Market Season

September 12, 2025 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

Next weekend I’ll be selling books at my stall at the Ōtautahi Crafter’s Market. It’s the first market of what I consider my Christmas market season. I know, I know, Christmas is AGES away, and I won’t start thinking about my own Christmas shopping until at least late November. But thankfully, lots of people start turning their thoughts to gift buying as early as September. Especially, the aunties and grandmas who buy books for their nieces, nephews and grandkids.

So I’ve booked in for a number of markets over the next few months, and I’ve come to realise that, in spite of being a socially awkward introvert who hates crowds and noise, I love selling at markets.

It’s EXHAUSTING, for sure. And it can be really depressing when you have a bad day and don’t even sell enough to cover the cost of your stall. But there’s so much to love about selling at markets.

I love to meet my readers, or the parents/grandparents/aunties of my readers. Anyone who is browsing books at a market where they could instead spend their money on ice cream, hot chips, or cute garden gnomes is serious about books. They’re my kind of people. (Not that I don’t like ice cream, hot chips and garden gnomes, of course). I enjoy hearing what they like to read, who their favourite authors are, and why reading is important to them.
Despite the crowds and noise, I appreciate the festival atmosphere of a market. Aside from the occasional spouse or young child who’s being dragged along against their will, people are there to have a good time. They’re happy. Shopping at a market isn’t like shopping for your groceries, that has to be done whether you want to or not. Market goers are willing victims—er, I mean—customers. And because they’re having fun, it’s easy for me to have fun.
I love the excuse to browse other people’s stalls. I mostly frequent craft markets, and as an avid crafter myself, I love to see what other folks are creating. It’s a great way for me to get my Christmas shopping done, too.
I enjoy the community of market goers. Go to enough markets, and you start to see the same vendors over and over. You say hello, ask how their day is going, whether they’ll be at the next market. For the vendors on either side of your stall, you practically become staff by the end of the day—looking after their stalls while they’re at the loo (and of course they do the same for you), and coming up with clever ways to hawk your own items and theirs together (Look! You can read my great books by the light of those beautiful handmade candles.)
There’s nothing more satisfying than personally sending a copy of one of your books out into the world. Digital sales are fine, but there’s not the same feeling of success as when you actually hand your book to a reader yourself.
I enjoy the creativity involved in creating my stall. Like many authors, I dabble in lots of other creative pursuits. A market stall gives me an opportunity to make use of my sewing, paper crafts, and other creative output to titivate my stall.

In spite of these positive things, I can’t deny that selling at markets can be exhausting and overwhelming. I’ve developed a few techniques to manage the stress that a day among so many people can induce.

The story ball vending machine adds to my market day fun.

Bring a healthy lunch. It’s so easy to think, “Oh, I’ll treat myself to something from a vendor for lunch.” But sugary, salty, greasy food leads to feeling depleted and icky by the end of the day. I take carrot sticks, fruit, and a sandwich—all prepared in bite-sized pieces so I can snatch a bite between customers throughout the day.
Get there early, but not too early. I know how long it takes me to set up. To avoid being stressed about not being ready, and to avoid awkward standing around before the market starts, I time my arrival with just enough time to set up and use the toilet.
Rehearse my spiel. I know what I want to say about each of my books, making it short and snappy. By thinking in advance, I don’t flounder awkwardly for the right words with a customer.
Remember, books don’t sell themselves. I use this truth to my advantage when I need a social break. When I’m overwhelmed and don’t want to engage with anyone, I simply take a step back and stop talking to people. I smile politely, but if I don’t attempt to engage, most people won’t engage with me, and I get to take a break.

I’m looking forward to the coming months, hawking my books to readers. Come visit me at these upcoming markets!

Ōtautahi Crafters Market—20 September, 10am – 5pm at South City Mall

Hokitika Christmas Market—16 November, 10am – 2pm at Seaview Lodge

Lincoln Twilight Market—28 November, 5 – 9pm at Lincoln Event Centre

The Goode Christmas Market—30 November, 10am – 3-pm at Pioneer Stadium, Christchurch

Ōtautahi Crafters Market—20 December, 10am – 4pm at the Air Force Museum of NZ, Wigram

Being True to Yourself

October 24, 2024 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

I recently participated in ALLI’s SelfPubCon, which focused on the business side of writing. There were sessions on using social media, monetising YouTube, website design, using AI for marketing … I watched video after video that made my brain turn off. Video after video teaching me how to cash in on the advertising deluge we all suffer from online. How do you get those irritating ‘commercials’ into your YouTube videos (so you can make money on them)? How do you use Facebook Ads? How do you cash in on third-party advertising on your website?

Ugh!

I hate the constant bombardment of ads for crap no one needs. Do I really want to be a part of that, even if it can make my writing business profitable? Is that really why I write—so people’s interest in my writing can sell salad spinners, ‘miracle’ weight loss pills and erectile dysfunction products?

I despaired until I stumbled across a session on selling physical books. The panelists in this session talked about selling books at markets and fairs, doing school visits, exploring unusual sales outlets like tourist destinations, how to encourage people to buy your books face-to-face.

