Day 3 and 4 of Høstfest: Selling, marketing and learning experience
Day 3 (Friday, October 3) of Høstfest: I had begun to make my own list of books I was interested in and what I might buy for the kids, my wife and parents. I also figured if I was going to see much else of Høstfest, the morning right before I started selling was the time. Nicholas and/or Betsy dropped me off and picked me up every day.
I had noticed that the Norwegian Emigrant Museum from Hamar, Norway had a table in Reykjavik Hall, and my father knew the director. My father had told him about my book a few years ago. Knut Djuepedal was there and remembered my father. He never made it to the book store. I also came across the Moomintroll stories, written by Finnish author Tove Jannsson, which my family loved when we lived in Norway for the year, and decided I would come back the next day and buy one for each of the kids. I left some book cards with a travel agent.
Each author was given a batch of tickets with a number on it that identified the author -- mine was 30 -- and we had to put the price of the book below it and tape the ticket somewhere on the book. The worker at the cashier table tore off the ticket and put it in the properly numbered container. Each day we received a report on our sales the previous day.
The third day made me realize that in this environment, one had to be cognizant of the importance of grabbing people's attention quickly; changing strategies in mid stream and your pitch; thinking of different ideas; that the time needed to draw people in when there is a moving crowd as opposed to a trickle becomes even less. You have to be adaptable and flexible. Be observant. What is making the people stop? What is making them look at the book (as opposed to some who stop, flick a few pages without even picking the book up and then moving on)? And, that, some how oblivious some people can be that you are selling a book by asking: "Where do I pay?" (See the table over there that says "Cashier".); "What time is it?" "Where can I find the book on...?" "Where is x author?" "Can I sit in this chair?" (Yeah, while you're sitting there, this is my book).
Other comments that drew a chuckle: Norwegians saying they don't read English well; seeing the Beyond the Cold title and saying, "Not as cold as Sasketchewan/Alberta/North Dakota!"; "Where in Norway do you live?"
"What nationality are you?"
I would say, "American."
They would press me and I'd say, "Jewish."
"Kleiner, that's German."
"We're not German."
And the favorite: "I don't read much." What are you doing in the bookstore then?
A few elderly people complaining there was no large print and a few saying the print was large.
I figured I had about 10-15 seconds to get them to stop at the table and then maybe some more time to discuss further about the book. Do you interrupt while they are reading the back? It was maybe 5 seconds with a moving crowd. I had my poster taped to the apron of the table, which forced people to back up to look at it. Unlike the others, I hadn't even thought about bringing stands -- though I don't know how I would have carried it. The book cover caught peope's eyes. Was the title clear enough to make them stop further? Astrid Karlesn Scott was to my left selling an authentic Norwegian cookbook, books about World War II and DVDs about Christmas in Norway -- and was dressed in a beautiful bunad and had been here before. To my right, Joseph Gavett's books dealt with North Dakota, one of them the history of Minot, another about where he grew up in Minot, so that was a natural for the hometown/staters.
I started using the word "personal." "This is a personal story," and I think "personal" piqued interest. I had done a lot of talking in the morning and had made just made one sale early in the morning. It seemed that around 3 p.m. every day a show ended, because suddenly, a horde of people would come through the doors. I suddenly thought of something else that would lend credibility. On two pieces of paper, I wrote, "National Geographic Traveller Web Site About Norway lists Beyond the Cold in Books About Norway along with Ibsen and Undset," and taped them on the table between the books I had on the table. If I got far enough in a conversation, I mentioned National Geographic.
Jo Ann Winistorfer, the public relations person, said there must be a way to get the poster on the table. Tearing pieces of boxes we taped together a makeshift stand and were able to set up the poster. I tore the ad from Norwegian American Weekly and taped it to a side of the poster. Astrid handed me a marker and said write about the National Geographic web site on the poster. Sales picked up. Then, the traffic pattern went both ways, so the people from the left saw the poster first, the people from the right saw the book first. Two posters for an event like this next time.
In my community of authors, among the suggestions of authors helping authors has been to bring somebody's else book to our event. What I realized in this environment is that is not practical. First, I was invited to the Festival and the parameters was the book had to have a Scandinavian theme. Given the little time I had to talk about my book, there was no time to talk about another book.
