Not to get too far ahead of myself here, but Jim Dourgarian wrote a mostly favorable account of his experience at the San Francisco book fair, leading off with the comment, “This was my first book fair in a decade, mainly because modern lit hasn’t been selling well. During that time I forgot how physically tasking these events are, especially as I just turned 77.”
This prompted a response from old friend Ed Pollack that I thought worth repeating.
Ed Writes:
As you will realize when you get to be 91, one is still a youth at 77.
I have two shows scheduled this year – September at Grand Central Station and November in Washington DC.
But concessions must be made to the inevitable toll time takes:
- If there are Porters, use them. Money well spent.
- If parking is off-site in a garage, it is really useful if you can have someone with you to park and retrieve the car (I had no trouble managing this into my 80s, but I do now).
- Arrive early so that you have plenty of time to set the booth up slowly, pausing frequently to rest, or walk the room and shop.
- Breakdown and packing up is another story…VERY useful to have a helper (the one who parks and retrieves the car) unless you don’t care how long packing up takes. Again, I managed this well until recently; now I’m grateful for the help.
- Shopping the show, writing up sales slips, going out for dinners: all fun at any age.
I still haven’t gotten to the point where I need to abide by articles #1 and #2, but #3, 4, and 5 make a lot of sense.
And I’d add 3a – Leave your booth in the middle of the day for lunch whenever possible. It provides employment for the people who are helping you with items #2 and #4, and it does wonders for otherwise boring Sunday afternoons.
The Ephemera Society show kicks off March 15th and I’m already dreaming about lunch at that wonderful Greek diner down the road.
For 3a, at Fine Book Fairs we bring dealers lunch so they can eat it at their booths! That way they don’t have to worry about missing out on sales due to sourcing food.
What Jim failed to mention in his fair comment was that he was the quickest at pack up and first to get his car loaded. The old war horse still has a lot of getty up and go in the tank. He was a little rusty, but me being his student got him back up to speed and provided breaks when requested.
Jeff
I do miss running live fairs and seeing the many smiling (?) exhibitors as they pack up and leave my fairs, but when all of Ed’s excellent suggestions stop working for you, try a virtual fair. They are an easy way to keep in touch with your customers and meet new ones (with an average of 6-7,000 visitors, you are bound to meet at least one nw custiomer). No packing in and out, no driving to and from, no lodging expense and with a low cost of $200-$300.
The trade has traditionally been a refuge for those of us not especially socially adept – and some who are even anti-social to some extent. Aside from fairs’ place in business affairs, they put us amongst our peers, we happy few, our own kind, exposed to the world, forced into human contact. The decline of these in-person events is to be mourned or at least regretted. It was part of our world, such as it was. Forced into retreat.