Book Fair Virgins (Good, Bad, Worth It?)

How To Survive, Stay Alive and Perhaps Even Thrive at Your First Book Fair

Will I Go To A Book Fair Again?

Yes. Enough said!

My Favourite Bits

1. Meeting other publishers – this was by far the best part of the fair for me. It can get quite lonely when you’re running a small business. I’m sure I’ll remain firm friends with all of the small / medium size publishers on the IPG stand that I had the pleasure of meeting.
2. Meeting the scary buyers – and realising they are only human (well most of them) and that even if they don’t like your titles it doesn’t mean they’re bad, just not right for them!
3. 

   Our author, Jo Parfitt, at The Lean Marketing Press shelves

   Meeting some of our authors – whilst email, skype and facebook can make you feel like you know someone (and some of those facebook photos can make you feel like you know someone a little too well!) it’s only in the flesh that you can get a real feel for a person. Jo Parfitt (www.joparfitt.com), Rintu Basu (www.thenlpcompany.com), Alison Clark (www.buteholisticbreaks.co.uk) and Nicola Caircross (www.themoneygym.com) all worked hard, had fun and helped me build the Lean Marketing Press brand – well done guys!

4. The IDEAS generated – at the fair and afterwards I’ve been full of ideas. What if we use this? How can we take advantage of that? How will that impact us? What do we need to do next? The synergy from a big trade fair like this can’t be beaten.
5. Learning from others – complacency can set in when you’re running a small publishing business (or a large one, I’m sure). It was great to see what our peers were getting up to.

What Would I Do Differently?

Well there are so many things it’s hard to know where to start.

1. Planning – I would start much earlier, take advantage of LBF & IPG marketing opportunities.
2. I would take more people – and give them specific goals & accountabilities. I really didn’t have enough time to visit all the stands I wanted to see, meet all the people and I never even got near a seminar room!
3. Timing – I would stay for the full 3 days. You cannot get it all done in 2 and a bit days – take advantage of the whole timespan, including all the stuff that happens on the Sunday prior to the show, which I didn’t see until after I’d booked my flight!

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