So, last weekend I was at the SD State Fair promoting Sink or Swim. I was super, super excited leading up to it. The other author who had suggested I try to get in said it was great exposure and there would be lots of traffic. And when I talked to the people in charge, they told me to bring at least 100 books to sell. So, here I am thinking I’m gonna sell a whole bunch of copies, and I even had dreams of people fighting over spots in line to get my book – I tend to get my hopes up pretty high haha – but that wasn’t what happened at all.

While I was running with WARC the day before, I was telling them how excited I was, and a couple of them told me it was the State Fair, people didn’t go to buy books, and that I shouldn’t be surprised if the turn out wasn’t as great as I wanted it to be. Unfortunately, I’m glad they said that, because it shot me back to reality.

It definitely did not go the way I expected it to. Sure, there was lots of traffic, and I’m sure 75% of them probably glanced my way for at least a couple seconds. But the majority of the day, I felt like one of those kiosks at the mall who everyone tries to avoid eye contact with. I’d try to be friendly and say hello and smile, but most of them would just scurry past so they wouldn’t have to talk to me. It was hard not to take it personal! Dan came with me and kept reminding me that it wasn’t the right audience, and I didn’t write a book to make a profit. I wrote a book because it was something I’ve always wanted to do. Which is true, but in the moment, it was still hard not to feel a little hurt.

But now that it’s done, I’ve learned from it, and know that it’s probably not the best place to get my book in front of people in the future. I’ve reached out to a couple of other places to see if they’d have me come in for a book event or even if they’d buy some of my books off of me, so we will see where it goes from there. Publishing the book was the main goal, and I’ve already achieved that. Now my next goal is to share it with people. Obviously, this is not my main source of income, and it most likely never will be, but if I can fund future books with sales from Sink or Swim, then that’s what my new goal will be!

I just want to write and share my stories with the world. And one bad event isn’t going to stop me from doing that. Everyone is going to have hurdles to jump over when it comes to achieving our goals and dreams. Just because one little thing doesn’t go exactly the way we wanted it to, doesn’t mean we throw in the towel. It means we learn from it and find new ways to achieve our goals. If you want something bad enough, then nothing is impossible. It might take a lot of work and time, but eventually, things have a way of working out. Don’t give up!

And on another note, I’ve got a couple dozen copies of Sink or Swim sitting at home if anyone still wants a copy. 😉

Until next time! 🙂

Megan Reiffenberger