As I cruise into the world of trying to make writing my full-time gig (somewhat part time as I would like to be a SAHM) I know one thing is very important. Putting yourself out there. That statement technically covers two things. Putting your books out there and putting YOURSELF out there.

While social media is the biggest way for you to put everything out there for the world to see, one other effective way is book events.

I have mentioned several times since restarting my writing of this blog how I always guess my life plans incorrectly. Book events are no different.

The only signings I had ever done were the ones at the end of the LSF Writers conferences I was a part of. My mom has traveled the country going to different events throughout her 20+ years in the business and I always thought it was so cool! When I was younger, I would join her to the RWA conferences she would go to, and I never really got to experience them because I was young and so my dad would take me around the cities we visited while my mom was at the conference.

Last year I finally got to go to a readers’ conference with my mom as her assistant. It was such a different type of world than a writers’ conference. There was such a production to make the magic of book worlds come to life in the real world for the readers. It was freaking cool to put it bluntly.

After going to that one I decided I wanted to go to one as an author and not just my mom’s assistant. And I started small and somewhat local. A Day (or two) of Wine, Romance and More is hosted by a dear friend to me and the LSF Writers organization Roz Lee. Every May for the last 9 years she has invited around 60 authors to participate in the signing event. And last year was the first year she asked me to join! I was so excited because it really was my first dip into the world of book events. Reader-centric events to be most specific.

I had an amazing time and sold so many books! More than I ever thought I would. I even met a woman who loved K-dramas and K-pop so she was shocked and excited to find me and my books. I knew that at the end of the second day I wanted to come back AND I wanted to do more book events.

Now here is the truth about a lot of these events. If you’re a small indie author, like me, you’re most likely not going to make money. You might break even and that is actually fantastic!

This is where that whole putting yourself out there comes into play. Someone may not have purchased your book at the event, but most authors come with ‘swag’. AKA: free stuff to give to readers in the hopes they will keep it, use it, and inevitably remember the author and purchase their books. Usually, mine consists of Korean candies and Korean instant coffee sticks with some photocards of my book covers. And people love it! I will say at this last event I did see an uptick in sales after the event and I want to guess that it was from those swag grabbers.

Now I need to take a bigger step if my goal is to keep growing as an author and again make this something I can do full time. That means stepping out of the local/statewide books events and traveling to bigger book events.

I have applied for and have been accepted to two as of now. One in 2025 and one in 2026. I know that seems far away but these things can take years to come together and can take years to get accepted into.

I know that going out of state is going to cost more which means the amount of books I would need to sell would need to nearly double to make it monetarily successful, but I also know I need to step out of the comfort zone of local events and venture to places where people don’t know me. That makes me nervous and excited, which makes me happy. So here is to the next few years and the next few books!

Wish me luck!