Network When You Can

If you have a product to promote and someone invites you to a venue to promote it, attending is most always worth the investment of your time.

This weekend was the 2nd annual Mad Anthony’s Writer’s Conference in Hamilton, Ohio, and it’s also the 2nd year I was invited to sit and sign my book, My Lost Summer.

Last year almost 60 Ohio authors signed at the Hamiltonian Hotel near downtown Hamilton. Still, with all that competition, I sold eight books throughout the day, and not just to would-be writers attending the conference, but to the general public, who were invited to step in off the street and browse the temporary store set up by Barnes & Noble.

This year the Hamiltonian is getting a designing overhaul, so the event took place at Miami University’s Hamilton campus. Fewer authors showed up to sign—40 or so by my estimate. And because the campus is out of the way, I think that not a single person browsed the books who didn’t also attend the conference—no general public.

However, I did sell three books, which is three more than I would have sold had I not attended. Also, lots of people stopped to chat with me and took bookmarks with my book’s information, so several of those people may order later.

A woman who bought my book teaches at a nursing school, and she told me that in one of her classes, she gives the students an assignment to read a book concerning medical care and report on it. She said my book would be a good one for the students to read and asked about ordering online.

So, the lesson learned is—Even though I only sold three books during an investment of five hours, lots of people collected bookmarks, and future sales will likely increase because of the contact at the nursing school; I should take every opportunity I can to reach the public about My Lost Summer.