Transcripts
1. Introduction: Book Vending at Events: M Hi, I'm Mallori Swinski and I am so excited for
today's lesson. We are going to be talking
about best practices for being a vendor at an event. There is so much opportunity
for not only profit, they are very lucrative, but also for networking
and strengthening bonds in your community and
just throughout your field. If you haven't considered
vending in person before, this is going to be something
that will bring you, hopefully, a lot of
joy and some profit. There are some good
dos and don'ts. There's some good
questions that we're going to answer for you that
I get a lot in DMs. I get it because when
I first started, I was like, What do I do? How how many books do I bring? So many things to think about.
How do I start? I got you. That's what I'm here for. I've been with you
every step of the way. Let's dive into
this. I'm excited. Let's learn how to
vend your books.
2. Finding an Event: So before we dive in, I
just want to remind you, as usual with my courses, the Companion PDF will be in the text section
under Lesson two. Go ahead and download that
if you want to follow along. Otherwise, you can
just watch these videos with me and
grab that later. Okay. Finding an event. So like most of my
recommendations, I'm going to say,
start with community. If you're starting here
and you don't really have a network yet, that's okay. You can always build it. I would recommend starting
on social media. No, it's kind of a
necessary evil these days, but especially if
you're going to vend, that is a perfect
place to start to find opportunities
within your field. You'll probably come across just naturally scrolling through your social media feed
events and cons and fairs and festivals that are near you, that may
pique your interest. Sometimes it's best to start going to these
events as a guest. If you are not ready to vend immediately and you're just
kind of testing the waters, you can go kind of see how
many people go to this one. If you look around and people
are really buying a lot, that'll give you
some information to go if you want to
vend at that event. Depending on your following
and social circle, you may even consider
developing your own event. That's kind of a big ask, and I know this is kind of
a detailed how to vend, so that might be a little bit too much to think
about right now, but it is a possibility if
you have a huge network or a close group of
friends that are all involved in your
field one way or another. That might be something
you can consider. Another great spot to
look for events that you might not have thought of is your library or your
local coffee shop. All those memo boards, you
know, by the Cream and Sugar, there are often fliers for local events that you
might not have considered, you know, maybe you don't
follow them on Facebook or they don't have that much of a
big social media following. You can check it
out. You can even ask your local librarian. They usually know
what's going on in the book world in
your community. So don't overlook that. They could be a great
resource for you. Plus, we should support our
local libraries, right? So remember, a lot of
these local events do require an application and
usually a table for you. It's usually $50-150 depending
on how big the event is. So you just want to make
decisions that are best for you and you want to make sure you're considering
travel, you know, lodging, food, make sure that your excitement doesn't make you overextend yourself. You want to stay
organized and, you know, choose events that make sense for your schedule,
for your budget, and for your something
I hear a lot is, Oh, my gosh, you're so lucky that you have these events
at these cool places. And part of me gets a little
salty whenever I hear that. Because like most things, it's usually not luck, right? They might look like luck. Because you're only seeing
the result of, you know, me going to event or
another creator or writer finding an event or they get invited
to go to something. But usually, there's a lot more that leads
up to that point. For example, what has
worked out for me is reaching out to my favorite bars and restaurants and local
hangouts that I go anyway, and I'm there enough that
they might even recognize me, and I will just message them on social media or email them if that's
available and just say, like, hey, you know, I'm there all the time. I love the place. You know, the pepperoni pizza
is really good. Whatever. Be genuine. Something you really
like about the place and say, Hey, I'm
a local author. I would love to talk to you
about collabing for an event. If you're going to
have some live music, I could have a table on
the side and you can kind of work through that
and gauge the interests. And, you know, nine
times out of ten, they're going to be like, Yeah, pound and, you know,
that's not something we do. But every so often, you'll come across the right fit, you know, the right restaurant
or, you know, a bar that holds a lot of fun events, and they'll
make room for you. You are going to be
an added element to the event that they're
already putting on. Plus, what's so cool is if
you get into one of those, they have built in promo, and you can kind of play
off with them and work together and make it a really cool and exciting event for you. So you just never know. Where you're going to
make that connection, where your networking
is going to lead you. So don't assume that something's not going to
work until you tried it. It might end up being, you know, an opportunity for
future events, and it might end up being
a really good friendship. So definitely try that. And don't just assume that opportunities like
that are going to fall into your lab just because you have a big following or you have a video go viral or even if
your book sales go well. Creating the in person
opportunities is something that you can take part of and you can make happen. You can be the
catalyst for that. Okay?
