So, I went to my very first event as a bona fide author today — a local women’s expo.

It was a real eye-opening experience for me, and I thought I would share some of the things that I learned. This is probably all old hat for established authors, but maybe it can help some other newbies like me. 🙂

1) People love free goodies. I made over 100 goodie bags full of candy for this event. They lasted about 15 minutes. I could have made 1,000, and I still don’t think I would have had enough.

2) People are more interested in your freebies than they are in hearing about your book. They tend to grab the bags and move on, avoiding eye contact at all times.

3) People are more interested in freebies than buying anything at the expo — including your book.

4) People think because you are sitting behind a table that you are somehow know what time they’re handing out door prizes in another booth.

5) If you leave your booth for a few minutes, no one’s going to notice or complain. They’ve already gotten your goodies and moved on.

So, these are the top 5 things I learned today. Despite the lack of goodies on my part, I still had a good time. It was a lot of fun talking to folks and the other authors there.

See ya there next year …