Dear Pennies & Pens,
As you know from my last post Ink With Us at the National Black Book Festival, I went to Houston this past weekend to participate in the National Black Book Festival as an Author/Vendor. So today, I just wanted to talk about my experience at the event. With that said, here’s my InkReview of the National Black Book Festival.
The Venues
First off, the National Black Book Festival was held at Fallbrook Church and the official festival hotel was the Sheraton North Houston George Bush Intercontinental. As far as the hotel, it was nice. I enjoyed my stay because the room was spacious, the bed comfy, and the pillows were ultra soft. I think the overall decor of the hotel is a little outdated — like you can tell the hotel is older. Also the elevators, I kept having issues with them because my room was on the 9th floor and so I had to insert my key to get up there and it was just janky. I had to go to the front desk to get my key fixed.
As far as the festival venue, Fallbrook Church, I honestly can’t say much about the church itself because I spent all my time in the room where the event was held and didn’t get to see the whole church. But I will say that church is huge! They seriously have 10 entrances. Which leads me to my next point, getting to the room where the event was held was super confusing. Because the church is so large, I drove around the parking lot for 10 minutes looking for the entrance — the festival organizers had us go into a specific entrance to set up for the event. Mind you, on Friday, it was rainy and cold so that didn’t help matters.
Okay so here’s the bad inknews, I didn’t like the room where the event was held. Like at all. I’m sorry, I have to keep it real. It was in a gym so the acoustics were horrible. Plus y’all know gym floors are always that weird color beige/yellow so it’s just a bad background for photos. But, the space was huge so there was plenty of room for the 100+ participating authors. Also, the gym has a concession area so people attending the event could purchase food and drinks without having to leave the room. I liked this because it kept everything centralized. Also, the concession profits are going to be donated to the church for reconstruction amd renovation. I’m a believer so I’m happy the church was able to benefit from the event as well.
The Event
As far as the event itself, it was cool. I enjoyed meeting the attendees which were very diverse. There were women + men of all ages as well as kids. Since there were authors from several genres, the event attracted a broader audience which is good. I was able to connect with readers, I never would’ve reached without the event. So that’s absolutely a positive! Thank you to NBFF for that opportunity.
The set up of the event was okay, I think it was a little overwhelming. Everything happened in the same room — the festival itself and the breakout sessions/events. And since the event was in the gym, there were times it was impossible to hear the person standing in front of you. Also, during the breakout events, all the attendees would attend that so during those moments there was no foot traffic for us authors. So those sessions killed our sales.
The Authors
My abolute and favorite part of the event was connecting other Black female authors. That was my true blessing from the event. As far as the authors I met, I truly feel like we’ll be life long friends. I met Keturah Kendrck, Author of No Thanks: Black, Female, and Living in the Martyr-Free Zone, Porsha Deun, Author of Love Lost and Love Lost Forever, F. Renee Hamilton, Poet and Author of An Ode… and Co-Author of Superwoman Survival Stories, Desy Smith, Author of The Guest House Witch, The Book Witch and more, Adrian Parker-Abejon, Author of Living Life at Maximum Capacity, Edwina Fort, Author of Coming for What’s Mine, Falling for Rome and more, Dr. Linda Murray, Author of Stop Being the Apple Fell From the Family Tree and Managing The Inner You and The Community Around You Leads to a Better You, and Stephanie Wilson-Coleman, Ph. D., Author of Creating a Masterpiece from a Master Mess.
Y’all see it took me a whole paragraph just to introduce these amazing women!!! Like seriously these are some true QUEENS, Pennies & Pens. These women are writing amazing books and following their dreams just like me. So please stop everything you’re doing and Google their books, then buy their books, then follow them on social media. And do it in that order, please. I get it, you can’t buy everyone’s book but these are independently published authors, they need sales! Followers are great but that’s not helping these women publish their next book. Ya dig?! #KeepingItInkReal.
The Audience
As I mentioned, the audience was very diverse. There were women and men of all ages as well as children. I absolutely loved this! I connected with readers I definitely wouldn’t have met on my own. Also my buyers were extremely diverse. All of my buyers were African American but they varied in age and their reasons for buying my books was varied as well.
Take Jamal Collier for example, he came to the event because his wife is a children’s book author and we got to chatting and he ended up purchasing, The Loudest Pen Ever. Then there was Dr. Linda Murray, she bought #MakeUrPenLoud: How To Be A Lifestyle Blogger because she also has a blog and wanted more insight on how to pitch to hotels. Desy Smith bought #MakeUrPenLoud as well because since she’a an author people have been telling her to start blogging to help promote her books. So she was looking for insight on blogging.
Other readers like Duwan Foster bought The Loudest Pen Ever because he wanted to read my story. Tony Bowers bought The Loudest Pen Ever as a gift for his daughter. Meryl Triplett told me she loves to read so she bought both books just because. I had many more readers but in the interest of time and so as not to look like I’m bragging because I thank God for each and every sale, I’ll stop here.
Conclusion
So overall, I think the event was successful. I made some pennies and reached new readers and that’s all one can hope for. Although, I don’t plan to attend again, I am glad I did. It helped me realize that participating in book events is the best way to reach new readers.
With my table set up and gift of gab, I can definitely see myself being able to quit my job and work for myself full time. If the event would’ve had more attendees, my sales would’ve been higher. That’s why I decided not to come back, it’s too expensive of an investment with not enough ROI (return on investment). Between the vendor fee, buying books, renting a car, paying for food, gas, and my hotel, I just didn’t make my money back.
And as a business owner, you have to invest your money wisely and make tough decisions. So trust and believe, I didn’t come to this decision lightly. And I will absolutely be participating in other book events in the future. So yall stay tuned to the page!
And there it is. de la Pen…All Pen Everything. With us, keeping it real never goes wrong.
P.S. If you couldn’t Ink With Us at the event, don’t worry, you can still purchase signed copies of #MakeUrPenLoud and The Loudest Pen Ever on ISLP’s website here: www.islpdtx.com.
