Going Indie: Month 4
The rubber hits the road
When I started planning this whole “Going Indie thing” (in 2025), I knew I wanted to give myself a book birthday for my actual birthday. So, even though Not Too Late has been ready (uploaded, set up, etc.) for a few months already, I held off on its actual release until my birthday.
So, that means my new book has been out there in the world for THREE WHOLE DAYS!
And, I gotta say that it made a really great birthday present! I got to feel sorta famous as reviewers and friends made social media posts celebrating my new release with me. Honestly, this felt a lot more worthy of celebration to me than just making it through another 365 days living a not-particularly-dangerous life.
Once I had the book scheduled for my birthday, I started plotting. What can I say? I’m a greedy girl who wants to get to spend her birthday with her family AND publish a new book. It’s a little complicated because I live in North Carolina, but 90% of everyone I’m related to lives in the Cincinnati area. I’ve never actually held an author event near home, but I thought this might be the year to do it, especially since the romances are all set in the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati, Ohio area.
It took some doing, but I made a connection with Roebling Books and Coffee in Newport, KY and got to be a part of a big Book Block Party they held to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day, just a couple of days before my birthday!
It was a great day, full of positive vibes and (thanks to all my friends and family) GREAT for sales, too. As a multigenre author, it was kind of nice to only focus on a subset of my books.
I’ve launched quite a few books at this point (Not Too Late is my sixth novel), but I hadn’t had a joyous, vibrant, uplifting book launch experience like this since my first novel (Going Through the Change, the first Menopausal Superhero novel) at Flyleaf Books in 2015.
So, one lesson I’m taking away is that it’s worth it to plan something celebratory for yourself. It makes a milestone into a party, and joy is contagious.
I won’t have any numbers related to sale of the new book for a little while, so I thought I’d talk about how doing author events and the ROI of that for a bit.
This event with Roebling Books and Coffee didn’t have any table fees. I was an invited guest with a consignment arrangement with the store (consignment because the books weren’t officially released yet, therefore they could not order them from Ingram yet). It did involve travel to Cincinnati (9 hours for me), but I was able to stay with my parents and work from there so it didn’t cost me in terms of days off work or lodging.
This event also provided most of the set-up: a canopy and table were already set up for me. I needed only to bring myself, any table decor/branding I wanted, the books, and the swag.
Other events require me to provide more of the equipment, and charge table fees. Here are the events I did so far in 2026 with fees, requirements, and my ROI (return on investment) thoughts.
Not all ROI is measured in dollars in my opinion, so sometimes participating in something that doesn’t make me money still “pays out” in networking and future opportunities, or just brings me joy.
January 11, 2026: Signing table at Folk and Fable Co in Cary, NC. No fees, but no sales either. 35 miles away. No setup required. Focused on my Menopausal Superheroes only.
ROI: Relationship building with the bookstore, time to talk with another romance writer. (Kind of a strange location, where the bookstore was a booth within a venue where vendors can rent space. Not much foot traffic. It’s also closing!) No sales.
January 15, 2026: Horror Writers Association reading at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC. No fees, but also no direct sales. 16 miles away. No setup required.
ROI: camaraderie, building visibility for my horror work, and engaging with the bookstore. No sales.
February 7, 2026: Oak and Ink Bookish Boutique event at Southline Brewing in Durham. $10 fee. 32 miles away. Needed to bring my own table.
ROI: AMAZING. This was the one of several events I did with OINK and it’s been a great opportunity. $135 in sales.
February 14, 2026: Paper Hearts event through OINK at Tap Yard in Raleigh. $25 fee. 38 miles away. Needed to bring table, some vendors also had to bring tents.
ROI: This was OINK’s first larger event and it was a huge success. $400 in sales.
February 21, 2026: OINK event at Fizzwerks Brewery in Durham. $10 fee. 15 miles away. Needed to bring table.
ROI: Felt small after the Paper Hearts event, but made $61 and continued to build my relationship with OINK. $61 in sales.
February 27 and 28, 2026: Nevermore Film Festival at the Carolina Theatre in Durham. No fee. 15 miles from home. No set up.
ROI: I’ve got a long-term association with the Carolina and starting vending at this indie horror festival a few years back. It’s always lovely—low stress with known ebb and flow due to the movie schedule, audiences that are also readers and indie supporting. $321 in sales.
March 6-8, 2026: Ret-Con convention in Durham, NC. $125 table fee. 24 miles away. No set up needed.
ROI: Conventions are always a mixture of raising visibility, connecting with readers and other writers and creators, filling the well with geeky delights, and sales. This one is near enough home that I drive in daily and don’t have to pay for a hotel to participate. $312 in sales.
