In film, they say never work with children and animals, though they say nothing about the weather. That’s because they film mostly in studios and when outdoors they have the ability to shoot other scenes if affected by the weather. Sometimes they’ll just shoot in it no matter what.
Unfortunately, for my first ever market as an author, it was an outdoor event, scheduled to coincide with Sydney’s coldest day of the year thus far. To top it off, it was raining as well. As is fairly common knowledge, Melbournians will turn up in all kinds of weather but not Sydneysiders. They like their sunshine. Alas the public stayed away from Summer Hill Markets, which was a shame as the location by the old Flour Mill makes for a gorgeous location.
The company at least was good. There were four of us at the table, myself (Anthony J Langford) and fellow authors, Maria P. Frino, Conchita Santiago, (with her daughter) and Anna Ceguerra (with Scott), (from left to right in the photo). Having more of us at one table kept costs low, which was a definite advantage. The downside being if a potential customer did browse, there was many books to choose from which lessened the chance of anyone getting a sale.
Unfortunately, it was a zero for me and pretty disheartening. Only one book sold a few copies and that was a collection of stories about women by women, which appeared to be mostly for Mother’s Day presents.
We were all disappointed naturally but the weather was a significant factor. It was a fun and new experience however and you can’t put a price on that.
Thanks Anthony, this is a lovely blog post and thanks for the shout out too.