So, I just returned from the Texas Indie Author Festival in Katy, Texas, and whew, am I tired now! These vendor events are always fun, and always a bit tiring. Takes me a couple of days to wind down, de-stress and de-everything.
Today is the Tuesday after and after revising a bit of my website and adding people who had signed up to my newsletter, and a lot more “writing-adjacent” things, I can now analyze my time last Saturday and see what I learned from it.
Our event was located in the British International Language School in Katy, Texas. Katy is a western suburb of Houston. The school is huge and we were located in the gym and the lobby. Thankfully, I was in the lobby where it was way cooler. I don’t know what was going on in the gym that had them so warm. They had warned that last year people were freezing from the AC. Well, not this year.
Overall, while I enjoyed my time at the event and loved meeting all the vendors, our foot traffic was… well… very low. Part of that, I think, was the venue, as it’s on a residential street and it was Columbus Day weekend and apparently, also a school holiday for that entire upcoming week for lots of schools in the area. So parents and kids were apparently not in town.
Needless to say, us vendors were quite disappointed with the attendance and although the event was to go until 5 p.m., we began packing up about 3 p.m. and I don’t know about everyone else (well, I do because it was a rush in the parking lot), but my grandson who helped me and I were out of there by 4:30 p.m. and heading north.
The Sunday after, I thought through the event and analyzed what went wrong and what went well. You see, I’m also on a committee to help create a similar event here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of North Texas (because our event we were using for a multi-genre book event has now gone back to horror only) and so I wanted to know how I can help make this new event better and avoid some of these problems. (Of course, we can’t control them all! But we can try to mitigate them, and be prepared to take them head on. 😊)
#1. Traffic. The attendance was dismal. Which ties into #2.
#2. Location. Great large venue at the school, but the drawbacks were a. residential street and b. away from natural foot traffic and c. poor signage/directions for the traffic we did have.
#3. Advertising. I think there was plenty of advertising, especially online. But one cannot depend on social media alone for in-person events. So more physical advertising is required.
#4. Timing. Saturdays are great, but a holiday weekend along with a week-long school break? Not exactly the best time for foot traffic. Sometimes we can’t control this particular item as much, and sometimes the breaks work for us.
#5. Venue knowledge. When asking the organizer questions about the venue, like — will we have access to electricity? — the person didn’t know. He made the requirement for 6’ tables (we had to provide our own tables) and yet we had plenty of room for larger tables or more tables/vendors. Was it measured? How far apart were the tables to be? Sometimes, the tables are packed together so tight, we have to wiggle down the back of them to get out. Sometimes there are fire rules stating how far apart the aisles must be clear and open. That sort of thing. None of these were given.
I’m sure there are many more things I need to think about for a new venue for our new book event we’re creating here in my area. But these, I think, are the main ones for now.
We had a great time even though we had little traffic. I met some great people! And I will be keeping in touch.
Will I attend this event next year? That’s still up in the air. We’ll see.
In the meantime, I’ll be learning more about events and venues and making my Excel spreadsheet for 2026 events I can attend and present my new books!
Happy October, y’all!