Yes! This was my kind of marketing. The kind of marketing I’ve been focusing on in the past year. Talking to people, talking about my books, being in the same physical space with potential readers, watching how people interact with my books. Getting that personal connection with readers in the real world.

Start talking to me about SEO, CTR, and ACOS, and my eyes glaze over. But throw me into a room with a bunch of potential readers, and I’m all over it. Watching the session on physical book marketing, I finally realised that it’s not that I can’t understand the online marketing game, it’s that I don’t want to.

Making money from random pop-up ads in my online content goes against my values. Putting my own random pop-up ads in someone else’s online content goes against my values. Bombarding potential readers online every day goes against my values.

And that’s okay.

I don’t have to participate in that madness.

And, yes, perhaps if I had to pay all my bills with my writing, I would feel differently, because god knows it’s hard to make a living selling books at markets. But I like my day job. And while I would love to write full-time, I know that I gain a lot of writing benefit from my day job. I would be a poorer writer without it.

And if making art is about expressing yourself and your values, then why wouldn’t your marketing reflect that as well?

Indeed, how could I, in good conscience, make money from plastic widgets advertised on my website when my books and stories contain so many environmental themes?

So I will continue to trot out my books at local markets, beside other local artists. I’ll continue to work on the board of the Tamariki Book Festival to help other authors do the same. I’ll chat with readers, listen to grandparents talk about the sorts of books their grandkids like to read, discuss dragons and my favourite dragon books with kids, hand out stickers and bookmarks, visit schools and tell children how hard writing is even for me. And I will sell a few books, sign people up for my newsletter (people who actually want to hear from me), and probably end up spending half what I’ve earned buying art from others.

Is that so bad?

Sounds perfect to me, because it is much more aligned with my values. It values personal connections and supporting others. It recognises the value in the art itself, rather than measuring the value of the art in terms of what else can be marketed alongside it.

And maybe I won’t ever be able to support myself with my writing. But I will be true to myself.

And … um … not to deluge you with marketing, but if you happen to be in the area, come say hello and pick up some Christmas gifts at these upcoming markets:

Sunday 3 November—North Canterbury Creative Market, 11 am – 3 pm, Rangiora Showgrounds
Sunday 10 November—Goode Christmas Market, 10 am – 4 pm, Pioneer Stadium, Christchurch
Saturday 7 December—Rolleston Market, 10 am – 2 pm, Rolleston Community Centre
Sunday 15 December—North Canterbury Creative Market, 11 am – 3 pm, Kaiapoi Club

The Writing Life

January 12, 2024 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

A couple days ago, I sat down at my desk, knowing I had a lot of ‘business’ to deal with. I was determined to complete these necessary but uninspiring tasks (cashbook marketing, etc.) quickly, so that I could get on to the writing I wanted to do.

First job was to check my email.

And this was the first message I opened:

Hi there Robinne
I bought your whole Dragon Defence League Series at the Spencer Park Market and you personalised one of the books for my son Mathew. I just wanted to write to let you know that he absolutely loves the first book and is over half way through and keeps telling us all about what is happening in the book. We have never seen him so glued to a book before and he never tells us what is happening so it has made a massive impression on him so thank you so much for writing them.

Well, there’s no better way to start your day than that! This is exactly the sort of thing I live for as a writer. To make an impression, to capture the imagination of a reader is the whole point of writing. And to have my book be the book that opens a child’s mind to the wonder of stories is something special, indeed.

It reminds me of the real reason I write. Oh, I would love to be able to make a living at this. The validation of a living wage would be amazing.

But it’s not why I write. I write to connect with others through words. There’s something magical about having an impact on a reader you have never met.

And I’m regularly reminded that I’m not the only writer who has to fund their passion with other endeavours. On a recent episode of Writing Excuses (a writing podcast I highly recommend), the topic of the week was how to fund the writing life. The whole point of the episode was that it’s okay, normal, and totally possible to purposely engage in money-making activities to support your writing habit, and that choosing activities that feed into your writing is the key to making the most of your time.

So, yeah, I teach three days a week in order to support the two days a week of writing. And because I teach students within my target audience, I know what my audience likes to read, know what sorts of life experiences they have, understand how current events resonate (or don’t) with them. I have an eager and ready population of beta readers at my fingertips, and a ready source of story inspiration.

It’s no different from when I was running the Bugmobile, my science outreach programme for schools. Bugmobile fees barely covered my costs, though I was charging schools as much as I possibly could. So I funded the Bugmobile by doing much more lucrative heritage interpretation consulting for various local and national agencies and organisations. The consulting work was interesting, but not my passion. But the skills to do both were similar, and it was a way to ensure I could continue to run the Bugmobile.

I will admit I ended 2023 feeling guilty for ‘wasting’ so much time, money and effort writing books and stories that don’t pay the bills. But I’m launching 2024 with a different attitude. And with a new realisation.

