I published the first novel in my supernatural sci-fi/fantasy series back in 2018. At the time, I was still working a full-time day job and learning how to navigate the overwhelming challenge of marketing my book. I was a self-conscious introvert who had experience in customer service but not in sales, and I was very uncomfortable talking about myself and my work.
Fast forward to 2025, and I’m only a few months away from releasing the fourth novel in my award-winning series while juggling an average of 40-50 events every year. I set up my booth at various markets, art fairs, festivals, Comic-Cons, Renaissance faires, gaming conventions, and other events in the Midwest.
Compared to my low return on investment with digital marketing campaigns, I’ve found much more success in a personal, grassroots approach where I can meet people in person, show them my books and art, engage with them in conversations, and build meaningful connections. There are so many books on the market, and people are inundated with so many ads every day that it takes a LOT to break through that noise with digital campaigns. Meeting readers in person has a much more valuable impact when it comes to not only book sales, but also turning readers into true fans who are excited to support you.
It took me several years of hard work and trial-and-error to develop my brand and feel confident talking to people at these events. Don’t get me wrong — I’m still a self-conscious introvert! — but I’ve learned various techniques, strategies, and talking points to help me sell more books, and in this post, I’ll share some of those tips with you.
**This article contains affiliate links.
1. Develop a Unique, Eye-Catching Aesthetic
In another blog post earlier this year, I shared some ideas to help authors develop a cohesive and eye-catching brand aesthetic for their booths.
Whether you’re setting up a table at a local book fair or a full-size booth at Comic-Con, you have a limited amount of space to catch the attention of passersby. Every vendor around you is also competing for their attention. You don’t necessarily need to be flashy in order to stand out, but you DO need to have an engaging, cohesive, visually pleasing display that makes people pause and want to take a closer look.
In my case, I accidentally became known as “the girl with black feathers” after I started utilizing feathers as a simple prop for my social media photos and table early in my career. From there, I slowly built up my personal aesthetic by adding a fantasy forest backdrop, a pair of crows (Onyx and Shadow), a spiraling tower of my books, art, maps, and even a small vaporizer that glows orange to mimic the look of flames and smoke. At relevant events, I also cosplay in my protagonist’s outfit.
At a minimum to start, you’ll definitely want to invest in a vertical banner so your name and relevant information is large, visible, and easy to spot. I had originally started with a horizontal vinyl banner but quickly realized that I often didn’t have a wall behind me to attach it, so a retractable vertical banner was a much better way to utilize space. Caution, though: if you’re doing outside events, they don’t hold up very well against the wind and need to be secured!
(I ordered mine from Vistaprint, but there are a lot of comparable options on Amazon for less.)
Don’t stress about building an elaborate display at all once. If you can, take some time at events to browse the best booths and pay attention to why those particular displays are working. I built up my booth display over several years. Do it incrementally, one step at a time. You might experiment with different ideas and then pay attention to customer reception. If something isn’t working, change it!
2. Initiate Conversations
One of the biggest blunders an author can make is hiding behind their table without making eye contact or engaging with potential customers.
Trust me, I know — most of us are introverts, and adopting a confident social mask that goes against our natural instincts can be nerve-racking! One of my rookie mistakes in the beginning was assuming that other customers preferred the same treatment that I wanted as a shopper. When I roam down aisles browsing booths, I don’t necessarily want to engage with vendors and feel pressured to converse or make a purchase.
But from a seller’s standpoint, making that initial person-to-person contact truly does make a world of difference.
I recently spoke with author, game designer, and public speaker Bryan Donihue about his experiences at various conventions. He talked about the importance of engagement and how that simple strategy shift enabled him to easily outsell other authors at events, sometimes by 10x or more when comparing book sales afterward!
While his competition sat behind their tables and scrolled on their phones, completely disengaged unless a customer took the initiative and asked them about their books, he changed the layout of his booth so he could sit in front of his table and make valuable face-to-face connections with people. He then took it a step further with a unique marketing approach:
“Instead of hiding behind the table and merch, vendors at shows and events need to be out front and available to connect with the passersby. We use a small card that has some short literary form on it to hand out to everyone who passes.
Our current card is a ‘Bigfoot Ballad’. When we hand someone a card and ask them, ‘Did you get our Bigfoot Ballad, yet?’ we make a connection to that person. Usually we get a smile or a quizzical look. But the most important reaction we get is when they stop and engage with us. When they stop, we get to have conversations and talk about our products. Having those conversations that lead to sales is worth far more than the few pennies each card costs us to hand out.
It’s all about conversations and introducing yourself and your wares to the passersby. That’s what drives sales. And you cannot do that by hiding behind your table and display.”
— Bryan Donihue, The One-Legged GM
There’s a reason I’ve found a lot more success with in-person events than digital marketing… and it’s those personal connections. When you can connect with a person, they aren’t just investing in your book; they’re investing in you.
That’s a tall order for authors who are introverts! It’s a lot easier to separate yourself from the process and try to let the book sell itself without too much personal involvement. After all, isn’t that the point of having a great cover and blurb on the back of your novel? So people will be intrigued by the cover, read the back, and eagerly make the purchase without you needing to say much?
But, as I discovered with my own strategies, and as Bryan proved time and again when he outperformed the authors around him, engagement and connections do have a direct impact on sales. If you can start a genuine conversation with someone, your chances of turning that interaction into a sale drastically increase. Even if it’s not a full sale right then and there, it could become a social media follow or newsletter signup that potentially turns into a sale down the road.