While the radio, TV and newspaper people never came around, I was interviewed by two groups of students about what I thought of Høstfest; liked about it; how many times I had been at the Festival. One boy picked up the book and said, "I just have enough money for lunch." Anders Neumeller, Editor of Scandinavian Press and Swedish Press magazines, came and said there could be opportunities to write or place an ad in the periodicals. The Dance of Norwegian Sweaters came through again with their signs "Parade to Trondheim Hall" and I got suspicious since that was where the sweaters were being sold. Additionally, there was a parade of Vikings and a person dressed in a troll outfit walking around on stilts.
Day 4 (Saturday, October 4) of Høstfest: After picking up the Moomintroll books and two Norway coloring books in Reykjavik Hall, I noticed a T-shirt with Geiranger on it with the same picture that is on the cover of my book!
After making two quick sales, Astrid said, "It's the last day. Mark the price down."
The bookmarks continued to be a good item as a reminder or gesture. Some saw the buybooksontheweb.com on the card (not to mention my own web site) and said, "Oh, so I can order later." Good for Infinity Publishing. I ran out of the bookmarks.
My new language was "This is a story about an American child -- me -- living in Norway for a year as a child and returning years later... and developing an affinity/passion/kindredness with Norway, the culture, the people. A second home, second family..." Of course, there were questions about how I came to live in Norway and I told about my father being stationed in Norway after the War, falling in love with Norway, and promising when he had a family he would take them to Norway. He became a college professor and got a sabbatical to do research in Norway...
A man who stopped by said my story was similar to his in that his wife received a Fulbright Scholarship to work at the University of Tromsø and they went with their 13 year old son. His son loved Norway. The man didn't buy the book, however.
The national chapter of Sons of Norway "sponsored" the next door Oslo Hall, where you could buy food and there was a stage for entertainment. I approached them about Infinity's sponsorship program, where with a minimum purchase of books, an ad about the organization could be placed in the book and that edition would be sponsored by Sons of Norway. The woman I talked to said the man responsible for something like that wasn't there at the moment. She then said, if I joined Sons of Norway, she would come and buy my book, read it and put the book in the SON library. With membership I could have an autographed Daniel O'Donnell T-shirt or Astrid's Authentic Norwegian Cookbook. I had put in a card for a free sweater earlier in the week. Having no idea who Daniel O'Donnell was, I opted for Astrid's cook book. The woman followed through on her word and bought Beyond the Cold, as well as providing the name and telephone number of the person to contact regarding the sponsorship. I said the New York chapter had written a beautiful review, but hadn't yet invited me to speak.
I was doing real well with the sales for a while. Most of us in the circle got each other's books. I exchanged business cards with everyone in the circle. Jo Ann stood on a ladder to take pictures of us holding our books. As the last day neared late afternoon, we had to start thinking about packing stuff up to prepare shipping books back. I was told to go to Copenhagen Hall to talk with the man responsible for transporting the packages to the proper shipping service. At Copenhagen Hall, the band on that stage was playing Havanagila! No one was dancing. I saw all these booths selling more Scandinavian treats that I didn't know about.
On the way back, I stopped at the Land 'O Lakes ice cream stand for one last cup of cherry nut. Back East we only see Land 'O Lakes butter and margarine. Out here, they sell milk and ice cream. Among their flavors besides the delicious cherry nut was licorise and New York vanilla.
The hours were dwindling down to this unique experience into "Little Norway/Scnadinavia." People wearing Norwegian sweaters; women in bunads. Books and monitors were being packed up. Books were dwindling from the tables. Women staffers for the other books in the store were removing them from the shelves and taking counts. I made another dash to Copenhagen Hall to make sure they would be coming to Trondheim Hall to pick up the books. I went to a computer kiosk where I was able to log in to my FedEx account and print labels. I had saved purchasing my beloved Freia chocolate til the end so it would hold on my trip back. At Helsinki Hall, they were down to a few small hazelnut bars and dark chocolate. Astrid happened by and said, "You know that's the best chocolate in the world?" I said, "I know. Wait til you read the book. Freia chocolate is throughout the book." Then, later, I found a woman with a cart in a hallway that had bigger bars and milk chocolate. (I gave one of the hazelnut bars to Betsy and Nicholas).
