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Book Sales @ Flower Shows


Question was--are book sales at flower shows profitable--worthwhile?

I wrote the regional book, The Strawberry Story:  How to Grow Great Berries in Southern California, a few years ago and I'm still selling it at local plant shows--one show in particular each April.  To date I've sold about 1,300 copies this way.  What I found works, however, is to offer a free plant with the purchase of a book.  I get plants from a local nursery--used to get them from a local small wholesaler, until she closed down due to fire ant regulations.  At any rate, I get the plants at cost from the nursery and resell them at the show with my book.  I also grow some of them bareroot.  Though it's obviously more work to become a grower for a short period of time each spring, it sells the books, and it also keeps me up to date and sharp on growing strawberries, which is what I'm giving advice on anyway.  Of course, offering an autographed copy helps.   Now I'm known as the Strawberry Lady a! t ! this particular show.

The price of the book is important.  Mine is $7.00.  People are going to a plant show for plants--so they've budgeted for plants, not books.  But if you have a good price point, and you throw in a free plant, you can often hook them.

Feel free to email me off-line if you have any more questions.

Julie Bawden Davis
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