My first trip to the Venice, Florida Book Fair on Saturday was a good experience. Like other authors, I am always looking for new ways and venues to facilitate personal branding, share information with potential readers, do some book marketing and sell books. There were 46 people registered at this year’s authors event, which is held adjacent to the Venice Farmers Market. Overall, there was a steady flow of foot traffic with good interest from passersby. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. The scheduled event was to run from 10:00am-3:00 pm but by 12:10 there were darkening clouds and thunder. Within 30 minutes, the skies opened up. As I am others tried in vain to get everything packed and safely into dry cars, the torrents fell. That led to some water damaged boxes and totally drenched people. Even so, the day was a good learning experience. The lesson I learned was that for writers such as me who focus on predominantly business related, non-fiction books, they are not a match for this venue. Most people coming by were retirees no longer in the workforce. Not surprisingly, the books of most interest from my offerings were Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors and 231 Ways to Say I Love You…and Mean It.
