A Slice of Orange

I recently attended the 2025 ACFW Conference in Springfield, Missouri. During the conference they hosted a ACFW sponsored reader event in the bookstore on Saturday morning. It was open to the public and promoted by all the forty plus authors who participated and the organization itself. We had a great turnout. Many readers even drove a few hours to attend the 8:30-10am event.

Reader Event Positives

There were several things that I felt I did well at this event. I purchased the advertising package which allowed me to put a standup display as well as swag around my books. I had buttons, postcards, bookmarks, and business cards.

My business cards were built with the book covers on the front and my linktree QR code on the back. That way they could see all the links in one place to be able to choose what they wanted to find. I handed out as many as I could. If you you’d like to see what I put on my linktree click on the link.

I also had a small Hei Hei rooster to add to the table during the ACFW reader event. I had a few people say they stopped because it grabbed their attention. The rooster in my stories, Bert, is a fun character that I then shared with them. Most wanted the button with him on it. And the sticker. Then I shared that my son drew him and they loved the personalization.

Many came to see some of the bigger authors at this ACFW reader event, and since I was at the front, I could help readers find who they came to see. It gave me something to do, I was being helpful, and most ended up asking me what I wrote, which led into a conversation about my books.

Since I was standing there all alone a few times, I grabbed my bookmarks and handed them out to those standing in line to pay. Readers love freebies, and bookmarks are easy things to collect (I collect them myself). I watched several take the time to read what was on my bookmark while they were waiting. Who knows how many will decide to read my books at a later date because of this.

For the bookstore, I had decided to sell stickers. The lowest we could sell on an item was $5. So I decided to go ahead and sell each for that price. Not ideal, but I wasn’t there to sell the stickers as much as my books, but I thought it would give more attention to my table space.

What I learned is many thought the stickers were free. I found some in different spots on the table as they noticed the bookstore card attached after the fact. When I counted them at the end, I had a few missing. Don’t know if any were purchased, or if someone took them home.

I did see some authors bundle their stickers together and sell them that way. Others gave out stickers for free (which I had some others as well). I didn’t know I could bundle them, so will consider doing so at any future ACFW reader event. Or if possible, sell them for less.

I really enjoyed talking with readers. By asking several questions I learned some things. Those included what genre they read, who their favorite authors were, and what they liked about stories. I also was able to learn how to share about my books, what interested them the most, what they wanted to hear (what inspired me to write these stories, and which authors were my favorite and had an influence on my writing).

Here are some pics I took with readers during the ACFW reader event.

I ended up selling out of my debut novel. I think it helped that it was up for an award. But it also helped to highlight it was part of a series and more were coming out in the future. I got the impression readers want to invest in authors they can keep reading. It will be interesting to see if I gain additional e-book sales because of this.

I also was able to take a few pics with authors who were participating in this reader event right near me.

Denise loves to share about her writing journey. You can check out this special link to see all of her posts on a Slice of Orange.