Selling books at markets sounds simple: figure out where your readers are, set up a table, and sell them books. If only. The basic idea is sound. My friend, a food critic, wrote a book about the evolution of Southern cooking. Farmers’ markets and foodie conferences were obvious possibilities. I write witchy romantic suspense, so I go to witch markets, pagan events with a vendor area, craft fairs, and book festivals. Finding a market that caters to your target audience is only the beginning....

A few years ago, a friend of a friend knew the owner of a witchy shop in Chicago. I was going to be in town for a week, and the owner invited me to do a reading and book signing. Great! The coordinator and I exchanged enthusiastic emails. She joked that she didn't know there were witches in Texas. (It's a big place, darlin'.) We discussed the reading. We discussed the event. We even got down to the important details of the after-party: Did I prefer red wine or white? I bought a new dress....

No longer working for the Three Initial Company has an unexpected occupational hazard: I forget when Labor Day is. Fortunately, a post this week reminded me it was coming up. And then, as reminders often do, it jogged my memory about a previous post that was much more interesting than having a day off work: what was it like to actually work in ancient Egypt? So I dug it out of the archives, dusted off the sand, and decided it was time for an update. Turns out working in ancient Egypt was not...