The minutes were creeping slowly to 8 p.m. Few shoppers were in Trondheim Hall. I still had four books on the table. I never opened boxes 2 and 3. I opened the book to the section on the last day of the International Summer School and saw the similarities between then and now. The same question came to mind: Will I see these people again? They asked me if I would come back next year and I said I would see. I'll know about how many books to bring. Though, in the short term, I don't know whether financially I broke even, I sold 30 books and put it (and business cards) in the hands of other authors. That is more books than I sold at any event. People from Minot, Velva, ND, Deering, ND, Bismarck, ND, Northwood, ND, Burlington, ND, Kenmore, ND, Powos Lake, ND, Maddock, ND, Stanley, ND, Billings, MT, Dubuque, IA, Omaha, NE, St. Cloud, MN, Annandale, MN, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, Airdrie, Alberta, Canada, Two Hills, Alberta, Canada bought the book. If this one reads the book and tells this one, and this one... who knows what could happen? Moments before closing, Marea Nelson, one of the volunteers, stepped up and bought the book.
Astrid was touched by the Norwegian I wrote in her copy of the book and said she understood everything, but, of course, I misspelled the personal pronouns. We said a warm good bye to her and Mel and she said she knows she will enjoy reading my book. I went around the circle and to the Norwegians I wished "lykke til (Good luck)."
I picked up my box and laptop ,took a look and walked through the concourses past the kettle toasted Bavarian almonds stands. Outside, as I had done on the last day of the Summer School, I looked back at the Norsk Høstfest and the flags on the outside of the building, turned and walked through the parking lot past the group busses, the RV park to the gate to wait for Nicholas and Betsy.
Så hyggelig å møte deg lile Norge. So nice to meet you (cultutally a very courteous greeting) little Norway.
I had noticed that the Norwegian Emigrant Museum from Hamar, Norway had a table in Reykjavik Hall, and my father knew the director. My father had told him about my book a few years ago. Knut Djuepedal was there and remembered my father. He never made it to the book store. I also came across the Moomintroll stories, written by Finnish author Tove Jannsson, which my family loved when we lived in Norway for the year, and decided I would come back the next day and buy one for each of the kids. I left some book cards with a travel agent.
Each author was given a batch of tickets with a number on it that identified the author -- mine was 30 -- and we had to put the price of the book below it and tape the ticket somewhere on the book. The worker at the cashier table tore off the ticket and put it in the properly numbered container. Each day we received a report on our sales the previous day.
The third day made me realize that in this environment, one had to be cognizant of the importance of grabbing people's attention quickly; changing strategies in mid stream and your pitch; thinking of different ideas; that the time needed to draw people in when there is a moving crowd as opposed to a trickle becomes even less. You have to be adaptable and flexible. Be observant. What is making the people stop? What is making them look at the book (as opposed to some who stop, flick a few pages without even picking the book up and then moving on)? And, that, some how oblivious some people can be that you are selling a book by asking: "Where do I pay?" (See the table over there that says "Cashier".); "What time is it?" "Where can I find the book on...?" "Where is x author?" "Can I sit in this chair?" (Yeah, while you're sitting there, this is my book).
Other comments that drew a chuckle: Norwegians saying they don't read English well; seeing the Beyond the Cold title and saying, "Not as cold as Sasketchewan/Alberta/North Dakota!"; "Where in Norway do you live?"
"What nationality are you?"
I would say, "American."
They would press me and I'd say, "Jewish."
"Kleiner, that's German."
"We're not German."
And the favorite: "I don't read much." What are you doing in the bookstore then?
A few elderly people complaining there was no large print and a few saying the print was large.
