Arts and Crafts Festivals swing into high gear during the Fall and Winter Holidays. We will be going to a festival almost every weekend from October through December. My excitement every Saturday when a festival opens for visitors rivals Christmas morning for a six-year-old. Talking to readers is my jam. After all, my motto is You keep reading; I’ll keep writing!
GEORGIA PEANUT FESTIVAL
The morning was windy and cold, but we had our river rocks to keep the book pages from blowing. It warmed up by afternoon, of course! We experimented with our corner booth and added a few books on the side table.
ELEVATE ARTISANS MARKET
The person who had reserved the space next to us was a no-show, so since we learned about the advantage of having a “corner” booth, we moved a large table into the space. We loaded down the side table with duplicates of the series we stacked on our front table and added the new books from this year that we didn’t have space for on the front table.
We sold almost as many books to readers who stood at the “side” table (see the table with the black tablecloth?) to browse the books as we did to readers who looked at the books on the front table.
Lesson learned: people are comfortable taking their time to look at books if they don’t feel crowded.
What we’ll do: Double booths, so we can have two “side” tables in addition to our front table. We have a second canopy tent, and I had already ordered a duplicate banner after the Georgia Peanut Festival that we planned to use when we had a corner booth.
Sometimes a plan comes together, even though it was never a plan to start with.
Our next event, Calico Holiday Festival in Moultrie GA, is November 9 and 10 and is inside, so we won’t need our tent(s). However, when I submitted our vendor form in June, I requested two booths next to each other as an experiment. We carefully planned our set up, and I have a sketch of it taped on the side of my bookcase that is next to my desk, but the sketch will be changing to two side tables and two front tables similar to our Elevate Artisans set up.
Another Experiment
I’ve added a Gift Shop to Barrett Book Shop with reader-related merchandise that was inspired by different Judith A. Barrett books. Check it out. Barrett Book Shop Gift Shop
Our event after Calico is the Seafood Festival in St. Marys GA. As another experiment, I asked the St. Marys festival organizers if we could sell our reader-related totes in addition to all our books, and they approved them!
Here’s a sample:
Maggie Sloan Thriller Series readers will recognize Tonya and Kiki, her fierce, tiny (imaginary?) dragon that sat on her shoulder.
Browse, shop, and enjoy the NEW Gift shop!
You keep reading; I’ll keep writing!
Judith A. Barrett - Author 
Whew. We got Helene too – 5 days with no Internet, landline or TV and 2 and a half days of now power and therefore no lights or water! Thank goodness I charged my Kindle ahead of time!
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I’m sorry to hear what a rough time it was for you! No power is the worst because everything in the freezer thaws, and we never realize how important running water is until we don’t have it. I’m glad that’s behind you now. Being able to read was definitely your silver lining!
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