Making the Most of Book Festivals

Several cities around the country hold major book festivals, and even more have smaller book-related events in which authors can participate. Large or small, I encourage writers to take advantage of these as a way to meet readers face-to-face, pitch them on books, and even sell a few. More importantly, a reader who meets a writer in person and gets an inscribed book can often become a fan for life, buying each new release as soon as it’s available.

The festivals I’m most familiar with are the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in L.A. and the Tucson Festival of Books, which took place last weekend (and which some of you attended).

I was a bookseller in San Diego when the LA Times Festival got started, and my store exhibited there from its first year. Part of what draws people to a bookstore’s booth is author signings, so we always made sure to have a busy schedule of authors—some famous, others not so much, so the big names could draw attention to the lesser-known. Eventually, because the festival was so physically huge and well-attended, we expanded to two booths, the main one and a remote one just for signings for the festival’s invited speakers. That festival was always difficult to get a speaker’s slot at, because it focused on bestselling authors and celebrities (it is Los Angeles, after all). During my 11 or 12 years there, I only got a speaking slot once, but I signed in our booth every year.

By the time the Tucson Festival of Books was in its planning stages, I had moved to Arizona. I knew someone involved in the early planning, so was invited to offer advice based on the years of experience in L.A. I was a “presenting author”–meaning a speaker or panelist, from the first festival in 2009 to the last pre-Covid one in 2019. By then only four of us had presented every year of the festival’s existence: J.A. Jance, Thomas Perry, Luis Alberto Urrea, and myself.

The festival went virtual for two years, then was back to in-person this year. For reasons unknown to me, I wasn’t invited back as a presenter. The main advantages of presenting are a sweet parking spot, free lunches, and free snacks and drinks in the air-conditioned authors’ lounge. Also an audience, of course, though the size of said audience can vary depending on one’s status as an author, or the status of co-panelists.

But even without those perks, my wife Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell and I went anyway. For the last several years, we’ve participated in a kind of co-op booth comprised of Arizona-based writers who pitch in and share a large tent space. Most of the other authors in our booth write romance of one variety or another, so it’s not the perfect setup for us (our offerings are typically horror, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, poetry, and of course western), but we have friends in the booth and it’s a convivial, helpful atmosphere.

My pitching began even before the festival opened. Having ascertained during the 2019 festival that the night clerk at our usual hotel—at which many of you stay as well; after all, it is the Best Western Hotel—is a reader, this year upon check-in Friday night, I asked her if she read Westerns. She told me that it’s her favorite genre. I brought her an inscribed copy of O’Meara’s Gold, the first book in my Cody Cavanaugh series. When I saw her on Saturday night, she said, “I started your book, and then I ordered the second one and pre-ordered the third!” That’s how it should work, folks. To an avid reader, books are like heroin—if you can manage to make the first taste free, you can get ’em hooked. Incidentally, she won’t have to wait long for the third—Passage to Pedregosa goes on sale March 23.

The pitching continued through the weekend. I don’t have a set speech I give about every book—people can tell when it’s delivered by rote, and your booth-mates, if any, might be making fun of it before the weekend is over—but when people approach the table, I greet them and then let them take in visually what’s on offer. If it’s not of interest, they’ll move on. But if it is, then I offer to answer any questions, or if they gravitate toward a certain book I’ll give a concise description of it. Our best-seller last weekend was Blood and Gold: The Legend of Joaquin Murrieta, from Sundown Press. It has a very striking cover that caught people’s eyes even from some distance. When they had looked at it for a minute, I asked if they knew the story of Joaquin Murrieta. Many didn’t, but when I described it briefly, almost all of them bought it.

Readers want to see authors who look approachable—not staring at cell phones or engaged in deep conversation with their booth-mates, but smiling, friendly, standing up if possible (though the days do get long). They want to see attractive covers, representative of the book’s genre, well displayed. We try to give the tabletop three dimensions, so some books lie flat, but others are on a tiered rack or held up by small wire bookstands. If we have room, we bring some props. It doesn’t hurt to put out a bowl of candy or treats, but when a child goes for them, it also doesn’t hurt to ask a parent if it’s okay.

Another advantage of a big book festival is the networking opportunity it provides. Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to meet and spend time with my publisher at Wolfpack and some of the Wolfpack team, to have breakfast with the editors of Roundup and True West magazines, and to visit with many Western Fictioneers members in person, some for the first time.

I have a day job and do most of my writing on weekends, so a weekend away from the desk is costly (even without factoring in the hotel, meal, and table costs). But it’s a once-a-year experience that more than pays back, I believe, in more than enough ways to make it worthwhile. I hope those of you who attended feel the same way.