Holiday Market Vibes

Hi friends.

Good morning from New Orleans! I had a nice, busy holiday weekend where I narrowly escaped being hungover several times, the true gift of the season.

On Saturday, I met a friend for a few glasses of wine and when I came home there was a big box of 1000 WORDS paperbacks, which I immediately tore open. They look really gorgeous, with the French flaps and the deckled edges. It’s a tight, pretty little paperback, one I would surely pick up in a store myself.

Another book, I thought. Another thing to hold in my hand.

Then I took a stack of them with me to the holiday market at Hotel Peter and Paul, where I sat at a table with my friend Brooke to see what I could sell. I do things like this on occasion because it’s good to get out of your bubble of the familiar. Also, I’m probably just always gonna be hustling my books till the day I die. Everyone I know hustles in one way or another. It’s just who we are.

Usually when I do an event in a bookstore or a festival or wherever, I’m just selling my most recent book or two. But in this instance I opened up my archives—ten books! two decades worth of work!—and had them all out there.

Some people came ready to buy a specific book, but some people looked at the array and said, “That’s a lot of words,” and seemed overwhelmed. Well, I can’t argue with that.

Then they asked which one was my favorite, which is absolutely an impossible question to answer. They all represent different moments in my life, and what I was thinking about at that time, and also they represent things I was trying to accomplish, different creative challenges I had put forth for myself.

Next they would ask me, “Where should I start?” Also a tricky question. “It sort of depends on what you like to read,” I’d say.

And in this way I had a series of lively, beautiful conversations about books and the way people liked to read. I love an instant conversation from thin air so much. Y’all like a lot of mysteries as it turns out. (I should really learn how to write one of those.) Ghost stories, science fiction, those were big too.

But I sold all the remaining copies of my one historical novel quite easily. The other one that got snapped up fast was the dirty sexy single lady in New York story. It’s a little bittersweet, I warned them. But for the right person, I knew they would like it. Sometimes I can just look at a person and know what they need to read.

Then there was the nice man who came up and said, “I really like books that are about like, the history of salt.” Sir, I am sorry I could not help you that day.

Get yourself a friend a who will hand-sell you.

Also thank you to the #1000wordsofsummer folks that stopped by to say hi and in particular to Elisa for bringing me a tiny notebook in acknowledgment of my post from the other day. It was nice to see you all. This community, we’re really out there.

Sending love,

Jami

You are reading Craft Talk, the home of #1000wordsofsummer and also a weekly newsletter about writing from Jami Attenberg. I’m also on twitter and instagram.