Last year, I did both the Queer Artisan Market and Amherst Pride but, this year, I decided to just do Pride. Doing two days in a row is harder for me to handle now. In any event, the weather was perfect and, thanks to my experience last year, I knew where to site my vendor tent to be in the shade. I don’t think I sold quite as much as last year, but it wasn’t too bad.
Fewer people are buying books. Partly, I think that people feel poorer than they did, so they just aren’t buying as many books. I’ve always noticed that most people simply don’t see books at all as they walk around. There are a few people who spot the books from a mile away and make a beeline to the table. But the ratio is shifting. There seem to be fewer and fewer people interested in books at all.
It was my first chance to hone my pitch for A Familiar Problem. I got better at it. A lot of people like the premise. But I didn’t sell many copies. I did still some Revin’s Heart and Better Angels: Tour de Force. And a copy of Premitaj Floroj.
I tried really hard to sell M.D. Neu’s book Hawaiian Sun. This seemed like a perfect book for Pride! It was a bit hard to pitch because it has a such weird premise. “So, there’s this guy on the Hindenberg who’s come to New Jersey to see his boyfriend, but then it catches fire and he’s like isekaied into the future where he goes on an airship over the Pacific Ocean to do some Pride stuff.” I pitched it over and over, but I don’t think I sold a single copy. Oh, well. Fail.
Now, I’m exhausted and sunburned. But it was fun. Maybe I’ll do it again next year.
