The New Zealand report
Hello everyone!
Last weekend I went to my first book fair since leaving full time work, Photobook New Zealand, and I have to say that overall it was a huge success.
I went to Photobook NZ for a few reasons:
I was lucky enough to be invited to teach a workshop as part of the festival, and the fee for that workshop more than covered the travel.
There was a book fair for one day and I wanted to see how my books sold.
NZ is pretty close to Australia, and travel between the two countries is relatively cheap and easy - so the chances of things being tiring, stressful or hard were pretty low.
And, to be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I hadn’t been to this fair before and I never know if a fair will be a big busy event, a big sales day, or something more calm and quiet. But, for a lot of reasons, I am so glad I went.
First of all: I really love Wellington. I first visited Wellington in 2013 and had a total blast. It’s a great place to wander around and the people there are super nice. I remember in 2013 hanging with a friend and going driving around the bays, finding a great Indian restaurant, spending some time at a local market talking to a guy about his absolutely immense brownies that were for sale. This time I was lucky enough to stay with friends, but found a really similar experience of enjoying exploring the hills and valleys and just chatting with a lot of locals.
It’s interesting how some cities feel warm and easy while others might feel a bit harder or more distant. I remember being in Beijing, for example, which while I was there on my own, was a much more isolating experience.
Anyway, APART from the fact that I really love Wellington here are a bunch of other reasons the fair was a success.
I sold a LOT of books. In fact, this was the best single day of sales that I have ever had. For me, a ‘normal’ day of sales at a fair is 1 book per hour, so if that had held true that would have been 6-8 books. But we sold 32 books in a day. My goal is to sell 350 books by Christmas and that single day was basically 10% of that goal. Which is just so huge.
I met some incredible artists - I was really impressed at meeting Solomon Mortimer - a NZ book maker who does some really interesting things with the form.
I had a blast staying with my friend and getting to know him better.
The workshop that I taught alongside two other folks was really, really fun. It was a big ambitious day and hosted at a well equipped University. Being in a space with a few good tools helped me learn a lot about how I can bring further customisation and skills into my own workshops in Melbourne. I have a few concrete ideas and am really looking forward to incorporating those.
I feel like I also made some great connections. I’ll be back in NZ in September for a few days and I think I might be able to do a few small talks or things like that while there, all based on the conversations that I had at Photobook NZ.
So, honestly, for a Thursday-Monday trip this was excellent. Truly a blast, truly so many good things happening.
Outside of the fair, there also continue to be some positives in this 6 month experiment. I can’t go into details just yet as things haven’t 100% happened, but there have been a few really big wins that bring in some good income that were completely unexpected. The timing is really amazing here and I really can’t wait to share.
Some days it feels like it’s really happening, I’m doing it, I’m working for myself and making enough money to keep going. This is literally the dream.
At the same time, I want to make sure that I’m not getting ahead of myself. We’re 6 weeks into this experiment and while it’s going well now there could well be tougher times ahead. Inevitably there will be ups and downs, and I love the highs but it’s vital not to assume the highs are the norm that and that every day or month will go as well as the last few weeks. I don’t want to be somber or sad, but just recognise that if I wind myself up and think ‘this is the new normal’ then the quiet months, the slower sales days, etc, will really sting.
Instead, make hay while the sun shines, bask in the good days and take a slightly more distant view, that’s what I’ll do.
Thanks for being here - it’s great to share the ups with an audience. These, in the grand scheme of things, are small wins, but for me they really encourage me to keep going and feel like I’m getting there. The feeling of pride I get from the times my little business does well is so much more than the feeling of pride I had working for someone else. There’s just so much more depth and excitement when Tall Poppy had a great day or weekend.