Yesterday the Arlington Author Salon held its annual book fair. We welcomed 19 local authors who sold books published in 2025 or 2024. The energy at the Roasted Granola Café was amazing. Everyone seemed to have fun, from the authors to the customers to the Roasted Granola owners, who circulated to speak with all the authors. I organized the event with my friend Yelena Lembersky and left afterwards feeling pleased and exhausted, cradling four new books including Lake Song by Lesley Bannatyne, Last Night at the Disco by Lisa Borders, If You Must Go I Wish You Triplets by Virginia DeLuca, and Heather Treseler’s Auguries & Divinations, a book of poetry which won a Massachusetts book award. I don’t think people realize how hard it is to succeed as an author. Recent statistics reveal that 80% of published books do not sell 100 copies. Only 6% sell 1000 copies. Print book sales are down 0.6% through October with 3.3 million fewer books sold than in the same period in 2024 according to Circana BookScan. Yikes!
