I Left my heart.... In San Francisco... (hum, hum, hum...)

Actually, I think I left my brains there too.  It was a good weekend, but long, and I was still feeling a bit under the weather, and didn't get as much sleep as I should have (but that's the case with ALL book fairs, at least for me).

I did remember to take some pictures of my booth this time.  I forgot to take pictures of other booths and other dealers -- which I was hoping to remember to do.

here are some of the pictures:

 

Here's what the booth looked like from the front.

and from one side

 

and the other side.

here are some individual shelves.

another

 

  

  

And last, but not least.

Overall, I was pleased with the set up I put together. I am never quite happy with it, and when I see all the extravagant booths from the other dealers, well, I just want to crawl under a rock.  But the stock I have is mostly modern and not as showy on the outside as some of the dealers who deal with more antiquarian books.

What sold?

Picture books.

Weirdly enough,  90% of my stock that sold at the fair itself was picture books or youth fiction. 

Very little Science Fiction / Fantasy.

A few ephemera, including three of the items I had especially picked to bring to this fair as a trial of me adding ephemera to my list of book fair takings.

I got myself a trophy case to display better items (or items that were better displayed open).  Of the books in the trophy case NONE sold except for the one item I took out and stuck on the end of a table.  There were a few people who looked in the case and a smaller few who actually asked to look more closely or reached in themselves to find something, but NOTHING from the case sold which was very disappointing to me. 

I did bring a number of items specifically for other dealers to think about -- items not  in my normal area of expertise, but I have to say that few, if any dealers really LOOKED at my stock (except for the children's book dealers) nor bothered to ask me if there was anything they might find interesting.  I know there was a contingent of librarians at the book fair as well, looking for items that might fit their collections (the dealer across from me was quite pleased when Cornell University's librarian stopped by). Either I have books that librarians aren't looking for, or they were much more likely to go to dealers that they already knew. 

In speaking to other dealers at the fair, it appeared that there was much more interest in antiquarian material -- both the dealers themselves, the customers and definitely the librarians -- than in modern material, especially Modern Fiction.  

That being the case, it was still a good fair overall.