If you cannot find a local author event happening in your area (say within about 50 miles) almost every three months then it might be time for you to create your own. Some areas of Florida are pretty well covered with events that you can participate in. Those in public venues like libraries and sometimes in bookstores will be free for you to attend. Some at festivals and bigger events will cost you money to be a vendor. You may want to get yourself a paper monthly calendar to plan out the events at least 6 to 12 months in advance. The reason being is that some fill up quickly and others require an application process as well as a fee to be paid.
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There are several things you will need to attend these events depending on whether they are being held inside, outside, provides tables and chairs or don’t. At a minimum you will need to own or borrow a rain-proof canopy tent, a table or two and some comfortable chairs. You will also need a table cloth as well as printed marketing materials like posters, bookmarks and business cards. Of course, you will need to have copies of your books available to sell and and autograph. So that means you will need a couple of nice pens, some extra money to make change and the ability to take credit cards. You may not use the credit machine as most events but being able to accept them may one day get you more sales. SquareUp is still Free to join, they will send you a free device or you can purchase an inexpensive one that takes the chip credit cards and they will only charge about 2.5% to 3% percentage on sales per transaction. And they will send the money directly to your checking account the next business day.
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Now keeping all that in mind you might want to create a “Support Your Local Author Event” yourself. Depending on whether you can get access to a inside or outside space you will need to take into consideration the time of year, weather considerations for outside events and whether there are any major events/festivals happening in the same area during the same time you want to hold yours. If you can get access to a space in the local library you will also need to consider how much space they are willing to give you because that will determine how many authors to invite as well as having space for their readers/buyers. Check out the Lafayette County Florida Library Author Event I attended last month: https://townofmayo.org/hopping-friday-at-the-library/ They generally will also have tables and chairs for everyone. You will just need to organize the event, gather participants, print off some flyers and email all the local radio stations and newspapers to see if they would be willing to do a PSA of your event. Those are for free and open to the public events that help out the community.
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If you have to pay for a space then you will need to pass that cost on to the authors who are participating. Getting authors to pay vendor fees generally will require that you can give them a better than average chance at actually selling their books, learn new skills by holding writing information sessions, network with other writers, etc. Most of these types of events generally require sponsorship of the local writers group, association, bookstore or other organization that would be willing to help you will advertising and snacks. Of course, offering tables and chairs will probably be required as well. Marketing for these types of events may include paying for ads on local radios, placing Facebook ads, printing off flyers and posters to post around town.
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I am in the process of creating one of those events right now. It was originally scheduled for October 19th. I had a free space set up and the owner willing to pay for snacks and provide the tables and table clothes but not the chairs. I paid for the flyers to be printed and kept in touch with the 11 authors who agreed to participate by sending out emails every week or so. Of course, on the day of the event there was a predicted tropical storm coming through the area. I had all the participating authors texting me that they couldn’t chance driving through the weather. So now, it has been rescheduled for November 16th. The owner of the place (Chiefland Farmers Flea Market) has agreed to allow us to still use their facility but they could not provide a space inside the market so we have been given space in the front area. So, now everyone has to bring their own tents, tables and chairs. We will post an update when we have completed the event.
