2025 Year in Review

Sales are a fragile thing. In hindsight, my 2025 book tour was my most successful year to date (yay!), but it felt anything but successful at times. It was a grind. The most emotionally taxing part of it was the unpredictability. With almost 50 events in 2025, I needed for each of them to “hit” financially in order to justify taking my hobby to a profession, so there was plenty of self-imposed pressure for them to be successful. Since getting “serious” in 2021, I’ve kept records of how each event performed right down to the hourly sales, so there were certain events that had a history of performing.

And then they wouldn’t.

Panic ensued.

Imposter syndrome kicked into high gear.

For someone with a set salary, or even an hourly wage, going to work is very predictable, but for an author, there is no predictability. I try to find events with large crowds, but that also brings a LOT of rejection. For example, I had several events where 10,000 people showed up (just not for me), and getting rejected by 9,900ish shoppers is hard on the ego. Even the ebb and flow of the day can be terribly frustrating. I’ll look down to see my previous sale happened at 10:45 AM, and then….11:30, 12:30, 1:30… nothing… Then out of nowhere, a flurry of sales as the “right” customers find you. Suddenly, you are successful again but it’s hard to forget all the doubt and rejection of the previous three hours. That builds up in a fellow.

Yet with the disappointment of “expected sales” at returning events somehow balanced out with "surprising" events with no track record. It’s a rollercoaster where things somehow averaged out in the end.  

Weather and Health

There are no sick days. Unlike a salaried career or even the most modest hourly wage job, sick days are not given or accumulated. That became quite obvious to me in 2025. Aside from all of the emotional turmoil going into an event, being sick is a major problem. Manning a booth by yourself? Best know where the closest bathroom is located. Need a lunch break? Not without a booth babe. So if your health isn’t up to par, selling can be quite fragile if you have to miss a weekend. Your fees are nonrefundable, so that money’s not coming back to you. The missed sales will play a factor at the end of the year’s profitability. You better be sure before cancelling. But as I most recently experienced, having a bad cold keeps you from being able to even explain your book without gasping for air and getting lightheaded.

Weather was also a big factor for me in 2025. On multiple occasions, I had a highly ranked event (I give grades for sales A to F) that were wrecked by bad weather. Summer events are really fun and often bring big crowds, but there is also the unpredictability of the weather. And oh boy, did I see a variety of weather. Fort Sisseton had a nasty storm and megawinds. Pipestone had thunderstorms. Defeat of Jesse James Day had frigid temperatures. Lumberjack Days parking lot flooded. The Blueberry Festival had a storm and a high heat advisory. Suddenly, sitting under the artificial lighting of a mall doesn’t sound so bad! 

Highs and Lows

Along with my customized Deep Valley black notebook, I use the Square App to track all my sales. It can be tricky to keep track of the app and notebook when dealing with cash during busy events, but it allows me to see how I’ve done. It also shows a year to year comparison. 

After four years of doing book events on a regular basis, I’ve learned to accept that there will be ebbs and flows in finding my readers. For example: November. Last year’s November was absolutely devastating. I drove all the way out to Madison, Wisconsin and had one of my worst book events to date. (Seriously, I track this sort of stuff!) Two days at a mall resulted in selling 6 books. Yikes! The next weekend, I traveled to Brooklyn Park and sold 4. Then I had a book event at an Independent Bookstore and sold 3. That was my November 2024. I put 3 events into my All-Time Worst Top 10 list.

In 2025, I once again had 2 mall events and 2 craft shows…and crushed it. Hundreds of books were sold from all 15 of my active titles. I sold out of books twice. 

The moral of the story? I didn’t really do anything differently. These things happen.

As I mentioned, illness and bad weather severely impacted some of my sales opportunities, but I also had amazingly successful events. With hundreds of book events now on record, I not only have an All-Time Worst list but also an All-Time Best list. 2025 put 7 events into the top ten list. 

Mankato’s Day of the Dead had every reason to fail. Late October? Outdoor? Tough weather? But the community rallied behind this awesome event and I found lots of “open minded” readers that day. It did get bumped out of the current top ten, but it was still there for a few weeks. 

In September, I attended Siouxpercon in Sioux Falls, and had lots of “big fish.” Since selling and fishing are a very similar emotional experience, I’ve equated selling a bundle to catching a big fish, and while the pace at a Con is casual, folks that stopped by on  Friday returned to pick up a bundle of books on Sunday. Trophy fishing placed this event at #9 All-Time.

