Authorpalooza: My First Book Fair (It’s Just the Beginning)

I’ve been writing books for a long time, a little over fifteen years in fact, and while I have three novels, two religious books, and a myriad of short stories and blog articles, I never really had anything to show for it.

My wife and I were making plans to start setting up booths at local fairs, like Onion Days in Payson or other county fairs, but then a beautiful baby daughter entered our lives this year and threw all of those plans out of whack now that we were a family of four. I’m also in the process of completing the first draft of a novel called Undersphere, which I was hoping to have finished by this last summer. It has been delayed too, even though it’s still progressing smoothly.

Coincidentally, around this time I started working with a fella by the name of Cade Rose, and as it turns out, he’s also an indie writer with his own book series called The Vigilance Project. Once we realized we were both burgeoning fiction authors, we naturally began talking shop every day we saw each other, swapping updates on our books along with any insights or tips we had.

Cade has been actively taking his book series to fairs and other events, where he has found good success. One day, he invited me to a book fair he had joined, which happened to be held in Payson, UT, where I live. The event, called Authorpalooza, was organized by Tanya Roundy. I’m in the process of re-publishing my books with new ISBNs (but that’s a story for another time), so I was hesitant to attend in the first place. But I had a couple of copies of my novels sitting around, so I decided to go at the last minute and see how it went.

Cade saved a spot next to him at his table, so we both set up our book stands and got to hang out all afternoon. The fair wasn’t well attended, but I did manage to sell a few copies of my books and got a few people to sign up for my newsletter, which made it a success in my eyes.

All that to say, this is just the beginning. Now that I’m republishing my books, and with another novel on the way, my goal is to start setting up booths anywhere I can. Anywhere you see me, you’ll probably see Cade, and vice versa. You can check out his website and book series at https://cadesrose.com/.