This year I found out more and more that «small is beautiful »: short and sweet events work better for me, an indie SF author and artist, as the big-city bookfairs where you are lost in a sea of authors.
Advantages of the short & sweet events:
- The table fees are way less expensive (often under 100$ or even free in some events)
- The short driving distance from home means not having to stay at an expensive hotel.
- The public going there will be made of “niche” public who already appreciate your genre.
- The duration is often a single day.
- In a smaller exhibition space, people who get there take the time to *look* at the booths.
- The quality of the interactions with the readers is better.
Challenges with the short & sweet events:
- Getting your stuff and banners on site! This time I had the help of my husband to get me to the south of Mississauga.
- The cost in personal energy and time can be variable. See the examples below. It is not something I will do in my 80s.
- The sales might not be as high as you expect. (But there are other advantages like meeting new fans.)
- the table location can be inaccessible to most of the public (in one library event my table was on a fourth-story, while the public stayed mostly in the 1-2 lower levels.) See sales point.
Some Examples
Surprises at the Grafficker Alley!
A simple graphic art event in September 12th turned out to be a joyful event.
The Grafficker Alley (organized by Anime North) allowed me to meet the public and present my comic books and a few books and short-story collections along with the graphic novels. A lot of students like to practice their French, so I sold the French version of a graphic novel! Even my historical novel at Les Éditions David (le Kaiju de Mississauga, found their readers!
The venue was the Small Arms Inspection Building, a place with large large floor-to-ceiling windows, so the light was good. grosse valise à rouettes pleine de livres! All on floor level, so very accessible when you have to drag a book-filled suitcase… and my banners (top photo).
It was a simple day event in my city, so I asked the husband to drive me and my stuff there. I dismounted my display in a record time and managed to carry everything using the transit system (Shoot-out to the Mississauga Transit MiWay!)
Même mon roman historique chez Les Éditions David (le Kaiju de Mississauga, en-dessous de l’affiche Ruego sur le présentoir rouge) a trouvé preneur ! Bref, j’en suis revenue avec une valise plus légère!
The Safran
I attended my first Safran in 2024, then 2025, but this year the grants were late, so the organizers managed with a lot of will to get a free venue, and mounted a full one-day program (instead of three) on a Saturday in March, at St. Catharine’s, ON. We were four authors, and here is me at my table, signing a graphic novel.
I remember also mini-exhibitions in the street close to the Image Collection Comic Book Store in Mississauga, in a cinema, at an outdoor movie presenting a superheros flick… All left good impressions.
The most important…
Are the new people we get to know. My table neighbors were young artists (and I bought one of the painting that had not found its public atthe end of the day.)
I had the unexpected pleasure to meet two Toronto Science-fiction fans, the editor of Amazing Stories Lloyd Penney and his partner Yvonne. They had themselves a lot of experience in those events, and left with two books. Lloyd even push the nicety to pay me in 5$ bills, so I could offer change to the next fans (who had mostly 20$ in hand.). That small attention went to my heart. Thanks Lloyd and Yvonne! You can support the online magazine here with Patreon.
And when I have a fruitful conversation with a fan, I often ask to leave their name in my honor notebook (which is my writer’s notebook). So my notes are in pencil, but I give a nice color of pen for the fans to use.
This is really for my joy. I have colorful signatures in carnets dating from 2006!
A good reference
My colleague Mark Leslie Lefebvre who is a indie pro attending both big and small events since 30+ years offers a lot of advice with “A Book in Hand.” (From the saying “a bird in hand is worth two birds in the bush”). Here is the link to the ebook and the Kickstarter campaign for this book
At the time of writing this blog entry, Mark is attending the Sudbury Creature Kon, specialized in horror/fantastic, with a worthy table.