3. Showcase Your Genre & Comps
I was flabbergasted when I watched this strategy work in real time on my own assistant!
At the end of an event, we left my booth to visit another author, Spencer Hixon, across the vendor hall and do some networking. As we drew near, I noticed that he had a sign on his book that said: “Hazbin Hotel meets Good Omens.”
My assistant spotted it as well and exclaimed, “Good Omens and Hazbin Hotel? I LOVE both of those!” She immediately grabbed the book and read the back. Needless to say, she left the convention with an autographed copy in hand.
This inspired me to adopt a similar marketing strategy. I already had a sign under my books indicating 1.) the unique genre blend and 2.) the highlight that not only had the books won awards, but also that I was a local author.
(Bonus Tip #1: capitalize on the local aspect whenever you can! People love supporting locals! I’ve had people buy a book without even reading the back JUST because they were excited that I was local and they wanted to show their support.)
After observing firsthand how powerful and successful Spencer’s comps had been with my assistant, I decided to test out that method myself. I added a sign at the top of my first book listing three comps and then, for readers who were interested enough to want more, a short list of relevant keywords (example: “found family” and “morally gray characters”).
Right away, I overheard encouraging snippets of conversations when people recognized my comps and were drawn to the books. This method also helped to cut down on the amount of work I had to do to pitch the books in some cases since readers who enjoyed my comps already had a decent idea about what to expect with my book series.
I’m still experimenting with the way I display this signage, but I definitely recommend giving it a shot! Just make sure the comps you choose are at least somewhat well-known. If you pick a limited niche that people won’t recognize, you’re defeating the purpose of having comps in the first place.
Bonus Tip #2: display a QR code to sell the ebook and/or audiobook version of your novel. This encourages people who prefer digital books to download it right there when it’s top of mind… much better than handing them a business card or bookmark and expecting them to follow through later. As a bonus, you can sign up to be an Amazon affiliate so you earn extra revenue when customers use your link to make a purchase!
4. Master Your Sales Pitch
Also known as an “elevator pitch” (the amount of time it should take you to pitch your book during a short elevator ride with a stranger), this technique can be one of the most challenging marketing hurdles for authors. It seems like it should be easy, right? Just a short, snappy sales pitch, only a few sentences.
And yet, nothing screams “lack of confidence in yourself and your work” quite like clumsily tripping over your words or, even worse, boring a customer by droning on and on until they’re looking for an opportunity to escape.
The more you practice, the easier your sales pitch will flow. Ideally, you’ll pick up the skills to take cues from your listener and adapt the conversation as needed so it’s more of a back-and-forth discussion rather than a one-side promotion. For more tips about developing your go-to elevator pitch, read my blog post on this topic.
5. Offer Bundle Discounts
If you have multiple books and can afford to take a small hit to your profit margin, I highly recommend offering an event-exclusive bundle discount that encourages customers to buy multiple books from you at a time.
Your revenue will be higher when people purchase directly from you as opposed to ordering later from Amazon or other third-party retailers that take a large chunk of your profit, so if there’s a chance to convince a customer to buy several books right there at the event, take it!
Bundle discounts really do work. In some cases, people will still prefer to start with one book to see how they like it before they commit to more books or a full series. (And I totally understand because I’m the same way!)
But in others, people will jump at the opportunity for a deal. Especially for the chance to snag a set of autographed books directly from the author. I recommend a stacked bundle option, which is what I use. For each book that a customer adds to their bundle, they get an extra $5 off. This allows them to still get a deal even if they don’t commit to buying ALL of my books.
Another option is to offer an omnibus, which is a large volume containing several novels that were originally published separately. This is another technique that Bryan uses to great success (and one that I’m also considering now that I have enough books in my series for this). Bryan is able to upsell his omnibus by letting customers know that they can purchase his books individually or save money by purchasing them all together in a single volume. He saves money on print costs, and customers save money, too.
Have you tried any of these sales and marketing techniques? How did they work out for you?
If you’d like to connect and stay up to date with my books, blog, art, and more, sign up for my free monthly newsletter!
I'm an award-winning fantasy author, artist, and photographer from La Porte, Indiana. My poetry, short fiction, and memoir works have been featured in various anthologies and journals since 2005, and several of my poems are available in the Indiana Poetry Archives. The first three novels in my Chronicles of Avilésor: War of the Realms series have received awards from Literary Titan.
After some time working as a freelance writer, I was shocked by how many website articles are actually written by paid "ghost writers" but published under the byline of a different author. It was a jolt seeing my articles presented as if they were written by a high-profile CEO or an industry expert with decades of experience. I'll be honest; it felt slimy and dishonest. I had none of the credentials readers assumed the author of the article actually had. Ghost writing is a perfectly legal, astonishingly common practice, and now, AI has entered the playing field to further muddy the waters. It's hard to trust who (or what) actually wrote the content you'll read online these days.
That's not the case here at On The Cobblestone Road. I do not and never will pay a ghost writer, then slap my name on their work as if I'd written it. This website is 100% authentic. No outsourcing. No ghost writing. No AI-generated content. It's just me... as it should be.
If you would like to support my work, check out the Support The Creator page for more information. Thank you for finding my website! 🖤