I figured I had about 10-15 seconds to get them to stop at the table and then maybe some more time to discuss further about the book. Do you interrupt while they are reading the back? It was maybe 5 seconds with a moving crowd. I had my poster taped to the apron of the table, which forced people to back up to look at it. Unlike the others, I hadn't even thought about bringing stands -- though I don't know how I would have carried it. The book cover caught peope's eyes. Was the title clear enough to make them stop further? Astrid Karlesn Scott was to my left selling an authentic Norwegian cookbook, books about World War II and DVDs about Christmas in Norway -- and was dressed in a beautiful bunad and had been here before. To my right, Joseph Gavett's books dealt with North Dakota, one of them the history of Minot, another about where he grew up in Minot, so that was a natural for the hometown/staters.
I started using the word "personal." "This is a personal story," and I think "personal" piqued interest. I had done a lot of talking in the morning and had made just made one sale early in the morning. It seemed that around 3 p.m. every day a show ended, because suddenly, a horde of people would come through the doors. I suddenly thought of something else that would lend credibility. On two pieces of paper, I wrote, "National Geographic Traveller Web Site About Norway lists Beyond the Cold in Books About Norway along with Ibsen and Undset," and taped them on the table between the books I had on the table. If I got far enough in a conversation, I mentioned National Geographic.
Jo Ann Winistorfer, the public relations person, said there must be a way to get the poster on the table. Tearing pieces of boxes we taped together a makeshift stand and were able to set up the poster. I tore the ad from Norwegian American Weekly and taped it to a side of the poster. Astrid handed me a marker and said write about the National Geographic web site on the poster. Sales picked up. Then, the traffic pattern went both ways, so the people from the left saw the poster first, the people from the right saw the book first. Two posters for an event like this next time.
In my community of authors, among the suggestions of authors helping authors has been to bring somebody's else book to our event. What I realized in this environment is that is not practical. First, I was invited to the Festival and the parameters was the book had to have a Scandinavian theme. Given the little time I had to talk about my book, there was no time to talk about another book.
While the radio, TV and newspaper people never came around, I was interviewed by two groups of students about what I thought of Høstfest; liked about it; how many times I had been at the Festival. One boy picked up the book and said, "I just have enough money for lunch." Anders Neumeller, Editor of Scandinavian Press and Swedish Press magazines, came and said there could be opportunities to write or place an ad in the periodicals. The Dance of Norwegian Sweaters came through again with their signs "Parade to Trondheim Hall" and I got suspicious since that was where the sweaters were being sold. Additionally, there was a parade of Vikings and a person dressed in a troll outfit walking around on stilts.
Day 4 (Saturday, October 4) of Høstfest: After picking up the Moomintroll books and two Norway coloring books in Reykjavik Hall, I noticed a T-shirt with Geiranger on it with the same picture that is on the cover of my book!
After making two quick sales, Astrid said, "It's the last day. Mark the price down."
The bookmarks continued to be a good item as a reminder or gesture. Some saw the buybooksontheweb.com on the card (not to mention my own web site) and said, "Oh, so I can order later." Good for Infinity Publishing. I ran out of the bookmarks.
My new language was "This is a story about an American child -- me -- living in Norway for a year as a child and returning years later... and developing an affinity/passion/kindredness with Norway, the culture, the people. A second home, second family..." Of course, there were questions about how I came to live in Norway and I told about my father being stationed in Norway after the War, falling in love with Norway, and promising when he had a family he would take them to Norway. He became a college professor and got a sabbatical to do research in Norway...
A man who stopped by said my story was similar to his in that his wife received a Fulbright Scholarship to work at the University of Tromsø and they went with their 13 year old son. His son loved Norway. The man didn't buy the book, however.
The national chapter of Sons of Norway "sponsored" the next door Oslo Hall, where you could buy food and there was a stage for entertainment. I approached them about Infinity's sponsorship program, where with a minimum purchase of books, an ad about the organization could be placed in the book and that edition would be sponsored by Sons of Norway. The woman I talked to said the man responsible for something like that wasn't there at the moment. She then said, if I joined Sons of Norway, she would come and buy my book, read it and put the book in the SON library. With membership I could have an autographed Daniel O'Donnell T-shirt or Astrid's Authentic Norwegian Cookbook. I had put in a card for a free sweater earlier in the week. Having no idea who Daniel O'Donnell was, I opted for Astrid's cook book. The woman followed through on her word and bought Beyond the Cold, as well as providing the name and telephone number of the person to contact regarding the sponsorship. I said the New York chapter had written a beautiful review, but hadn't yet invited me to speak.