Northfield hosts “The Defeat of Jesse James Days” in early September. It was my third year attending, but the numbers dropped significantly for my second year. While all the “Craft” vendors sold up the hill, the “Artists” sold down by the river, and despite very cold weather, the readers came out both days to put DJJD into 6th place.

To sell big, you’ve got to spend big. I had a “nice” single day event that I did in July, but for a $120 fee it produced only 20ish books in sales. Plus, there were a ton of other authors attending. So I took a gamble and signed up for a 3 day event that cost me $350. Luckily, Stillwater’s Lumberjack Days brought big crowds and lots of readers. We were set up in the shadow of the Waterfront Inn and the lift bridge. How cool! A storm/flood cost me some inventory, but LJD ended up being 5th place All-Time.

Black Friday at the River Hills Mall in Mankato was an example of slow and steady winning the race. This event was emotionally hurtful because there were SO MANY people with SO MUCH rejection. Folks had their lists and zipped by my booth without a second thought. Long hours and lots of rejections AND a snow storm should’ve repeated a similar showing to Madison, but when all was done, I had a ton of sales and a #4 All-Time finish.

While a trip to Ely is a bit complicated, my return trip ended up with Ely temporarily claiming the #1 and #2 spots for All-Time sales. It’s just a lovely outdoor event experience with hundreds of artisans. And scenery! However, weather took a big bite out of my sales, and I packed up ahead of a storm on Sunday. Selling 2 of 3 days wasn’t wise in hindsight, but I was exhausted.

This allowed Eden Prairie’s Mall to sweep into #2 All-Time. Malls aren’t dead, and there were plenty of people looking for unique gifts, and as the only author there that weekend, a signed book was just the right idea. I sold evenly from all 15 of my active titles, so that was cool to see also. 

Cutting Corners

For the past two years, I’ve signed and sold well over a thousand books each year, and reaching that level makes you rethink every nickel and dime that goes into a sale. For example, I’ve been at a few book events where another author sells a full-sized novel at ridiculous prices. The base cost for printing a book certainly varies, but then you add on the cost for the event, the cost for transportation and lodging, plus add a bookmark, business card, and bag and….no profit. So I’ve learned a lot of authors just pretend to have a career as an author because they’re simply not making any money regardless of how many books they sell.

Having realized this, squeezing money out of a book sale is important. If I mismanage my inventory, I have the luxury of ordering from Amazon’s KDP or Ingram, two major distributors. Sure there’s the cost for the book, but shipping (even the cheapest option), usually adds cost (A case of 16 books=$16 shipping+). So having a local printer sure helps. First, they can print the book below the cost at Ingram (1,000 books at $1 cheaper per book=$1000 more profit). But then you also can save the cost of shipping by spending $20 on gas to pick up hundreds of books at a time (500 books/$20=.25 a book) That adds up. 

I’m also a cheapskate. I’ll pack lunches, avoid impulse shopping, and live simply. I know several authors who will live out of their cars to avoid spending money on hotels and lodging. While I’ve been camping/hammocking plenty of times through the years, I’m not quite ready to cut lodging costs all the way. I’m too old. 

Getting Fans

So is it worth it? Heck yes. 

I love writing so much that I’d likely do it for free if I could, but since I need to make this work in order to keep doing it, I need to find financial success. Sigh. I’m not doing this for my ego, so awards and acclaim mean little to me. I’m not doing this to find popularity, either. Heck, I’m an introvert. I’d rather not be out selling. By comparison, look at George R.R. Martin. As soon as he gained fame, he stopped writing. If my books made me independently wealthy, I’d be home in my cave writing freely all day long without the need to set foot out in public again. How liberating! 

My current books are pretty niche. They don’t fit the conventions of specific genres and certainly aren’t an attempt to find mainstream readers. I’m odd and so are my books. I’m cool with that. 

But over the last two years, I’ve found my people. Sometimes it’ll be by returning to the same event, and in other cases, someone who bought a book in Ely will find me in Pipestone. When a reader finds my booth and buys more books (with enthusiasm), it’s a really strange feeling. “Wait, you like being inside of my head, too?” With authorhood such a struggle, these moments are fantastic. It’s affirming. 

Even better, I’ve had fans for all my tables. My ugly duckling table are my adult Bible study series, which are frequently ignored by folks who aren’t religious or by folks who are so religious that they think they’ve got it all figured out. So it’s cool that folks have come back for more of these. The Alchemist Chronicles and Dreamcatcher Chronicles also have found readers who come back for the newest installments OR…cross over to the other series. Even though I don’t get much buzz with eBooks or online sales yet, it’s very encouraging to have this happen at a regular occurrence.