Book Fair Report - some light money analysis
Hello everyone,
Over September-October, Tall Poppy Press was present at three book fairs. I wanted to provide a bit of an overview and some thoughts on how this went.
Two of the book fairs were in New York City. The first was the New York Art Book Fair, which is one of the largest book fairs in the world. We had been told by many people that this is a great fair with good sales and strong interest. As recently as May, when I was at the LA Art Book Fair, other publishers were saying that NYC was the place to be.
The other New York book fair was the Photobook weekend at the International Centre for Photography. While smaller in scale, ICP is a big venue and there’s a lot of love for this event.
Finally, last weekend I was at Same Page, a local fair here in Melbourne.
So, how did we do?
At NYABF we sold: 34 books
At ICP we sold: 35 books
At Same Page we sold: 32 things (some prints and caps!)
Of these, Same Page was clearly profitable. There were no travel costs involved and the participation fee was like $60 or something. This means that we did fairly well! Same Page also helped confirm that I should always have little A4 prints for sale (I sold 7, or about $150 worth), and that our merch sells more on the table rather than displayed on the wall. I put some caps on the table for the second day and sold 3. I also sold 11 books that I had purchased from another publisher who doesn’t stock books in Australia. So a nice little earner.
The New York fairs were sort of a bust. After shipping costs, table fees (which can be close to $1000 AUD) and paying staff a little, we basically broke even. Despite all the hype around these events, there wasn’t the conversion to noticeably larger sales.
I’ve kept coming back to this lesson again and again over the last twelve months: there are almost no international fairs where just turning up make sense. In this case, just turning up means having a standard table, no book launches, no talks, etc, essentially just having a little pop up.
The exception to this is if the events are smaller fairs (where we’re more visible), or we can run an event (talk, panel, launch) it simply costs too much, or the travel costs are lower. Especially in the USA and EU where travel costs and currency exchange rates are much less favourable for Aussies. When I do fairs in Asia it’s much easier to come back with a bit of extra cash in the pocket.
These two NYC fairs were the first international fairs that I wasn’t present at and I know that the people who tabled did a great job. In a lot of cases, purchasers were at our table specifically to see their friends who were staffing for us. But nevertheless, the sales were lower than fairs I attended.
Yet even without travel costs (airfare and hotel), once we look at shipping books overseas, and then shipping excess back to Australia, actually the sales just weren’t there.
Late last year I sort of shared that I thought as we had more titles we’d see more sales. After all, if any book can sell 1-5 copies at a fair, then having more books will result in more sales. That was certainly true at Same Page, and I think to some extent also true at some other fairs.
But there have been some good events this year for sure, so let’s recap them.
TOKIO book fair: I sold 48 books/prints (break even)
Melbourne Art Book Fair: 26 books (easily profitable)
LA Art Book Fair: 74 books (break even, man I got hammered on a few costs IN LA)
Honey Bones: 7 books (profitable)
Arles + Paris: 66 books (with the cost of accommodation in France a slight loss)
NYABF: 34 books
ICP: 35 books
Same Page: 32 books/prints
Looking at these numbers I can see a few clear patterns, or at least things worth investigating further.
a) Fairs in Australia are very profitable, even if I am unable to be present. It’s just an easy win. The same is true in NZ (from last year)
b) Overseas fairs are break even when I attend, or very slight loss (but this is ok, it’s a subsidised holiday), if I can learn more about expenses (for example, in LA ubers were SO FUCKING EXPENSIVE and if I’d rented a car, booked slightly pricer accommodation near a train/bus/walkable I’d have saved like $300) then I can get to a point where break even turns to slight profit.
c) Overseas fairs where I’m not present aren’t working. If this is going to be a good thing to do moving forward I need to send fewer books so I don’t pay much return postage (I had made some profit at the second New York book fair and then boom it all went in very expensive return postage).
d) It is worth picking up books from other publishers that I think will sell here, in smallish quantities, for local book fairs. That’s a way to turn a break even or slight profit into a bigger profit down the road (as happened this year, buying books in France, then selling later in Melbourne was a good earner)
e) ALWAYS BRING PRINTS - the cost to profit ratio is so nice. It may cost me $2-4 to make a print at home, and I sell these for like $20, which is really nice little boost and very profitable and also they are light and easy to transport.
f) Asia is worth prioritising, then Europe, then the USA - but the reality is that the big events in the USA cost a lot (again, fair participation alone is $1000 or more), and perhaps not worth it. If the fair participation was like $250 or something we’d be looking ok.
g) Last, but not least, I have to get on top of shipping. I can ship to overseas locations at fairly reasonable rates, but shipping back home YIKES. If I want to be traveling and selling (and given I sold ~300 books at fairs that’s actually somewhat important), prioritising making smaller and lighter books, and sending fewer copies will reduce costs.
I guess the theme is: making a clear connection to the local market, with a range of products, and cutting costs to the bone has seen profitability. Being able to do so more regularly, and avoiding fairs where I’m just one of the punters, will reduce costs and even if sales don’t increase (and I think that they will) there’ll be more money in my pocket.
Over the next few months I only have one more fair: the Tokyo Art Book Fair. The good thing about Tokyo is that it is relatively cheap and relatively wealthy. It’s cheaper to fly there than other places, I can stay in cheap hotels, food is cheap and I just catch the subway. I am also connecting with more stores in Japan, so there’s always another 10-30 books sold to stores when I visit. I think it’s worth spending more time in Japan, Korea, maybe China and perhaps Bangkok or Singapore. Again a combination of much cheaper travel along with comparable sales just make sense.
In 2026 I can’t afford to be exploratory with book fairs any more. If the costs are large then I have to say no, unless I can be there, we have a new product that works for the local market, or I’m part of the programming. The other truth is that book signings are a waste of time for me, they are the most common form of events, but that doesn’t really help unless there’s a bit of buzz about a person.
The tension is always that larger growth seems more possible at larger events and in larger cities. However, this has not always proven to be the case.
The good news is that there are many reasonably priced events, and many opportunities to be present at events, workshops, etc.
In Tokyo I’m hoping to sell about $4-5000 of books, prints and merch, through the fair and to stores. This would be a modest increase on my sales in LA and France, and about double what I sold last time at the TOKIO fair. However, the TOKIO fair was about 1/5 the size, I now have more stores to stock in, and I have more to sell.
So that’s how the fairs went this year, and it’s fair to say that the NYC fairs were, all in all, not really worth it, but the lessons did not come at so great a cost I’m in trouble.
At the end of the day any books that sell have tax deductible cost, so the worst case this year (breaking even) still results in some more money coming in (larger tax return). That’s the silver lining.
Matt