At the Christmas Market
I banded together with a group of fellow authors on a table at a local Christmas Market yesterday. We were assigned a fantastic location right by the entrance (although it did get a little chilly!). Once our books were in place, we got to observed the crowd that came by.
It was my first attempt at hand selling my books (and I'm grateful that I could do this as a group). A lot of people stopped by and it was interesting to see what books they gravitated to. I’m well aware science fiction isn’t for everyone, but I was surprised at the number of people asking for mysteries.
The day left me with a couple of moments I’d like to share.
1 - The man of many hats
The table beside us was taken by two young women and their crocheted goods—mostly hats and gloves. Everything was delightfully chunky with great colours. Probably to their benefit, it was cold (we were near the front door after all). Plenty of people stopped by to try stuff on.
The man running the mac and cheese food truck outside regularly passed by delivering food to vendors. Every time he went by he looked at the crocheted goods on my neighbour’s table. On his head sat a chunky, probably hand made, green touque.
At the end of the day, he stopped at the table and picked up two hats—both green like the hat he was wearing. I was watching out of the corner of my eye as he began deliberating between the hats. He pondered the two of them for a few minutes and clearly, they were his style. In the end he bought both. Now I’m wondering if he has a closet full of green touques at home.
2 - a possible new fan
A young man (my guess is he’s in his early teens) circled our table multiple times looking at my book. Towards the end of the day, he read the back of it then moved on. A few minutes later, he came and read the back again, held it for a few minutes, put it back and left. A short distance away he chatted with who I assume is his mother, both of them looking at the book.
He came over and bought the book. I did tell him it was an adult book, and he said he was okay with that (Thinking back to the books I was reading at 13, my book is tame in comparison). He took the book an left.
A little while later, he came back holding the book. His cheeks flushed read as he looked at me. I assumed he was going to ask to return the book (which would have been fine). Then he asked me to sign his book and I did.
I really hope he enjoys it.