Well I hope you all enjoyed the sunshine over the bank hoiliday weekend. On Saturday I was stuck in my bookshop all day, and on Sunday I had, in a mad moment agreed to do the Tonbridge Garden and Home Show. When I say do, what I mean is, I'd booked a table at the event; this was an experiment and one which was going to cost me my Sunday off (for the second week in a row) and the not inconsiderable sum of £61.10, being the fee for stall for one day and the hire of a tressle table. I did get some valueable advertising to an audience which I would estimate to have been around 1,500 people. Alot more than the average book fair, but nowhere near the 16,000 across three days which the organisers claim on their web site. They let me put my board up on the Saturday and my delivery bike with its advertising sign near the entrance. I put a great deal of thought into what books to take: gardening (well duh!) also craft, woodwork, country pursuits, natural history, art, birds, butterflies; right down to which ladybird childrens books such as Mr. Pepper and Mr. Peach. I was given quite a big pitch, bigger than I'm used to at book fairs, but hey it was outside (well in a marquee actually) I took aprox 500 books with me. I had to consider the logistics of getting books across a soggy field (no cars were allowed on the site itself due to the rain in previous weeks) and also of preventing the heavy book shelves sinking into the mug. I managed all this and feeling rather pleased with myself was ready to start trading by the opening time of 9-30am. I managed to sell only 24 books to a total value of £93. The quick witted among you will say that that's not worth a days work, especially if you consider the cost of the pitch, petrol getting there, lunch and drinks. In fact my son (who was helping me) ended up with more than I did, which wasn't that difficult. But I did make many contacts which may lead to future sales, I may even have made a few friends amongst the other traders which can't be that bad either. It's hard to put a price on advertising and good will but that must have been worth half the stall fee at least. Will I do it again next year? Probably unless I need a day off more than I need to earn ten quid....
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