Interview with author/organizer Jean Darla Davis & Emma Palova

1. Why have an author tent at Lakeshore Art Festival?  How well is the festival attended?

The Lakeshore Art Festival is attended by tens of thousands of people over two days. It runs July 5 and 6 from 10 to 6 and features over 350 fine art and craft vendors, along with artisan food,  children’s activities, street performers and interactive art.  It’s the perfect  venue to connect readers with local indie authors.

• How did you get involved? Who came up with the idea and how did you go about implementing it?

This is our third year as a group of authors being involved with the Lakeshore Art Festival. The first year was organized by author Steve Lebel . When he stepped back, I was tapped to take on the project. Last year we officially became part of the festival with the emerging authors tent within the festival footprint. This allowed us much better visibility and allowed us to connect with more readers.

• What was last year’s festival like?

Last year we had two beautiful sunny days and what seemed like a mostly endless flow of traffic both days. There’s so much art to see and great food to check out.

 Eighteen authors took part in our tents last year. We all had a great time networking with one another, talking to readers and signing books.

4-Which genre will be represented?

Our tents feature twenty authors with a little something for everyone. We everything from children’s books to adult books, including mystery, suspense, non-fiction  romance, science fiction, fantasy and more.

• What do you hope to accomplish there in two days?

We’d love to introduce readers to authors they might not run across on Amazon due to the vast number of books there or in the big book stores that often focus on big name authors.  We’re available to talk about our books, our writing processes and  inspirations. This is a great opportunity for readers to buy direct from the authors and get their books signed.

• Give us some tips for authors

Many authors struggle with marketing their books . They write one and hope that it sells online or through their publisher, if they have one. Unfortunately, even with a publisher, the majority of marketing falls on the author, and most of us would rather be home writing our next book. However, once you do a few book events, you’ll find it’s fun to network with other authors, learn from them, share your experiences and knowledge and to meet readers face to face. Festivals like this one give authors the opportunity to get their books in front of thousands of people a day. The Lakeshore Art Festival allows authors to purchase their own larger booth or to take part in our emerging author tent, which though we have smaller table spaces, is within the budget of many indie authors.  We do have a limited amount of spaces each year and they go quickly. If you are interested in being part of the emerging author tent, please contact me on facebook: jeandavisauthor

• Give us some tips for visitors

Visitors should wear comfortable shoes. There’s so much to see and do at this Festival. Stay hydrated. Bring a bag to carry all your artsy finds. Most vendors will take cash or cards. And talk to the artists. Ask questions. Make your purchases personal. It’s not often you can talk directly to the artist who made the piece and find out the story behind it.  

• How do you personally plan your book tour?

Having recently released my fifth book, I can easily say that I’ve tried a lot of different things to get the word out. Have I found the magic answer? No. What I’ve settled on, that works best for me, is doing a blog tour within my network of author friends, and booking in person events. I like to do a variety of venues: bookstores, libraries, craft & vendor shows, comic cons, ren faires, and art festivals. This year, with the release of the first book Trust of my new space opera series, The Narvan, I’m doing 30 different events all over Michigan.

I find personally connecting with readers to be the most gratifying way to get the word out . When I can do the same event a couple years in a row, it’s even better, because then people know where to find me and come back for my next book. I try to release one or two books every year so I have something new to offer.

Link to participating authors at the Author Tent at the Lakeshore Art Festival https://emmapalova.com/2019/06/12/authors-at-lakeshore-art-festival/

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