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You may be wondering where I’ve been lately. Shhh! I’ll tell you a secret: I’ve been hanging out at the local farmers market. Turns out, it’s a great place to sell books! Amidst the fruits and vegetables, the 100% organic honey, the handmade wooden home decor, and the plethora of pickled and jellied substances in glass jars, I’m the ONLY author there. People show up with a fistful of cash, and when they see the price of my books compared to that $200 artsy-fartsy glass bird feeder, they’ll opt for the $15 book. That is, if they like to read. If they don’t, they’ll avoid eye contact or offer a quick “hello” before scurrying off to sample the homemade salsa in the booth next door. I’ve learned to read the body language. If they hesitate ever so slightly, I’m ready to swoop in with, “Do you like to read?” and thus begin my sales pitch on the glories of my fantasy trilogy.

Then I get the “Oh, a fantasy book. I’m not into fantasy. I like mysteries” or historical fiction, or something about singing crawdads. Hey, I get it. Fantasy isn’t for everyone. But every once in a while, I’ll win a convert. One such woman, who had taken a chance and bought my first two books a couple of weeks before, made a beeline to my booth the other day. “You’re here!” she exclaimed before raving about how she hadn’t expected my books, being self-published, to be as good as they are! I thanked her profusely for taking the chance on me and purchasing my books despite her initial reluctance. As I start to hear how more and more people are enjoying my books, that gives me the push I need to get out of bed, go set up my booth in the dark, and stand there all day peddling my story, sometimes with not a lot to show for it at the end of the day. But I always seem to at least break even, and most days I even make a profit!

With darker, chillier mornings coming, it may be harder to get out of bed, but I’ll never regret my farmers market days. Something good always seems to happen — maybe it’s seeing a friend or meeting a new one, or maybe it’s receiving a kind word from people who just like to support local authors, or maybe it’s the familiarity of seeing some of the same people from the community there week after week. Or maybe it’s the times when I’ve been able to pass on a little wisdom to aspiring authors who stop by my booth, young fans like Jessica, who came bounding up after reading my first book to give me a hug and to gush about how much she loved it. Her enthusiasm alone was almost enough to knock me off my feet. Yes, I said the word “fan.” It’s always good to know I’m cultivating a few who are not actually related to me. She left with a signed copy of my second book in hand. But little did she know that she left me with something money can’t buy — a satisfaction that what I’m doing is touching peoples’ lives in my own small way and, in a small way, making me feel like a celebrity.