My Weekend at the Generation Rising Authors Booth

Last weekend, six independent authors and I came together to form a booth at our local homeschool convention selling ten different titles. We had a profitable and encouraging weekend (and a ton of goofy fun to boot)! Here’s a recap. 😉

Thursday night, we were blessed to hitch a ride to set-up with another author’s family. We carried boxes of stock into the convention center and set up our table arrangement for the next day.

My brother’s novel and my newest release side by side! One of our authors who was selling World War II fiction had a welded Star of David (with a cross inside ❤ ) and a swastika on the table near her book. I decided I wanted props as well. Mom kindly took me to Hobby Lobby where I picked up two metal arrows and galvanized tin paint to make them look the proper shade of silver. 😀 I think they turned out pretty awesome. You can see them in some of the pictures I’ll share later in this post. 😉

The next morning, our whole family bumped along in our fifteen passenger van with a friend we were giving a ride, a golden retriever puppy (training to be a service dog and representing a service dog school), way too much food, more decorative items for the booth, and two bookshelves. (Surprise!) We arranged our extra stock on the bookshelves behind the table for easy access and cool factor. You think it looks pretty? I wish I had a picture of when we started selling out of some books! 😀

Like our snazzy business cards? The first day was pretty slow, but we handed out a lot of business cards and had some great conversations. (Like if Hobbes from the comic books is a pooka or Calvin’s imaginary friend and what the best series of all time is. Not to mention Superlapsarianism and independent publishing. 😀 Mom said our booth looked like a constant party.) Many people also promised to stop by again the next day.

Which must have been the truth because on Saturday we were SWAMPED!! Just look at all those customers! (We met some very special people. One of my favorites was an older man with dyslexia who was excited about learning to read his Bible.) It got pretty crowded inside the booth with seven authors, three other “sales reps”, and a few friends that stuck with us just because. (That’s me in the pink shirt squeezing past someone to grab an author to come sign their book.)

There were a few times when some of us left to explore the exhibit hall and meet, encourage, and buy from other vendors. One of my favorite authors, Rebekah Jones, was there, so I enjoyed hanging out with her and her chocolate. 😉 It was also really funny walking past the Army recruiters and noticing that they were eating pink ice cream cones. Something new every day! 😛

We were very busy up until the last few minutes, but we managed to take a group picture (thanks to the awesome sister of one author!). Doesn’t our table look sooo pretty? I think we did a great job. 😉

 

We decided to take a picture holding up our books, but the two “sales reps” weren’t sure what they should hold. I handed them the receipt book and calculator at the last second because even if they aren’t published (yet) they still did a ton to make this booth happen!

Left to right: Elijah holding the receipt book (our CEO–chief encouragement officer and one of the main young men who headed us up), Paul holding Crossroads (he sold out! He was also our other header-upper and graphic designer for the website and promotional materials), Anna with the calculator (sales and sister support, also collecting candy from other tables 😀 ), Maggie holding The Star Under the City (our bestseller, high five!), C.L. holding Garden Day and Levi’s Grouchy Day (gotta love picture books!), Yours Truly holding The Treasure Hunt and The Twin Arrows, Susie holding The Mystery of the Mansion and True (congrats on two books!), Justus with His Father’s Command (he also sold out), and Tanner holding The Blue Blur (major hit since it’s about a Christian superhero!). Not pictured: Malachi another sales rep and super-encourager.

We look forward to adding his, Elijah’s, and Anna’s upcoming books to our website Generation Rising when they publish them!

It was a great weekend, and we all feel very blessed and tired! 😉 We’re already making plans for next year. 😉

(Thanks to Emily, Gabby, Anna, and Perry Elisabeth for taking pictures! We didn’t have the time or brain space.)