3. Table setup (or load-in): Let's talk about table setup. It's one of my favorite parts. Maybe if you really
like interior design or you just really like
your products. It's fun. It's fun to set up the table, how you want your customers
to approach you and see your products
in front of you. What's super important and
should be number one on your list once you are in an event and you filled
out the application, you've been selected,
you've done your payment, and you've talked
a little bit to the organizers is asking about
logistics ahead of time. Okay, you don't want to
be surprised come day of. You don't want to
show up assuming they have a literal
table for you. So you want to ask, you know,
are they providing a table? Are they providing chairs? Are they going to have a
table cloth for the table? Sometimes they don't they do. If it's outside, are they
going to give you a tint? You want simple stuff. You want to know where
the bathroom is. You want to know where parking
is because that's going to affect how you get your
stock to your table, and back to your car at the end. Another big one is
you need to know the Wi Fi situation because a lot of payments at vendor
tables will be online, right Venmo, KPal,
so on and so forth. Having the answers to these basic setup questions way before you roll up
to the event will just allow you to show up calm with a plan and be
able to enjoy the day that so because I over prepare and you can
call me tape if you want, but I just enjoy it, so
I will not apologize. I like to do a dry
run table setup at home before I
arrive at the venue. I do this, especially if I have different stock or
different book titles that I'm bringing than
the last time I ended. I even will take photos
once I'm satisfied. And that way, when I get to
the event and I'm setting up, I can just look at
my photo and just do what I did the last time.
You can make little changes. Is your table. But that way you'll have kind
of a guide to go off of because what ends
up happening a lot, is the day of the
event, you arrive, and even if on paper you had
an hour for setup before the public is let in or
before things really get rolling, people get excited. You know, the person, your contact, your
liaison at the venue, maybe they get in
a conversation, and you're trying to kind of set up your stuff and they're
trying to talk to you. So it's good to kind know
where things go generally. Other vendors might come up and try and talk to you
while you're setting up and you don't want to
be snappy or irritable. Your vibe should be calm cool and pleasant and
approachable, right? Because you're about to deal
with potential customers. So set yourself up
to not get stressed out and have that plan going into it and know where
everything's going to go. That also counts for backstock. If you're bringing
a ton of books, you don't have to put
them all on the table, maybe bring a crate
and hide that back behind you because you want
your table to look nice. It doesn't have to
be totally full, but you want a nice selection. We're going to talk
a little bit more about what to put on your table, obviously, your
books, but there are some other tips and tricks
to add in there too. That you're doing
everything you can preparing when you're at home and getting all of
your things together. You know, when you
pack your books, make sure you pack them in a way that they're going to
survive the trip there. They're not going to get bent
and messed up and you are organized with where everything is because when you get there, you just never know what
you're going to do. Okay. So what's that saying? It's like fail to
prepare, prepare to fail. You won't fail. Put
a little thought into it before you
get to your in.
4. Table Decor: Ideas for table decor. This is a fun one, but you
can get carried away here. You know, you go to events
and you're naturally drawn to the more aesthetically
pleasing tables, right? It it draws you in more. But you want to make sure that the emphasis is on the
items that are for sale. It's very tempting to pull out all the Halloween
decoration if you're a paranormal author or get a bunch of candles and
all kinds of fun things. But if you have too much decor and none
of it is for sale, you're taking a valuable space. So try and let your
product be the decor. There's different
ways you can do. What I recommend are getting some crates or some
displays for your books? So examples. This book crate always
comes with me to my events. It holds my books
straight up and it also serves as a stand. If I need to display the books, you can also use metal Hasels
these are at Michael's. These are Hgody'reeverywhere. They have cheaper
ones on Amazon. There's a ton you can do. There's really no wrong way. You just want to make sure that your customers are coming across a display
that's shoppable. Right? My customers can go in and they can pull
one right out of it. It's not stacked in such a way that they can't
even get the book out. Okay. That's what
I mean kind like taking it easy on
your table setup. Make sure you have
the customer in mind. What's also fun and what I
find really eye catching is when you have a light
source as decoration. So a lot of people will
use twinkle lights. I really like these
three packs of the LED flameless
candles, right? They're not real.
