Do Writing Conferences Sell Books?

A Literal Literary Loser Looks ReaListically

Previously on this blog, I’ve tackled the questions of:

Do paid ads sell books? (TL;DR spoiler: Yes, but not enough to make a profit.)

Do book tours sell books? (TL;DR spoiler: Yes, but not enough to make a profit.)

What sells better, independently published fiction or non-fiction? (TL;DR spoiler: Non-fiction by such a huge margin that it isn’t even funny.)

Now, despite already accumulating remarkably consistent results, it is obvious that I have failed to learn my lesson, as I am about to embark on yet another experiment: Do writing conferences sell books?

I’ve lived a lot of lives. Prior to embarking on writing historical fiction, I also wrote romance and mystery novels.

I’ve attended conferences such as Malice Domestic, Bouchercon, and Deadly Ink. My figure skating mysteries were published by Berkley Prime Crime, so they paid to have paperback copies of the first book in the series, “Murder on Ice,” placed in all the attendees’ goodie bags.

I paid for my plane fare, my hotel, and my registration fees. Did the number of books sold as a result of the conferences cover any of those expenses? Even if we pretend that reading a free copy of “Murder on Ice” triggered sales of the follow up titles?

I have a hard time imagining that’s possible.

I also attended a handful of Romance Writers of America conference. One was in New York City, where I already lived, so travel expenses were minimal. The other was in San Francisco, where my parents lived, so I was going to be there anyway. And I had a place to stay. And someone to watch my kids.

At RWA, I was promoting “Oakdale Confidential” and “Jonathan’s Story.” The first book was a tie-in to the soap-opera, “As the World Turns,” and had already spent two weeks at #3 on the NYT Best-seller list. The second was a tie-in to the soap-opera “Guiding Light” and had debuted on the same list at #7.

Would both books have sold the exact same number of titles whether or not I attended any conferences?

I have a hard time imagining they wouldn’t have.

So it would seem I already have my answer to the question I asked at the start of this post.

So why am I in the process of packing my bag - with my 16 year old daughter as my wardrobe supervisor, personal stylist, and offerer of the opinion, “No, Mother, you look stupid in that,” - and getting ready to head out to San Antonio, Texas (where the temperatures are predicted to hit a high of 100 degrees, but, then again, hey, maybe the air won’t be sepia colored like it currently is in NYC) for the Historical Novel Society’s 2023 North America Conference?

The short answer is because, during the pandemic, when we were all locked up indoors, I made a vow to myself that, once we were let out, whenever I was invited to go somewhere, I would. Because you never knew when that option might be taken away again.

The longer answer is because, well, I’m kind of stubborn. And more than a little bit stupid. I am convinced there is a code to be broken when it comes to selling books. And, once day, I’m going to break it.

And then I’m going to share it with all of you.

So, really, I am doing all this for you.

Aren’t you grateful?

I am going to San Antonio to promote two books: “The Nesting Dolls,” my 2020 release from HarperCollins, and “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region,” out November 2022 from History Through Fiction, a micro-press.

I paid for my plane fare, my hotel, and my registration fee. Could the number of books sold as a result of this conference cover any of those expenses?

I’ll let you know - so stay tuned!