sold out!!!

I have been fortunate to have book sell outs three times.  The first was at the Irish Book and Music Celebration in Chicago when I had one book to sell.  In Chicago the crowd was good and a high percentage of book readers.  Plus I had a book review from Frank West in the Irish American News which I displayed on my table.  Everybody at the Chicago Irish American Heritage Center knows Frank and having his book review helped.

The second time was at the Oshkosh Irish Festival and again I had one book to sell.  That Saturday the heavens opened and it rained very hard.  The result was the festival goes flocked to the Cultural Tent where I was selling books.  I was also the only author at the event.  I made up order forms on the spot, people paid up front and the Monday following the Festival I mailed books from my stock at home.

This past weekend (Aug. 17-19) I attended the Milwaukee Irish Fest who boasts having 100,000 attendees.  In many ways the weekend was fraught with frustration beginning with a two hour drive to Milwaukee in a torrential downpour often driving 50 mpg.

Arriving at the hotel the Festival registration desk had no idea I was to participate.  There was no packet and no hotel reservation.  The Hyatt Regency hotel staff was excellent and found me a room in minutes.  The registration staff gave me a parking passes and a generic nametag.  I learned that another author named Sexton had cancelled and they confused me with him.  Owens and Sexton are obviously very similar surnames.

At the Cultural Tent the wrong book covers were posted.  The organizer explained she didn’t know how to print the images I had sent her two months previously.  She also had recorded the wrong pricing for my books.
What was different about this SELL OUT was that it was the first time I was selling the three book Irish Troubles Series.  Even priced at 3 books for $30 I worried customers wouldn’t take a risk of buying three books from an unknown author.  Friday night of the Festival my fears came true.

Saturday morning my fears were shattered.  I had four sales of all three books in the series to start off my day.  By Sunday morning I had only 10 books remaining with the first book sold out on Saturday.  Would customers buy just books 2 & 3?  They did.

At 2:00 pm Sunday afternoon the bells rang – I SOLD OUT.
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I learned a lot of lessons about the strategy of selling books this past weekend.  I put in 21 hours over three days sitting in the Cultural Tent.  It’s a hard way to sell books.