They're not going to pose a danger to the venue. I doubt very much that the
venue will allow you to bring regular lit candles. Remember batteries,
and if you have anything that uses like
a USB charging point, you can get the
little power banks that will keep that
charged up for you. So think of the nitty gritty. The time before the
event is when you can think of all these
little details, right? Something else I recommend
are bringing business cards. You know, and you can even get a cute business card holder. When I'm vending in October, I have a skeleton one when I'm vending for Valentine's
or miss smut books, I have little heart
shaped, you know, bowls. You can go silly with that
because that is a gravel, they can get your
business cards that way. It's important that even
if they leave the table, they have a way to contact you, tag you in pictures. If they bought something
at your table that's huge, it's going to be huge
for networking, right? One of the cool things about
vending your own books in person is you can
sign them, right? So it's super fun to offer
assigned books to people. Just remember, again,
break it down and say, Okay, if I'm going to sign
books, I need markers. If I have markers, I
need somewhere to keep the markers. It's
another opportunity. You can throw them on
the table, but it's another opportunity, put
them in something cute. Get a masonjar or something. Just think down to the
little details like that. Okay. Just as an aside, and I'll mention this later when
I get to the day of. But you'll be talking
a lot at this event. So I always set aside
a space at the back for mints and a bottle of water. My phone, portable charger
that I mentioned is a great bring to an event because you
may not be near a plug. You may be away from your car
if you have a car charger. Day gets chaotic as
you sign things, you're bumping things
out of the way. So just make sure
you're taking care of your physical needs while you're talking to
people all day long. Because it gets really tiring. So decorate your table, have fun with it,
keep it shoppable. Keep it aesthetically
pleasing, um, and add some little
touches that will make you stand out to shoppers amongst all the other vendor tables.
5. Nail Your Signage: Signage. Signage keeps things simple for your
customers and for you. If you have a nice big
sign of who you are, your pricing of
different things, and maybe your different titles, that will save a lot of conversations that might
not necessarily need. A lot of shoppers will
want to talk to you. They'll want to
come to your table and tell you about
their experiences, ask you about yours, ask you, which one of your
books is the favorite? What should they get if they want to get one of your books. But a lot of customers will not want to talk, and that's fine. There's a lot of different
people in the world, right? Nice, clear signage will help those customers get
the information they need without
having to talk to you. So I always recommend
a large sign with your name and who you are, a nice picture of you because
they'll literally go, Oh, okay, that's you, you know, super big font. Even if you think it's too big, there will be people
from six feet away who aren't sure if they want
to approach your table and they'll be squinting
to read your sign. Okay. You can even get the
floor stand signs. They have table hangs, they have tablecloths with names on them. Those are a little pricier. And if you're just vending one time and you
want to see how it goes, don't feel like you
have to get that, you absolutely don't use
them for my who I am sign. I have a graphic for all of my titles and a quick
summary of all of them. I also have a huge printout of my Venmo PR code that has saved me from conversations with people trying
to spell my name. If you have a complicated
to spell name like me, Mallory Sawinsky, it will help the conversations and the sales point go a
lot faster for you. So again, the
signage is helpful. It's another table
decor for you, but it's also a way for
you to just be like, Hi, this is why I have a table, and this is why you should
give me money because I know what I'm talking
about. I deserve to be here.