Back in 2005, when I first developed the idea for the Bugmobile, I wrote a mission statement. I don’t remember it exactly, but it was something along the lines of connecting people with the amazing nature found in their back yards and encouraging people to explore the world around them. I have realised that I’m still doing that as a writer. When I closed the Bugmobile and started writing, I felt like I’d cut off an arm. How could I stop interpreting the natural world?

The answer is I never did stop. I just don’t think I realised it. My Dragon Defence League books, which captivated Mathew, are a celebration of the landscapes and natural history of Aotearoa New Zealand. Yes, I’ve put dragons in there, but only to illuminate our relationship with the natural world and how it’s evolving over time. Only to give me a tool to envision a different way we might think of the natural world and our place in it. Digging deeply into all my stories—fantasy, science fiction, climate fiction, horror—they all contain elements of heritage interpretation.

The truth is, while I believed I was building a business, first with the Bugmobile and interpretation consultancy, and now with the writing, I’ve actually been building a life. A life with meaning and direction.

I still have to make sure I’m paying the bills, and I still need to spend time worrying about marketing, but putting my writing in the larger context, and reminding myself of the larger goals I have for my life, helps me to let go of the feeling that net profit from the sales of my books and stories is the primary measure of success.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy my books. They’re great! Fun reads, and full of environmental themes … Go on, you know you want to.

Ah … the holiday season …

December 2, 2023December 1, 2023 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

It’s the time of year when an author’s thoughts naturally turn to …

…marketing.

Yes, it’s sad that I have spent more time considering how I’m going to sell books this holiday season than I have planning my family’s Christmas celebrations and summer holiday trips.

This year, I’ve decided to explore the summer market scene. My first market is coming up this Sunday.

The North Canterbury Creative Market will be held from 11 am to 4 pm on Sunday, 3 December at the Rangiora Showgrounds (156 Ashley St, Rangiora). I’m really excited about this market, not just for the possibility of selling some books, but also because there will be over 80 stalls bursting with locally made awesomeness. I can’t imagine a better place to find unique Christmas gifts that support local creatives.

I’ll also have a stall at the Spencer Park Market and Gala from 10 am to 4 pm on January 1st and 2nd. This event is sure to be a fun time for the whole family, with food, rides and games in addition to over 115 craft and market stalls. I can already taste the mini-donuts …

In the pursuit of sales, I have also joined 76 other fantasy and science fiction authors to offer you an amazing lineup of gift ideas this Christmas. Check out some of these awesome books, either for yourself or those readers on your gift list.

And finally, I’ve discounted my e-books on Smashwords for their End of Year Sale. From 15 December through 1 January, my books are 50% off, along with zillions of other discounted or free books from other authors. This is definitely a sale to take advantage of. Stock up on reading material for the holidays.

And once all that marketing is out of the way, yeah, I guess I need to think about what I’m getting folks for Christmas … And I definitely need to spend a few days at the beach.

Walk the Plank

March 6, 2017 / Robinne Weiss / Leave a comment

The edits are done. It’s ready to roll. Shh! Don’t tell anyone!

Late last year I made the decision to independently publish my books. I had self-published a book early in the year, just to become familiar with the process. It was easy…except for the crucial step. Once my book was available for everyone to buy and read, I was suddenly not able to tell anyone about it. I’d done some promotion in the lead-up to publication, but once it was out there, I was absolutely petrified to advertise.

So along with the decision to self-publish the next two books, I made a New Year’s resolution. I was going to promote my books. I was going to make phone calls and personal visits to get my books into bookstores and libraries, get them into the hands of readers. I was going to blow my own horn and not be shy about it, because no one else was going to do it for me. This was marketing. People went to school to learn how to do it, so it must be learnable. I would learn to do it.

Yeah…right.

For two weeks, I’ve been agonising over a media release and press kit. I’ve been finding every reason not to send the information out, not to put it on my website.

Not that I think the marketing information I’ve prepared is in any way faulty. The writing of promotional material isn’t rocket science. It’s writing. I’m actually pretty good at that.

No, my problem is the same thing that made me freeze last year; the intense aversion I have to self-promotion. It’s not the fear that someone will read my books and not like them–that’s going to happen, for sure, and it doesn’t worry me. I don’t think it’s the fear that, even after a lot of promotion, no one will read my books. It’s a fear of the marketing process itself. The fear of saying, “Hey, I’ve created something I think you’ll really like. Something that’s worth your time and money.”

It should be easy–I like my books, and I think they are worth people’s time and money. But it is proving to be the single hardest aspect of writing for me.

I started writing because I needed a new challenge. I thought having enough ideas, staying focused on my task, putting words on paper would be the challenges. Little did I know…

I have made the resolution. I will do it. I’ll send out that promotional material. I’ll hand out my advertising bookmarks everywhere I go. I’ll make all those necessary phone calls. I’ll walk into those bookstores…

But one at a time. With sweaty palms and nervous smiles. It’s unlikely to be pretty. It’s sure to be less effective than I’d like. But my bold pirate self is standing on deck with a sword at my back, and the timid self (the one afraid of sharks) is going to have to walk that plank.