A novel way to connect with readers

 This is a very quick post because I am already late with it and many other things need to be done. But I want to report on a very interesting a successful experiment that a group of local Ottawa authors tried yesterday. 

The first ever Ottawa Christmas Book Fair. It was the brainchild of enterprising Ottawa author Peggy Blair who pitched the idea in September and within a couple of days eight of us had signed on. Besides Peggy, there were Mary Jane Maffini, Brenda Chapman, Mike Martin, Amy Tector, Don Butler and John Delacourt. We rented a hall at a local legion for five hours and developed promotional activities like appearances on local radio and TV, write-ups in community newspapers and newsletters, and posted this poster all over time. With that many people, there were lots of imaginative ideas and useful contacts.

On the day of the event, we set up tables and decorated them in holiday themes. Each of us had our own table  and managed our own sales. We had baked or purchased goodies for a treats table, advertised the cash bar at the legion, and now we settled in to wait. We had no idea what to expect. Would anyone come? It's a work day and already getting dark by 4 pm.

They came! We were flooded with readers who'd come specifically to buy mysteries and each of us was kept on our feet and meeting readers for over three hours straight. I have no idea how many people came although Peggy estimated 150. I have no idea how many books I sold, but readers were leaving with armloads of books. I didn't even have time to eat anything nor visit my fellow authors to check out their books. By the end, we were all exhausted but so relieved and happy that it had gone so well.

Will we do it again? Absolutely. And plans are already underway for other collaborative, mystery-focussed events. So stay tuned.