6. How much Stock to Bring: How much stock to bring? This is probably the
number one question that I get as someone who
does a lot of book ending. I, I want to bring enough stock. I don't want to sell out, but
I also don't want to spend a bunch money on books
that won't sell. Okay. So my answer always starts with your books
will not expire. If you come home with some stock after your
book vending event, that's okay. All right. You'll probably have more
events in the future, and you can always choose
to sell your copies online. You can sell them on Etsy, your Shopify, you can sell them in your Instagram stories. You can bring them
if you're doing consignment at a Brick
and Mortar bookstore, like I talked about in
my other tutorials, it's okay as an author to
have some stock of your book. That being said, totally get it. You know, money's tight, especially for self
published authors and you don't want to spend all your money
and just be behind the eight ball for an event where you're
hoping to make money. Especially because
at most events, you probably had to
pay for your spot. So you don't want to be hauling around a bunch of books
that you didn't sell. Totally, totally get it. There's no specific answer. I know everyone wants
a formula for what? This is how big the event is, and this is where my table
is and how many do I bring? It just depends on
a lot of things. I know you don't
want to hear that. But bottom line, you want your table to look
relatively full, okay? And that can mean a lot
of different things. I kind of always
jokingly say it's like shopping at Spirit Halloween on, like, October 29, right? Like, they sold most of
their big animatronics. But they have the cheapy blow up ones because they don't want you to walk
into, like, an empty store. So you need your cheapy blow up option for when you sell
all your big ticket items. Okay? Now, how many to bring mostly depends on
how many titles you have on your backlog. Okay. And how long
the event runs. Not to mention the
popularity of the event. If you have one or two
books under your belt, you're going to want, obviously, more of each of those two books than if you have like three or more titles. Putting up a sold outsign
could kind of be like, Oh, man, she's popular. She had to put up a sold
out sign on that title. I better get on Amazon or Barnes and Noble and
check that out, right? So me personally
for shorter events, knowing that my main stock
when I'm vending is books. And when I say shorter
event, I mean, like two to 4 hours. I will usually bring
about 20 copies of my most popular book and kind
of dial it back from there. If I'm bringing five titles, I might go like 20, 15, ten, so on and
so forth, okay? Some of my titles I
don't really ever bring. I have a children's book. I don't bring that to
restaurant events so much, maybe I should, but
that's totally up to you. You don't have to represent
all of your titles. If you are going to an October event and
you write paran books, but you also write, you know, sappy cozy romance,
maybe you don't have to bring the romance
book. It's okay. It's up to you what
you want to bring. So for longer events, you know, if I have
a six hour event, I might bump the
number up to 30. And again, longer events
and bringing more stock, I am okay with coming
home with more backstock, but maybe I need to schedule another book event right
on the heels of that one. Remember, if you're speaking at the event at which
you are vending, you are more likely
to sell more books. I will invariably drive sales. So maybe if you're speaking, I would add at least ten
copies to your pile. No. Again, that's
totally optional, but just something
to keep in mind. To, if you're very personable, if you know that you're kind of you draw attention
to yourself, you might sell more than
someone who's a little quieter. And that's okay. You just
need to kind of know yourself and what your vending
personality will be like. Are you more likely to talk
to a big group at one time, a bunch of people who
come to your table, or do you kind of do one
on one or maybe you're a little quieter and it's more convincing and having
that connection. Either is fine. Authors span a whole range of personalities, and one is not
better than another, but it's just something
you need to think of when you're thinking of
how many books to bring. But Mallory, what if I sell out of books and I have
nothing left to sell? You're not, I got you. Okay. If you are truly worried about selling out
of all of your books, first of all, congratulations.
That's awesome. You just made a fortune. You can always offer something
called book plates. I talked a little bit about this on my social media recently. But a book plate is literally a nicely designed
piece of paper, index card size or a sticker. You can sign that you can customize it for the person
who comes to your table. You can autograph it,
sign it for them, maybe write a nice little note, and you can offer this for a slash rate like half of
what you charge for the regular or you can even
offer it for free if you want to be that
nice or two bucks. What I like about
having book plates and I've only ever had
to use them one time. But when you sell out of a book and someone
comes up to your table, you really want to make that
connection with them, right? So even if they can't get your
book, they can go online. It's it's still
available for sale, but they wanted to have
that connection with you. Offering the book plate allows
them something tangible to take home and a memento of their time
with you at the table, which is what is going to
be most memorable for them. Then when they go home and they order your book online,
when it arrives, they can either peel the sticker off and put it in there or
just slide it in there. But then when they
see it, they'll have the same experience as getting the actual books signed if they were there
with you tableside. So not only is that
a nice gesture, you know, as an author to
connect with your reader, but also it's nice coverage if you're genuinely
worried about selling out or you don't want to order that many
copies of your book, either based on confidence
or just size of the event. But please don't
undercut yourself. And not order books because
you think they won't sell. Give yourself a shot. Don't listen to Imposter
Syndrome, okay? If you got books to be an
event, someone believes in you, the event organizer is not
going to waste table space on someone that they
don't think will do well at their event. Okay? So you need to get behind yourself and
say, You know what? I am going to sell these things. Even if I don't said I can sell them online
and I can do this. So order enough that you feel confident like,
look at my table. It looks so good in full, and these books are awesome and here's what you will
like about them. If you're going to vend,
you got to go in like you deserve to be there and people should be
buying these books. That's where you start.
When you ask yourself, how many books do I bring?
