The Kensington Book Fair Experience

Tags

Camp Essig, Christoph Fischer, Dalum Lingen, displaced people, Elms Lager, Historical fiction, holocaust, Irena Gierz, Nazi Germany, Ostarbeiter, Poland, Polish Displaced People, preorder, Przedborów Poland, Westerstrasse Oldenburg, world war II, writer Christoph Fischer

  
Saturday was my first appearance at a Book Fair: The Kensington Christmas Book Fair, an annual renowned event with exhibitors from all over the UK. Calligraphers, cover designers and book sellers of all varieties populated the Kensington Town Hall.

It was a fantastic experience, not least thanks to my wonderful and talented fellow authors Skadi Winter, Elisabeth Marrion and DJ Kelly.

We had a very favourable stand near the Cafeteria and within minutes of setting up DJ Kelly and Skadi had their first sales already.

The Fair featured a large variety of exhibitors. We were one of ten guests allowed to participate, so my thanks goes to Elisabeth Marrion who managed to secure us this extremely lucky spot.

It was a tough job for me having to talk for all those hours. I need to step up my game to chat about my books more freely, as was no problem for my eloquent and charming co-sellers.

I managed to exchange notes with texthistory, a fellow blogger who came all the way from Cardiff to catch up with me; explained my work to total strangers and talked to people about the dog in my author picture. At times it almost got too much for me.

I had prepared a lot of promotional materials, including a 6 foot banner and several posters and they were all money well spent.

One of the greatest moments was to see a man come straight to my stand and pick up a few of the business cards and flyers.

The big banner was located at the back of our pinboard, giving us extra exposure that directed readers and browsers to the stand.

Elisabeth got invited to talk about her books in a London school…

I was taken by surprise when my new release Ludwika

stole the show amongst my books and outsold them all. After I held an enthusiastic speech about the background history of the book my small audience all dug into their pockets and had me sign copies. The book has already outdone my other books in the kindle presales but I never expected I would partially sell out at this Book Fair. Halfway through the day all copies of Ludwika had sold. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Ludwika

is based on a real story and I was doubly honoured that a group of Ludwika’s descendants came to visit me at the Book Fair. The book is very close to my heart because of its biographical aspect and the support from the Gierz family was another great moment in my writing life.

 

Unfortunately I failed to get more books myself and I failed to get a signed copy from Elisabeth Marrion and secure myself a copy of her German version of “The Night I Danced With Rommel.”

I did manage to get signed copies from DJ Kelly and Skadi Winter, though.

All in all, a big first step for me  in the world of selling books in person and a wonderful day with fellow authors.

 

 

I am thrilled to announce that  “Ludwika: A Polish Woman’sStruggle To Survive In Nazi Germany”

has been released today! http://smarturl.it/Ludwika

You can find Excerpts of the Novel here:
Excerpt One
Excerpt Two
Excerpt Three

or

Get the book at your Amazon store: http://bookShow.me/1519539118 

 

Here is a review (from an Advance Review Copy) by Lorna Lee, author of “Never Turn Back” and “How Was I Supposed To Know”, to whet your apetite.

“This is the best kind of fiction—it’s based on the real life. Ludwika’s story highlights the magnitude of human suffering caused by WWII, transcending multiple generations and many nations.

WWII left no one unscarred, and Ludwika’s life illustrates this tragic fact. But she also reminds us how bright the human spirit can shine when darkness falls in that unrelenting way it does during wartime.

This book was a rollercoaster ride of action and emotion, skilfully told by Mr. Fischer, who brought something fresh and new to a topic about which thousands of stories have already been told.”