We participated in our very first outdoor market as a vendor on May 23, 2026. It was a big challenge, really tough, and a lot of fun. We're definitely doing it again.
I thought I'd draft a little recap as to how this all happened...
Applying to be a Vendor
This one is all luck and coincidence. When we were attending Norwescon back in early April, I happened to be in a line waiting to get a signature and after a while of just sitting there I decided to chat with the person next to me. I introduced myself (Brianne) and offered them a couple of our current ARCs and got to talking about book publishing and book selling because Kate is the owner of Ballast Book Company! She mentioned that she might have a spot at their upcoming inaugural indie book fair. I said I was interested if the opportunity opened up. A few days later on April 8th she sent me the information and I sent in the application, etc... and they were able to include us as a featured press!
Vendor Equipment
Now, if you're looking at the dates that I've mentioned so far, you'll notice that I had just over 6 weeks to get ready. The equipment that we already had at that point for an outdoor market was a few seminar sized folding tables, a letterboard, a Shopify tap to pay device, 3 tabletop retractable signs, a couple small easels, empty picture frames, a clipboard, and a logo branded tablecloth. Which is a decent start, but not really a full setup. So I started doing a lot of research into what else we might need. We ended up purchasing folding chairs, a 10 x 10 canopy with mesh side walls, canopy weights, stretchy tablecloths, book boxes, a bag display stand, mini tables, a cash box & kensington lock, a hanging fan, and clear book ends.
We also purchased... MORE BOOKS. We ordered 50 of each book in addition to mini totes, cute bookmarks, and some sharpies (for signing the totes). This ended up being very anxiety inducing because the books arrived the day before the market.
While we were waiting for supplies to arrive, we set up our planned booth in our garage. We slowly added items as they showed up and eventually we felt like we had a workable setup. The day before the market we packed everything into our car and it was a very tight fit, but we did it.
Getting to Bremerton
The day of the market our 2 year old woke us up at 6 am. So we decided to just head out. We drove down to Seattle and grabbed ourselves an indulgent breakfast at La Parisienne before heading over to pick up a friend, who had kindly agreed to come with us to hang out with the aforementioned 2 year old. We then headed over to the ferry. We caught the 8:30 am ferry from Seattle to Bremerton and had a lovely trip across the water.
Setting up the Booth
We arrived at Quincy Square right around 9:35 am. So we hustled to get set up before the event began at 11. We had 3 adults and 1 toddler, so we really had 2 adults. Happily the trial run in the garage helped us know where things went though, as always, reality had a way of adjusting the plans.
The Main Event!
I didn't count how many people stopped into the booth to just browse or chat, but over the course of the event we ended up having 18 customers. We sold 26 books, 4 totes, 2 sharpies, and 2 bookmarks for a total of $620 in sales.
Loadout
The event ended pretty promptly at 5:30 and we all hustled to get packed up. Once we got the car loaded up we drove back to the ferry and headed home. We made it there around 8:30 PM.
So here's the gritty details of the day:
Full day 6:30 AM - 8:00 PM - event ran from 11 AM - 5:30 PM
10 x 10 Canopy - $380
Canopy Mesh Sides - $132
16 10 lb Canopy weights - $162
2 stretchy green tablecloths - $24
Logo tablecloth - $350
3 folding tables - already owned
Tall folding chairs - $257
5 clear book boxes - $66
4 tabletop easels - $27
8 clear bookends - $16
Letterboard - already owned
3 retractable tabletop signs - $104
Frames - already owned
Bag Display stand - $13
3 mini tables - $23
Cashbox & kensington lock - $35
Clipboard - already owned
Hanging Fan - $39
Total Booth & Equipment cost: $1,628 (all reusable!)
Business Cards - $65
Freebie Bookmarks - $36
189 paperback books $730
50 Bookmarks $102
50 mini totes $408
72 Sharpies - $36
Total Merchandise cost: $1377 (sold about 10% of it!)
Booth Fee - $40
Event Insurance - $49
Round Trip Ferry Fare: $79
Parking: $12
Food for 3 meals for 3 adults and 1 toddler: $194 (Yes, I know this could have been much cheaper, but we opted to not worry about it today.)
Total other expenses: $374
Final thoughts
I'm incredibly grateful to our friend for attending this market with us because our kiddo refused to hang out in our booth for the first HALF of the day. So she got in ALL of her steps for the day before noon. We really would have struggled without her help.
And on the one hand, we are very clearly upside down on this one event. On the other hand, we learned a lot about what we need bring with us to be successful and most of these were one time expenses. If you exclude the equipment and merch we didn't sell... we netted maybe $108. But this experience was more about meeting new readers and trialing a new sales channel for us than it was about making money. Our merchandise costs have us well stocked for our next two markets and I'm excited to see how we do at future events. We also know more about what else we want to purchase for our setup to increase our visibility (mostly signage and portable storage).
Ultimately I'm incredibly happy with how this market went for us and I'm looking forward to our next ones. Right now we're hoping to participate in the following events this summer:
Bookish Bazaar @ Old Stove Brewery
Saturday, June 27, 2026 10 AM - 3 PM Northwest Book Fair
Saturday, August 8, 2026 10 AM - 4 PM Stanwood BookFest
Sunday, August 9, 2026 12 PM - 4 PM Puget Sound Book Festival
We hope to see you there and happy reading!
1 comment
Fascinating reading all the details!!!