March 15, 2026: OINK event at Hi-Wire Brewing in Durham. $10 fee. 15 miles away. Needed to bring a table.
ROI: Small brewery event. Always a delight to spend time with the OINK folks and stole a couple of sales/display ideas. $51 in sales.
March 21, 2026: OINK event at Edit Beer in Raleigh. $10 fee. 42 miles away. Needed to bring table and tent.
ROI: Medium-sized brewery event. As always, great networking and supportive environment with OINK. $196 in sales.
March 22, 2026: A Night of Female Excellence with The Raleigh Women’s Art Collective at Tap Yard in Raleigh. $25 fee refunded once I showed up. 38 miles away. Needed to bring table, some vendors needed to bring tents.
ROI: What a great day! Musicians and poets performed in the building and we had great foot traffic. The feminist vibes go well with my work and I got to support my daughter (one of the musicians performing) at the same time. $268 in sales.
March 29, 2026: Geek&Grub event at Optimist Farm in Apex. $90 table fee. 45 miles away. Needed to bring table and tent.
ROI: I always feel more pressure to make sales when I have to pay more to be at the event, but it was well organized and had good positive vibes. A little bit of networking with other vendors, and the possibility of doing other Geek&Grub events. Bonus! I met my cover artist’s parents, who turn out to be potters. $235 in sales.
April 4, 2026: OINK event at Oak City Brewing in Raleigh. $10 fee. 50 miles away. Needed to bring table and tent.
ROI: This was another larger event and Oak City gets GREAT foot traffic. I shared my tent with a writer doing her first event and participated in a scavenger hunt and easter egg giveaway. We stayed very busy! Bonus! Two of my neighbors came out to the event. $475 in sales.
Whew! That really was a lot, wasn’t it? Twelve events. $280 in event fees. $2474 in sales.
Of course, that’s not $2474 that gets to just go into my bank account. There’s a cycle of buying more stock for events, as well as the infrastructure needs, and “swag” in the form of bookmarks, postcards, signage, etc. This is why I keep my day job.
To be able to sell at in-person events, I’ve collected a bunch of things:
bins for books storage/hauling: I use a 19 qt from Container Store that is easy for me to manage alone. Roughly $14 per tub and each holds 15-30 books depending on size of the books.
6 foot folding table: $50-70 (I happened to already have one I bought as “the cookie mom” some years ago)
4 foot folding table $60 (I happened to already have one I bought in support of gaming parties at my house)
wagon for hauling stuff around: $60-$200. I have a $60ish dollar one I bought when my kids were doing soccer, but I covet a more expensive one that I can push as well as pull and with better wheels.
canopy tent for outdoor events: $120 or so. I bought one years ago, the first time I had an opportunity for an outdoor event and recently upgraded to one that’s easier to put my by myself. They can be cheaper if you buy them off season.
Tent weights: gotta keep that tent from flying away! $40 bought mine, the first time a venue required them.
standing banner: I’ve had a couple of retractable ones from Vistaprint. $100-ish. But after the last one broke, I haven’t replaced it and haven’t decided if I’m going to or not. You can’t use them everywhere and they’re fussy.
table runner: $80 or so. I LOVE mine because it “brands” my table and looks nice, but folds into a tote bag and is machine washable.
bookmarks: cheaper the more you buy at a time. My most recent set was $70 for 500 booksmarks.
postcards: cheaper the more you buy at a time. My most recent batch was $50 for 100. I used them to create cards that let people buy ebooks from me at in-person events.
stickers: again, cheaper the more you buy at a time. My last batch was $117 for 300.
In April, besides all these events, I managed edits for three upcoming short story releases: finalizing “Ricochet Happens” a Menopausal Superheroes story that will appear in the Disruptive Intent anthology from Falstaff Books, “I Never Saw my Father” an Invisible Man riff that will appear in the Threads of Obsession anthology this summer, and “Adam of the North” my story about what happened to Frankenstein’s creature after he jumped ship in the Arctic which will appear in Sally Port magazine this summer.
I didn’t make any significant progress on the next novel (Gothic romance: The Architect and the Heir), but I did finish the process for the audiobook of Not Too Late which is in review with ACX right now and hopefully will drop in the next few days! Maggie (famous on the internet as Refashioned Hippie) also agreed to be my narrator for the other two GenX romances this fall!
Thanks for reading! I hope you found something interesting or helpful today. Here’s links to request ARCs for Acid Reign or Ready or Not (releasing May 28 and June 28, 2026) in case you’re interested!
For some reason this landed in my spam folder so I’m glad I check out every few weeks or I would have missed this one! All of the details on each event and the ROI is great!!! Thank you for sharing all of this. I’m going to look into Oak and Ink.