Hi everyone – this is Janie Chang.
Big congratulations and many thanks to all the wonderful bookstores, authors, publishers, sponsors who contributed to Authors for Indies Day! 96 stores participated to host more than 600 authors. ‘More than’ because we strongly suspect not all stores managed to update their authors list in the crazy weeks leading up to April 30.
How did we do?
- “Lots of buzz, lots of action. Sales were up 38% over AFI 2015 (which was up 25% over a regular Saturday). I think the authors had a good time too.”
- “Our authors were champions and I think they enjoyed themselves immensely...we were up 14% from AFI last year, which is overall up 35-38% from a regular Saturday.”
- “We sold about 70% more than we do on a usual Saturday, so that was fantastic.”
- “My increase over a regular Saturday was 149%, a 10% increase over last year’s event.”
The stats according to BookManager: for participating stores whose sales figures are tracked by BookManager, unit sales overall increased by 22% for AFI Day compared to an average based on the three Saturdays previous.
Social media: 2,115 Facebook Likes (up from 1,370 last year). 1,406 Twitter followers (sorry, didn’t track from last year). More than 3,000 Twitter mentions in April before we hit the monthly ceiling on our social media monitoring service and couldn’t track anymore.
But more important than data points is the bigger goal: to draw attention to the awesomeness of Canada’s independent bookstores so that more people will shop indie bookstores more often, all year ‘round. Let’s celebrate Authors for Indies Day consistently and with great enthusiasm, until it becomes an event that Canadian booklovers, authors, publishers, and bookstores look forward to every year.
And in doing so, we strengthen relationships between authors and indie bookstores.
What’s the plan for next year (and beyond)?
We’ve been asked about growing the event. Realistically, our parameters are bounded by the number of indie bookstores in Canada and the number of authors they can host. There will always be a problem filling stores in smaller towns because they may not have any local authors. Plus, not every store can participate every year.
What the AFI team wants to focus on are activities that help raise the profile of participating stores. This includes the work we have been doing:
- Direct outreach to media channels (national papers, CBC Books, radio, etc.)
- Getting sponsorships for swag, advertising, promotional assistance
- Creating resources that bookstores and authors can download, customize, and use
So, can we do more?
Before answering that, we’d like to set the record straight about the Authors for Indies organization.
People have asked who we work for and who funds the event. Fair enough, since Indies First! (the US equivalent) is supported and staffed by the American Booksellers Association. They have staff. We depend 100% on volunteer labour. The 2016 AFI team consists of eight individuals with day jobs and family obligations. Two of us are authors with deadlines. We try to run things as professionally as we can, so it’s really flattering when folks think there’s an organization financing AFI. There isn’t. Funds for expenses, such as the website, come out of my bank account.
Yes, we want to do more. But we’re limited by time, resources, and skillsets. We’re going to do more planning for 2017 and do it earlier. We need to find volunteers with more of the right skillsets. We need sponsors, publishers and authors to provide more PR/media assistance.
But ultimately this is a grassroots event whose success relies on its participants. We can only enable, encourage, and influence. It’s a control freak’s worst nightmare but Kate Hilton and I are learning to live with it.
In closing …
One day doesn’t make or break a bookstore’s annual sales. We know that. But if it gives booksellers hope and heart to know they're appreciated, if a small bump in revenues makes it easier to pay the rent that month, that's enough of a difference to us and makes all this effort worthwhile.
À la prochaine!
Janie Chang ([email protected])
The 2016 Authors for Indies Team:
- Susannah Ames (ECW Press): PR/media, bookseller and publisher communications
- Janie Chang (Author and AFI founder): organizer, webmaster/help desk, content editor, image editor, list manager, newsletter editor, sponsorship outreach
- Kate Earnshaw (HarperCollins Canada): marketing materials support
- Karry Eilers (Booklover): content editor, list updater, photo fixer-upper
- Lesley Fletcher (Retail Council of Canada): bookstore outreach, social media community manager
- Kate Hilton (Author): organizer, content editor, guest blogger wrangler, Toronto video production author and bookstore wrangler
- Robin Rivers (Author and Journalist): PR/media
- Mary-Ann Yazedjian (Main Street Book Warehouse and BC Booksellers Association): bookseller communications, Vancouver video production assistant