booth, I took a walk around the fair. With the exception of a few large sponsors the exhibitors were mainly one and two book publishers. As I walked by each of these publishers, I was either given a bookmark, a postcard or “pitched” to buy their book. These people weren’t sitting around waiting… they were “selling”.

I met my old friend “Treasure Blue”, author of Harlem Girl Lost. He had recently signed a large contract with Random House that came with a nice advance. Instead of resting on his laurels, he was out “pitching” anyone who would listen. From his level of excitement, you would have thought he had just received initial copies of his first book and had to sell them all by the end of the day to pay the printer. I also met Relentless Aaron, another self publisher, who had recently signed a 14 title deal with St Martins Press. He had a double sized booth and was displaying books on one side and giving free back massages on the other. I don’t think he stopped hustling for a moment. And remember, these were two guys who could have been sitting back and spending their royalties but chose to be out hustling their books.
As I walked around, I found I knew many of the exhibitors because I had printed books for them through my company. As I stopped by to say hi, each had that same high energy level and look of confidence. If you didn’t buy one of their books, it certainly wasn’t for lack of their trying. As the day wore on, the streets continued to stay packed. Books were selling and ten dollar bills were flying around everywhere. This is what self-publishing is all about. Before the end of the day, another cloudburst dumped more rain on the fair. Did that chase people away or dampen anyone’s spirits? No way. Did everyone turn a big profit for the day? It’s hard to say. Will most people be back next year? It’s almost guaranteed. Who knows, maybe next year will be sunny and 70 degrees. Maybe everyone will even know where their booth is before the fair opens, although I doubt that. I believe that the chaos actually added to the overall excitement.
I strongly suggest that you participate in as many local book fairs as possible. If you can’t afford a full booth, arrange to share one. Booths this year at the Harlem Book Fair started at about $350. Figuring there were over 50,000 buyers who attended the fair that breaks down to $7 per thousand people for exposure to an ideal market. Show me another form of advertising where you can give your book that kind of exposure for that price. Obviously not all street fairs have 50,000 people attending but smaller shows have lower rates so they are all still pretty good investments.

One last item before you all start to Google “book fairs”. I can not emphasize enough that your success will be directly related to the enthusiasm for your book that you project to the potential book buyer. You can not simply rent a table, display your books and sit in a chair behind the table and expect people to swarm over to buy your books. It is not going to happen. Like everything else in self publishing, it takes preparation and a lot of hard work, but if you are willing to make the effort, you won’t be disappointed. See you at the next fair.

Last 5 posts by Ron Pramschufer

• What do you think about Amazon’s announcement that small publishers need to print with their printer in order to be listed on Amazon? - April 17th, 2008
• What are the steps are involved in Self-Publishing a book? - March 24th, 2008
• Do you know any good book printers? - February 11th, 2008
• What do you think of Facebook as a marketing tool for self-published books? - December 5th, 2007
• Did you change your mind about authors buying a single ISBN? - October 22nd, 2007