As someone who has written many times about musicians, I have often reflected on the difference between the life of a novelist and that of a musician. Musicians are, first and foremost, performers. When they are creating their art, the final expression of it comes in performance, in getting in front of a crowd and laying their work before them, getting an instant response to it. For a novelist, the equivalent moment is one where I’m nowhere to be found: it comes when someone settles down in the comfort of their own home, or on a beach, or wherever else they might start reading my stories. Even when I get in front of an audience to talk about my books, what I’m doing is essentially promoting my art, rather than practicing it. Authors don’t get to see that initial response, and often we don't ever know how it landed with the people who read our books.

That doesn’t mean that we never get to meet our readers though. As well as literary festivals and other events, something that is increasingly part of an author’s life, particularly if they aren’t operating in the big leagues with a major publishing house behind them, is attending book fairs to try to sell their work in person. While some of my author friends are horrified at the prospect of directly selling their wares, I have to admit I’ve come to rather enjoy it, even when the conversation doesn’t end with a sale. I’ve always enjoyed meeting people and chatting, so manning a stall can be fun, as long as there are people willing to stop and pass the time of day. After a while, you learn how to spot who is happy to linger and who doesn’t want to be drawn in, so it’s easy to respect that and avoid pushing yourself where you aren’t wanted.

My most recent opportunity to sell to the public came courtesy of Matt and Ally at the Mysterious Bookcase. I first met the pair of them when I interviewed Ally for an Author Events evening last year. Since then their online bookselling business has added a physical shop in Westbourne, Bournemouth which has quickly established itself as a great place for browsing and buying fiction. They offered local authors the opportunity to sell their own books at tables outside the shop during the summer, and last Friday it was my turn. My pitch was officially from 12 until 2, but as there were no other authors waiting to come in and take my place, I was told that I was free to linger for longer if I felt that footfall made it worthwhile.

I had a great time. Sometimes at book fairs, there are long periods where nothing is happening, followed by flurries of custom, but that wasn’t the case for me this time. I had a steady flow of interested customers, with enough conversations turning into sales to keep my spirits up. For the first hour, my two titles kept pace with one another, matching each other sale for sale before Dead Man Singing started to edge into an unassailable lead. By the end of my time, I almost sold out of my debut novel, having only three copies of it left to take home with me. Rest assured, I’ll be restocking before my next opportunity to sell to the public.

Some of the sales seemed inevitable once we got talking. One man was walking past in a Van der Graff Generator tee-shirt. I complimented him on his musical taste and he stopped to chat, eventually leaving with a copy of Dead Man Singing (which was what I had been hoping for, of course). Another customer, as we talked guitarists after he had completed his purchase of the same book, said that one of his favourites was… Richard Thompson. If you’ve read the book, you’ll understand why I was confident in telling him that he was likely to enjoy it. He has subsequently emailed me to say that I was right (which means he read the book over the weekend - a compliment in itself).

I often start conversations with potential customers by asking what kind of book they enjoy reading. Sometimes this backfires: two young women from Saudi Arabia told me they enjoyed mostly fantasy or romance novels. My reply – ‘Well these books are neither of those’ – meant that I wasn’t entirely optimistic at that point, and yet a couple of minutes later the two of them had forked out for three books – a Dead Man Singing each, with one of the two doubling up by also buying Foul and Fair.

I actually received my advance copies of Imogen Imagine the day before I was selling, but I decided not to sell any on this occasion. My stall was just around the corner from the other excellent bookshop in Westbourne, the Westbourne Bookshop (no one should be in any doubt about what they do or where they can be found!) My official launch event for Imogen Imagine takes place at the Westbourne Bookshop on Saturday 26th September, so it felt wrong to turn up on their doorstep and potentially undermine their sales before the event. I did send several customers away with one of my new Imogen Imagine bookmarks though, and several people expressed interest in coming along to the launch, particularly when they heard about the live music that is going to be part of the evening.

Talking of which, check out my forthcoming events – including the book launch – on my talks page to see other opportunities to get your hands on an oh-so-prized signed copy of one (or more!) of my books.