DUMFOONERT...reblogged

Wednesday Welcomes to you! 

Normally my slots at the Writing Wranglers and Warriors blog are every second Saturday but this month the lovely blog organiser, Cherley Grogg, gave me a new date for posting- and it's today! This was to accommodate my weekend commitments. I've posted at the Writing Wranglers and Warriors blog so I'm now REBLOGGING my post here since it was one of those moments. 

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Some readers may already know that I take my stock of novels and do signing/ selling sessions at local Craft Fair Venues. I really enjoy these events but have to say I never quite know what questions might be asked of me.

Last Saturday was a really good one. The event was one of the large pre-Christmas Fairs in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland, with over a hundred quality crafters displaying their wares. I say quality because anyone trying to sell goods that are outsourced ready-made, and not home crafted, are not given table space.

So there I was answering all sorts of easy things before making sales of my books. What made me become an author? What inspired a particular story? Which was my first novel? …. 

I had some return customers who stopped to buy another book which, I can wholeheartedly say, really boosts this particular author’s spirits. 

But I also had some humdingers of questions!

One very well-turned-out lady lingered over a read of my ‘information’ boards describing the settings of my novels. She briefly responded to my initial greetings but said “it was fine” when I offered to explain the books- meaning no thank you. Then she proceeded to lift and lay the inspection copies I have available at the front of the table, slowly absorbing the blurbs, flicking through the first pages.

(n.b. photo is from the previous venue. I used a less crushed tablecloth last week!)

Other customers came and went and she was still there. Silently reading and quite absorbed. A spy of some sort came to mind but that was the fanciful author in me rearing its ugly head!

Mmm… It was a new experience for me. I can’t quite bring myself to be an aggressive salesperson, so I waited. 

Then came the DUMFOONERT bit.

Eventually, she said, “Why don’t you just write in one genre? It has to be much easier to sell books that way.”

Ah! As a salesperson I never want to offend a potential customer, especially one who seems a little unreceptive to my wares. However, I’m always as honest as I can be, so I told her that any kind of marketing of novels is difficult and that it definitely would be an easier task to be ‘branded’ as a particular genre author—but I said that I don’t always take the easy way out. 

I told her that as a reader I enjoy books written across many different genres and that as a writer, I like the variety of creating stories across different genres. I went on to say that although I feel I’m primarily an author of historical adventures, I’ve loved the freedom of writing contemporary mysteries because I don’t have to think so much about the conventions of the historical era.

She mostly listened to my spiel though asked the occasional easy question. Then, having picked up the 3 pack version of my Celtic Fervour Series she asked, “Why did you choose to write about a historical period so long ago?”

“That’s a great question!” I said grinning like a Cheshire Cat. I wasn’t dumbfounded at all. My list was quite long.

• Because it’s a hard era to write about
• Because it’s a pre-historic period that has very few written sources to research so I have to work all the harder to interpret the archaeological records
• Because I didn’t want to write about an era that lots of other authors have covered already
• Because I love to learn about Roman Scotland history and archaeology
• "In fact,” I said, “I’m doing the FutureLearn  Hadrian’s Wall Course with Newcastle University right now because I want to know even more. (By the way I'm glad I'm squeezing the course into my already busy schedule because it's proving useful already!)

I had a lot of positive becauses.

I was again DUMFOONERT when she smiled and said, handing over the money for the books, “You’ve convinced me! I want all three books. I wanted to be sure you know what you’re writing about and it’s not just crappy romantic drivel that's half-hearted history.”

Did I have an answer for that? I'll let you decide...

I do hope she’s a happy reader, except I’m not even sure if she was buying the gift pack for herself or for someone else.

Is there a moral here? I don't know but if you do please add something to the comments box! 

Slàinthe!