7. Vary Up Your Merchandise: I want to talk about
not just selling books, even if you only sell books. So just like the
bookplate tactic, you should bring items that aren't only the main commodity that's going
to be your table, bookish items that
I will often bring just so that I have
something to offer, right? Offering customers
different types of items at different price points
will draw more people in. Sometimes people who I don't
read or I don't like books. They'll just skip your
table altogether. However, if you have
other items that are related to reading to being bookish, there are so many. I'm going to talk about
that in a minute. It will bring them to your table and they will start
to look at things, and the longer they stand there, the more you have a chance to make a connection with them. That is where yes, the
sales are going to come, but that's also
where the networking and the fun is going to come. And that you make
it fun for them. It's more fun for you. You don't want to
stand at a table, not talk to anyone all day. The reputation for a
mean author, right? So even if you didn't
make them yourself, you can still sell them,
that's totally fine. You can sell bookish stickers. You can sell candles. I often collaborate with a genius candle making
friend of mine, and I make labels for my
books that I put on candles, and I sell those
alongside my books. Um, you can sell ornaments that you make on like a cricket device or hand paint. You can sell small
Ziberb pouches. There are so many things
that you can offer for sale to draw people in or
give them more to look at. Amazon has great collections of bookish vinyl stickers
for water bottles. If you're really into it, you can even put full
book boxes together. If they come up
and they say, Hey, I want to buy this
book and they're like, I like this one. You have the option
to upsell if that's in your personality
and you can say, Oh, hey, you can get this, but if you want the immersive
reading experience, I have this book
and this candle, maybe like some tea sachets, you throw in a bookmark,
a scented candle, some wax melts, something and you can call your
immersive reading experience. You make a book box. These are very popular online, but you can sell
them at your table. And you can see, like, Oh, I have limited
quantities of these. They're only about $10 more
if you want to grab these. So you can get creative. They can get your book and be happy with your signed book. You should be signing every book that you
sell, by the way. Um, but think of different levels and what
you can offer everyone. So don't just limit yourself to the books that you're
selling when you're vending. Offer your customers and potential customers an array of things to peruse while
they're at the table.
8. Pricing Your Merchandise: Pricing your commodities, your items so that you are making a profit and
that you are walking away, feeling like you've
made a good decision financially vending
at this event. Some great tips for
pricing are number one, offering, like I
said previously, is offering different
price levels. This will help prevent
walker awaers. If you only offer one item
and that item is $50, it's going to be
very difficult for you to draw in the
casual lookers. Even casual lookers will buy two for $1 stickers
sometimes, right? Every little bit
helps, especially if you had a table fee. A little bit toward
knocking down that fee and starting to get back into the red or the black
is a good idea. Out of the black and into the
red is where we want to go. You want to display your pricing on a nice big clear board. I have a letterboard, so
customers don't have to ask. Sometimes just having to ask what something
costs is enough for a customer to be like,
forget, I'm not doing. I do that too,
when I'm in stores and I'm like, it doesn't
have a price tag. I'm not talking to
someone. Avoid that, make your pricing very clear. And you could have a
one centralized spot. You don't have to put price
tags on each of your items. Do you just want to keep
the shopping experience as simple as you can
for your customer? Like I said, offer
lots of price points. In addition to that,
free things are great, business cards, candy. You can find candy. Now don't go more into
the red for this, but if you can find candy that's themed for you, how fun is that? You know, I love
themed anything, and I swear Amazon or, you know, the Oriental
trading company. There are so many cool, cute
inexpensive themed things, and those little
touches are really makes the vending
experience special. And remember, even though
you're selling the stickers, I will often do two for dollar stickers just
because that gets someone at the table and they're looking through piles
of stickers forever. The longer they're there, the more time I have to
talk to them, okay? And if they start to walk away, it'll be like, Did
you want a sticker? They'll be like, Oh,
yeah, like, grab one. It costs you cents, right? Like $0.10 for that sticker. But the kindness that you've
shown will stay with them. I'll be like, Oh, that was cool. Mallory Swinsky maybe I'll
look her up or they'll have just a good experience and a good association with you because you threw
them that ball. That didn't cost you
very much, right? Now, after saying that, if someone who just spent $10 on stickers is still
there at the table, you probably don't want to
offer this guy right here. Oh, grab it for free.
