Lessons From L.A. Festival of Books 2013

We had no idea what to expect when we attended this year’s L.A. Festival of Books.  As the ever so enthusiastic intellectuals we (Daniel at Blackbird and I) can sometimes be, we researched blogs from attendees from years past.  We tried to gain wisdom and insight as well as learn from their mistakes.  Some numbers–and we do love our numbers–came back that on average an independent or self-published author sold three books a day and gave away about three hundred promotional items over two days.  That came as a surprise since over 200,00 people attend, but we also learned that big named authors were the reason many people flocked to the event and us indies were more of a “filler space” as one blogger wrote about the 2012 event.

With that in mind, Blackbird LSD, whom I partnered with for the event, and I decided this was more of a…