Yesterday I had my second signing at a Barnes & Noble here in Northern Virginia. I have been trying to get them to let me have one at a local branch but the district manager won’t return my emails. A writer friend was able to get three other branches in the area to hold multi-authors signings and I managed to snag two of those.
The first one was kind of a sleepy event. Not many people visiting the gigantic store but somehow we all managed to sell books and interact with many people. The second one was held in a wealthier part of Northern Virginia and the place was teeming with humans. The four of us got pretty excited. If we had a good turnout in a sleepy branch, here we should make a killing, so to speak.
Here’s how it really went:
- Several kids came to ask for our candy.
- Several people refused to accept free swag.
- One very nice aspiring author asked us for some guidance in the publishing world.
- An older lady came and asked each of us if we used the F-word in our books (I use it very sparingly and only because it was pointed out to me that my characters are too proper, lol). Once she found out that pretty much all of us did in one way or another, she asked us why did you use such an offensive word. She didn’t buy anything.
- When I offered them my FREE postcards, they almost always took the one advertising an event I’ll be participating in but which holds absolutely no information about me or my books.
- A very kind older man came to talk to us and had us all laughing with his jokes. He didn’t buy anything but thanked us for all the work we do (he used to work for one of the Big Five)
- Lots of people entered the raffle to win books from all of us, but most of them didn’t buy anything.
- We heard a lot of, “I don’t read romance” (totally understandable. It’s not for everybody, of course).
- People thought we were the information desk and came to ask us about items in the store.
- We left the event with about $6 each for one book sold from each one of us.
- I sold a M/M paranormal romance book to a lady who told me she didn’t read romance at all.
Moral of the story: don’t judge an event by how posh the neighborhood is. Buying power and romance doesn’t always jive, apparently.
Author Natalina Reis 
I do sympathise. I’ve had very mixed experiences. On the whole, I’ve had to pay for a table and actually spent more (inc fuel to get to the event) than I made. I’ve had some lovely conversations and got to know some other local authors, but sales…. Nope. People say ‘that looks lovely’ and then wander off. Mostly I’ve sold to another author and bought their book in exchange. I’ve never been asked about language! But it’s genuinely a shame if people miss the point and dismiss your book on that basis.
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Romance-only book events are a different matter though. Even though I’m a vastly unknown name I normally still sell a few books. These are ferocious readers who love the genre and are not afraid to try new authors.
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