That's $10 for you, right? So, have some self awareness if you're gonna be
throwing cheap, like, cheaper or, like, a quick off the cuff
discount to people. Just be mindful of who's around. You don't want to be showing preference or leaving
anyone out, okay? That could lead to lots
of sticky situations. As far as actual
pricing of your books, keep it simple, okay? I know on Amazon, like down to the sense. I'm like, Oh, this is going
to be 17 49 where it's 15 99. What I do is when
I'm at an event, my thick books are 20 bucks. If it's a novella, they're ten. What's very nice is if they bundle and they
get two of your books, knock a couple dollars off, or you can even put
that on your signage. I will usually do one book, 20 bucks, two books 35,
something like that. Again, you're
trying to upsell in really simple ways that your customer will be like,
Oh, that was so nice. Make sure you offer to
sign all the books. Ask them if if they
want it signed, not all of them do, and then ask them if they
want it personalized because it might
not be for them. Once you ask them
if they want it personalized, ask
them how to spell it. I don't care if
the guy's name is Dave or the girl's name
is Beth. Ask them. You want to get
it right by them. Okay? But also, what
you don't want to do is have to take the book that you just screwed up spelling their name
and put that down. Now that is unsellable. That is your personal
copy of that book, and then you have
to pull from the stock and get them another one. So just double check and don't
sign until they have paid. I'll get someone who's excited and you get a little vibe off them
and they're like, Oh, just sign it for
Betty. Where's my card? I will just be like, okay, and I'll wait until the payment goes through
until I sign it, because once I sign it, I
can't unless by some miracle, another Betty comes rolling
up and wants this exact book. Signed by me. I'm stuck with that book, right?
I got to eat that. So sign them. But don't do it until the
payment goes through. We're going to talk
about collecting payment in the next lesson. So just read the room, make your pricing easy to understand, especially if you're going to be somewhere where there's alcohol. No one wants to be doing math, adding, 17 to 14. Just lump your books
together in person. You can do whatever you
want online, but keep pricing in person. Simple.
9. Payment Options: Collecting payment. Most
shoppers these days will be content with cash and a digital option like VMO if
you're in the US or PayPal. I would definitely
recommend, like I said, having that QR code right there so you can just
like hold up the sign. That way, they're not typing in things while people
line up behind them. It's just so much easier to have the QR code
for them to scan. That being said, you want
to check the Wi Fi status. Like I said, earlier
in the lesson, you want to make sure
that you have a reliable Internet connection
because, oh, my gosh, going to some events
and waiting for the VMo I've lost interest in whatever it was I was buying
by the time the VNmo worked. When you're waiting
for someone's Vo, don't let them leave the
table until it comes through. You don't have to
be like, wait right there and you don't have
to grip their book. But just be like, Oh, let me make sure
that went through. Oh, crazy VNMo. It takes a while sometimes.
Cover your butt. Don't let them leave the
table, especially with more than one book until the pay mas come through.
Most people are cool. But, get your money. Make sure that you
do that, okay? Depending on how often
you are going to vend, and this is not
something you need to do the very first time you vend, but you can invest in a square card reader looks
right to your phone. That way you can
take credit cards. This is a good option. Again, if you're
going to vend a lot, but a lot of older people don't have Venmo
and PayPal handy. We don't always roll
up to these events with a lot of cash on
hand to make change. I've had, you know,
sweet little old men hand me $100 bill for,
like, a $10 book. I'd love to give you the book, but I don't have $90
in change, okay? It was like my second
sale of that day. So, you know, there's nice ways to say
everything and you can't offer everything that a regular brick and
mortar bookstore would offer, but consider that if you're
going to be vending a lot. Okay. So give people
lots of options, but don't bend over backwards and make a bunch of crazy sales for your very first
vending event. You know, the two
digital options as well as cash is
usually plenty. Okay.
