I was at five Points Park in Sarasota for the French Market yesterday Saturday Nov. 2. It's usually a pretty good day for me and a couple other authors that attend the event each year. This year one author did not sell a single book, another sold three, I sold six and the author I shared with did ok but not great. There were more vendors and two food trucks this year. The organizers had really done a fantastic job. Slow sales were definitely not their fault. Although I must say there were not as many shoppers and most were looking not buying.

It's a rather expensive event as events go so it takes selling quite a few books to make it worth while to go considering it's outside and you need to bring a tent, tables and chairs.

I looked at the people passing by and their hands were empty. They were not buying from the other vendors either. Even the Farmers market experienced slow sales. I saw very few bags coming from the farmers market direction. People had drinks and flowers but very little else.

My friends and I had some ideas as to why this might be. It might be the economy. The election around the corner and the uncertainty of the outcome. It could be people are still recovering from back to back hurricanes. Maybe it's all of the these things.

I came away with a $4 profit for the day. Will I do this event again? I'm not sure.