I was doing real well with the sales for a while. Most of us in the circle got each other's books. I exchanged business cards with everyone in the circle. Jo Ann stood on a ladder to take pictures of us holding our books. As the last day neared late afternoon, we had to start thinking about packing stuff up to prepare shipping books back. I was told to go to Copenhagen Hall to talk with the man responsible for transporting the packages to the proper shipping service. At Copenhagen Hall, the band on that stage was playing Havanagila! No one was dancing. I saw all these booths selling more Scandinavian treats that I didn't know about.
On the way back, I stopped at the Land 'O Lakes ice cream stand for one last cup of cherry nut. Back East we only see Land 'O Lakes butter and margarine. Out here, they sell milk and ice cream. Among their flavors besides the delicious cherry nut was licorise and New York vanilla.
The hours were dwindling down to this unique experience into "Little Norway/Scnadinavia." People wearing Norwegian sweaters; women in bunads. Books and monitors were being packed up. Books were dwindling from the tables. Women staffers for the other books in the store were removing them from the shelves and taking counts. I made another dash to Copenhagen Hall to make sure they would be coming to Trondheim Hall to pick up the books. I went to a computer kiosk where I was able to log in to my FedEx account and print labels. I had saved purchasing my beloved Freia chocolate til the end so it would hold on my trip back. At Helsinki Hall, they were down to a few small hazelnut bars and dark chocolate. Astrid happened by and said, "You know that's the best chocolate in the world?" I said, "I know. Wait til you read the book. Freia chocolate is throughout the book." Then, later, I found a woman with a cart in a hallway that had bigger bars and milk chocolate. (I gave one of the hazelnut bars to Betsy and Nicholas).
The minutes were creeping slowly to 8 p.m. Few shoppers were in Trondheim Hall. I still had four books on the table. I never opened boxes 2 and 3. I opened the book to the section on the last day of the International Summer School and saw the similarities between then and now. The same question came to mind: Will I see these people again? They asked me if I would come back next year and I said I would see. I'll know about how many books to bring. Though, in the short term, I don't know whether financially I broke even, I sold 30 books and put it (and business cards) in the hands of other authors. That is more books than I sold at any event. People from Minot, Velva, ND, Deering, ND, Bismarck, ND, Northwood, ND, Burlington, ND, Kenmore, ND, Powos Lake, ND, Maddock, ND, Stanley, ND, Billings, MT, Dubuque, IA, Omaha, NE, St. Cloud, MN, Annandale, MN, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, Airdrie, Alberta, Canada, Two Hills, Alberta, Canada bought the book. If this one reads the book and tells this one, and this one... who knows what could happen? Moments before closing, Marea Nelson, one of the volunteers, stepped up and bought the book.
Astrid was touched by the Norwegian I wrote in her copy of the book and said she understood everything, but, of course, I misspelled the personal pronouns. We said a warm good bye to her and Mel and she said she knows she will enjoy reading my book. I went around the circle and to the Norwegians I wished "lykke til (Good luck)."
I picked up my box and laptop ,took a look and walked through the concourses past the kettle toasted Bavarian almonds stands. Outside, as I had done on the last day of the Summer School, I looked back at the Norsk Høstfest and the flags on the outside of the building, turned and walked through the parking lot past the group busses, the RV park to the gate to wait for Nicholas and Betsy.
Så hyggelig å møte deg lile Norge. So nice to meet you (cultutally a very courteous greeting) little Norway.
Michael
Heard your authors interview (5 June 2009), enjoyed it. I am the "Velva" buyer mentioned in your blog at Minot, ND.
Enjoyed the book; read it at Chistmas. Loved the hero story.
I lived 20 years in Holland, and many of your experiences in your jampacked book rang true, from all the strange "customs" to the dress to food to history.
Did you know that Sondre Norheim is buried just East of Minot? if you come back, I could drive you over there.
I hope you succeed in selling more of this book. I read in your blogs that it is an involved process.
Bob Campbell
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