10. The Day Of: The day of the event. So get a good night's sleep and eat a good meal
before you begin. Because once you start the event and people
are at your table, sometimes it's hard to
step away for a bite, even if your events
at a restaurant. Trust me on that one. You
can even bring snacks. I would highly recommend
that Grinol bars, something you can take
bites of in between customers that isn't
a big gross sandwich. Wear comfortable shoes
and layered clothing. So obviously, keeping in
mind if it's inside or outside, prepare for weather. But depending on how
busy the event gets, and if there is open windows, you're outside or, you know, there's a door to a patio
nearby, it could get very hot. You don't want to drip
sweat down your nose when you're signing a book, Rose. When it comes to chatting with people who
come to your table, you don't have to be
on all day long, okay? Um, but you do need
to be awake and vibrant and at least
ready to greet those who come to your table and want to have a conversation. Try to balance being available if they look
like they want to talk, versus someone who's
just browsing. You don't want to kind
of hover and be like, can I help you? Can I help you? No
one likes that. You can tell when someone
comes to your table, whether or not they really
want to engage with you. Just play off of them. Try not to make
them uncomfortable. I will usually kind of
pretend to be busy, you know, I'll kind of keep a side eye on them and
arrange my markers. Um and you'll develop some lines that you'll have that you'll
say over and over and over that get people chatting. So if someone's looking at
my stuff kind of seriously, if they pick up a book
and they read the back, that's enough for me
to engage with them. There's little things
that you can pick out that are neutral, not going to anger anyone, but something you can connect on get a conversation going. It doesn't have to
start about your book. If you have a genuine
compliment to pay someone, you can do that just be genuine. Don't just start being like,
Oh, I love your purse, but if they have
really cool nails, you're like, Oh, your
nails are amazing. And then sometimes they'll
talk enough where you can cycle back around and be
like, Are you a big reader? Funny a line that I
will often say when I'm talking about my horror books that usually
gets to laugh, I'll be like, Are
you as weird as me? And that who kind
of crack a smile enough that you can get
a conversation going. So remember that if someone walks away and
they're like, Thanks. It's not against you. They might just be browsing
and that's why they're there. They might not be into the books that you
sell. It's okay. Don't take it personally.
Just, you know, don't go for that hard
sell all the time. Look for that real connection, what you can connect
with people on. And sometimes they will end up just buying the
book because they like you and they enjoy the moment and they want to
see what you have to say. You don't always have
to be like, do you like books? Do you like reading? Relax, there's other
things to talk about and that
casual conversation can be really fruitful. Okay.
11. Conclusion: In conclusion, when it
comes to vending, have fun. I know it's work and I know
you're there to make money. But if you have
fun and you create a positive vibe at your table and you make
those connections, people will remember
you and you can build up your network down the road. Any exposure as a
creative is positive. You just have to create
that good memory and that good experience for the customers that
come to your table. And don't ignore the ones
who don't buy anything. Don't you stop being mean the second they put the book
down, they don't get it. Don't disengaged, feel like, Have a good one. Grab
a sticker if you want. Grab a business
card, tag me online. It's a great idea to
continue that connection. If they buy your book, be
like, Hey, it means so much, while you're signing you
can be like I would be great if you left your
review, if you enjoy it. Tag me on social media, grab my business
card or you know, when they buy your book, slide your business card in
with the signature. Throw some stickers in there. Make the good experience
for your customers, and the event organizer
will see you going that extra mile and they will invite you back again
and again and again. Vending can be
incredibly lucrative. You can make more in a
night of vending books one night than you will in months of
royalties off Amazon, if that's where your
book is listed. I speak from experience. When you're ready to
wrap up your event, make sure you have an exit
plan to wheel carts or little suitcases are invaluable
depending on how far the parking is to wherever
you are doing the vending. Make sure you check in, say hi and bye to your
fellow vendors, give them shoutouts
on social media, build those connections
with people. After vending, you
get everything home, get some sleep,
drink some water. And the next day or
even that night, remember to reach out to the
event organizer privately, send him email, shoot them a DM, thank you for
the opportunity. Give everyone you can a
shout out on social media, including your customers, if you've got any
selfies with anyone. All of these things help
build your network, which, if you're noticing a theme, if you've taken more
of my tutorials, your community and your
network, is invaluable. Not just for business
and making money, but just for your
own peace of mind, your own support system. You never know, you know, who is going to be a close friend that you just
haven't met yet. And I know that sounds
lame. I don't care. You want to have fun
and be yourself and be engaged vending is an
amazing opportunity. So I'm so excited for you. I'm excited if you
have vending lined up, if you've got some ideas going, go for it. Message
that restaurant. Spell out that application for the next con that's
in your town. If there's one far away
and you really want to do and you're
excited, apply to it. You can always decide if
it's not going to work out for you or the expenses of
traveling are too much, you don't have to do it, but you will not get in if
you don't apply. So go for it, bring those books, sell
those books, have fun. I'm excited for you.
Mallory Cywinski, Author, Publisher, & Your Cheerleader
