Preliminary Event Info

Hello and welcome to Katharine is figuring this out as she goes and thank you for being here and she would love your input and or help. This page is a far easier way to update everyone involved when to copy/paste into DMs.

With the final numbers in from the locations. I’m going to be hosting the show at the Washtenaw Fairgrounds. I’m working on the form for any authors/book themed vendors who want to attend. Obviously giving first consideration to any author who dropped out of Dreaming Dirty, second for any one who dropped another AAP event, and third a general pool.

General notes. My goal is to raise enough by ticket sales (broken down below), donations, or even do a go-fund me page to cover the costs of the venue, so authors who dropped an AAP event don’t have to pay for this alt event. If someone wants to be involved who didn’t drop Dreaming Dirty - I’m down to charge a small table fee to pay for any unexpected expenses that pop up. And maybe feed the authors/vendors?

This is my thought process on tickets… If we can set tickets for $15 per adult ($20 for 50 VIP tickets) in advance or $15 at the door (waive if they paid for DD tickets) we can split these funds to cover event space rental, running ads, picking up little things for the con (stickers, lanyards, bags, etc - I’m not trying to go crazy here, but I want this to be an event and not three raccoons in a trench-coat).

To be transparent about any extra funds - since I am setting this up, I would like to pay myself something at least enough so I can take the volunteers (who are probably going to be made up of my friends and family) - to a good dinner with drinks after.

Event Name: Books in the Barn
I have our space narrowed down to the Washtenaw Country Fairgounds I’ve listed the pro’s and con’s I noticed at my visit below. I also drove around the Ann Arbor and surrounding area bookstores and several are willing to put flyer up about this event, so I can get those out when we decide.

I am working with some aesthetic thing to dress the barn up a bit - I’m open to ideas

Washtenaw Fairgrounds - toured 2/20 (Website)

Hear me out. I have done shows at other fairgrounds before and always make good money. Washtenaw holds a bookswap event here and the parking lot packed when they open. It is a 10 minute drive from the original location on regular roads.

There are several barns available to rent, I think the smallest one is the only one available but it’s 3500 square ft. To put any fear of this aside there are bathrooms on site and they are not port-a-potties.

Pros - The parking lot is dirt, but there is plenty of parking and the building itself has a concrete floor. You can pull up to unload your supplies, I will be getting volunteers to help. The building is climate controlled - April is a toss-up month for weather, so believe me I checked. If the weather is good, we an leave the big doors open to let in the sun if its nice, or if it’s windy or cold we can shut them. They will set up the tables in the layout we provide - 8 ft tables with chairs.
There is more space so we wouldn’t have to time the tickets. The capacity limit is roughly 500, and I can’t imagine that happening within one hour.

We can host more vendors/authors. I provided a diagram below with 10ft sections so we have good walkways. With all authors/vendors holding a 8ft table, so if we split tables, we can squeeze more in - if there is interest.
With all 8ft tables: We can set up for 27 authors/vendors (1 section reserved for tickets and 1 for me). I have the layouts below - 10 areas with 8 ft tables in them. We can put the middle tables at the edges of the 10 foot sections, and make sure the table lining parameters (walls) are pushed in a bit, so we maintain good walkways and everyone has wiggle room.

Cons - The dirt parking lot might be a little muddy. We would need to supply our own linens. The location is more rural. There is less immediately available for food - but we are allowed to have food trucks. As long as they have a generator it wouldn’t cost extra. If the truck needs a hook-up it would require another $100 per truck.

Notes: We’re allowed roughly 8hours including the set-up and takedown. We can have access to the barn 7am - 11pm. Obviously we won’t need all but it gives us flexibility.

27 Authors/Vendors

I am not going to lie the Fairgrounds impressed me. I was throwing paint at the wall when I reached out to them, but it’s a nice site. Maybe this is the country girl in me? I might be a little bias. Also the idea of not having to closely monitor when people are coming and going was a huge selling point to me.

There is a form below so you can share any thoughts you have.