TABLE DAYS – AUTHORS OF MANITOBA.
Well, another excursion selling books directly is over. This one wasn’t nearly as brutal as last week’s Horrorcon, which was effectively 15 hours. This one ran from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, at the Steinbach Clearsprings Mall. So eight hours, plus two hours travel back and forth and set up.
Some background – Steinbach is a town, mostly Mennonite, about 45 minutes out from Winnipeg. Population about 20,000, it’s sustained by local agriculture, and feeding off of Winnipeg’s commerce – it’s the place for car dealerships for instance.
Clearspring Mall is a fairly active mall on the outskirts of Steinbach. Main tenant is a Sobeys, it’s got a mix of stores. A lot of malls are dying, but this a fairly lively shopping center.
Authors of Manitoba is a local writing organization driven by perky little human dynamo, Casia Schreyer. Casia is from Steinbach, hence the Authors event at the Clearspring mall.
Honestly, I had my doubts. I’ve come to appreciate that there’s an entire culture or industry of these small vendors – not just writers and book sellers, but soap makers, jewelry makers, knick knack sellers, clothing sellers, 3D printer afficionados, crafts-people of every possible stripe and variety. And there’s literally a circuit of flea markets, church bake sales, small collectors conventions, local festivals, street parties, etc. etc., where people gather, and where these vendors show up.
Some of them are incredibly elaborate – lovingly crafted handmade stuff, big detailed booths that are practically a cottage with roofs, signage, all kinds of stuff. Some… are selling knick knacks and junk from Temu. It’s all over. Mostly, there’s some degree of personal investment.
I don’t really wholly understand it all. Do people make an actual living at this? I’ve come to think that at least some do, although it feels like a tough way to do it. For some, it’s a labour of love. For some it’s a hobby of sorts for a little extra money to supplement income or just get out of the house.
I think actually, there’s scope to examine these people and this interesting little culture of travelling vendors. Someone should do a Master’s Thesis or something.
Anyway, so Casia organizes one of these events at the Steinbach mall. It turns out there were about fifty-something vendors. I was impressed. About half of them were writers by my count – there’s the usual jewelry makes, knitters, specialists. We all occupied two rows of tables, down the two main wings of the mall.
Like I said, I had doubts. It didn’t seem to me that an Author’s event like this was, in and of itself, going to attract much of a crowd. With something like the Horror Con, or Collectible Cons, or a Science Fiction Convention like Keycon, people are going there for the thing itself. You get a table or booth there, you know people are coming for that.
This? I didn’t see us getting much more than regular Mall traffic. It might attract a few extra people. But not that many, particularly considering its in an outlying town of 20,000 rather than in the city of a Million.
But I thought, what the hell. Give it a try. Who knows.
