One of the things I was able to do in 2024 was attend my first ever market as an indie author.

It wasn’t a book specific market, so I knew the chances of me selling anything was slim, but I wanted to push myself to give it a shot.

I had a goal. I wanted to sell one book to one reader. If I did that I would leave the market satisfied.

If I wanted to cover the cost of my table and the cost of the product, I would have to sell three books. As it was a small town Christmas market, that wasn’t something I was certain would happen, but I was going for the experience. Dipping a toe in, if you will.

During the first five minutes of set up I was scolded by an elderly lady for bringing a book that had the word ‘curse’ in the title to a Christmas market, and I thought that was how my day was going to go.

However, I was pleasantly surprised at the support I received. I ended up selling three books before the market even officially opened. In the end I sold a total of eleven books, with a handful of people taking my business card so they could find the e-book on Amazon (which at least one person did purchase that night.)

I was approached by multiple other sellers and told how professional my set up was, especially since I had never done this before. They told me they were impressed, and I couldn’t stop smiling.

Another bright spot that day was hitting my yearly goal for sales. I started publishing in March, and I had made it a goal to sell 100 books by the end of 2024.

During the last hour of the market I sold book 100, and then I sold book 101. The way that made me feel, I almost couldn’t talk. Honored and grateful for the experience, for the warm welcome from the community, and from the readers, I can’t wait to go back again next year to see friendly faces.

All of this to say to you -take that chance. You may not exactly feel like you fit in, but people will surprise you. Take the chance, and believe in yourself.

As for me, I’ll be making even more goals for 2025, so watch out world, here I come 🙂