Detroit Bookfest, Kindle rankings soar and deals
Tuesday, August 11, 2026 — The Detroit Bookfest (formally the Detroit Festival of Books) begins early in the morning, with vendors setting up early and shoppers setting out early as well. When I arrived, faithfully driven by my husband, Tim, he dropped me off right there. I wended my way on foot this way and that to find our numbered table. Later, I saw that there is a numbered table map posted by the bathrooms. (Note to self: if the map is available on the website, bring that with me).
I found our table cubbied in between two other tables, which each faced a walkway. Ours was pigeon-holed. When I pointed this out to one of the staff, she didn’t seem to think anything could be done about it. No one had yet arrived at an adjacent table and so I switched the table numbers and she said she didn’t see anything. I felt a twinge bad about it, but later, when she arrived, some different staff saw the issue and moved her to a better spot. Tim parked and joined me to help set up and say hi to our son.
We set up my half of the table our son, David (Davey) applied for and kindly offered to share with me. I share the table fee, which was $60 ($30 each). After I wasn’t accepted for this fall’s Ann Arbor Community Book Fest, I realized that perhaps having only two published books (so far) is not considered enough for my own table (at least for them). When I took part in 2024, it was through an association I belong to, The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. That was a different set-up, with multiple tables shared by multiple of their authors. SCBWI wasn’t taking part this year. Oh well.
Davey has five books, art prints (collage) and a zine, so I tried to take up less space. For being nearly in his mid-30s, he is a prolific author. He’s had small press publishers for all of his books. I’m so proud of him. As I say, the ink in our family runs deep. Both of my parents were writers. As well as my maternal grandmother, and I wonder how much farther back than that the writing gene goes? Mom’s only living sibling, my Uncle Kenny, might know.
The two days prior to the Bookfest, Sunday, July 19, were hazardous air days due to smoke that traveled here from wildfires in Canada and Wisconsin. The air was not ideal for the fest, but after being cooped up for a couple of days inside during the summer, streams of humanity poured past our tables for most of the day.
I loved spending time with our son. The event was officially from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. We both had decent sales for the day, with a strong finish. I sold nine books throughout the day, so it was a little slow, but of course, these events are about more than sales. I sold more copies of How Happy Is a Lark? than Into the Thicket. I’m happy to have the paperback version of Thicket, most of all, for the more reasonable price. It retails at $14.99. My “show price” was $12, $10 for Lark.
Davey ventured out in the morning to get us coffees and encountered a long line. I’d had some at home earlier and wasn’t sure if I’d want another but walking through the festival earlier and catching the scent of the roasted beans, I couldn’t resist. It’s funny to people who have known us how “into” coffee we are now — we never used to drink it. I half joke that my Mom has slightly possessed us in order to share her joy of coffee from the afterlife.
Later, I visited the food trucks and picked us up a delicious lunch: fries to share, a fish sandwich for me and a burger for Davey.
To a passerby in a Michigan State cap, I called out from our table, “Go green!” She chuckled and stopped at our table rather than just walking by, as most people do. We chatted about MSU a bit and she bought a copy of Lark. When the crowds were present, most of the day, it was hard for me to be heard, but this was toward the end of the day when it had quieted a bit. I tend to do this anyway, but calling out random compliments can be a nice way to connect with someone, whether or not they stop. And, it just might make someone’s day brighter and make a table stop more likely ;) Recently, walking in downtown Ann Arbor with a friend, someone in a car at a light where we were crossing, shouted out that she liked our loose and flowing pants. It was so surprising and random, it made us happy.
Like last year, a former elementary (and above) classmate of my younger son, Celina and her friend, stopped by our table and both bought books! I signed them to her children and she showed me their picture — adorable! Another person who purchased Lark said she’s an administrator for the St. Clair Shores School District and she’s often looking for books to read to the students and we talked about a possible author event. A K-5 music teacher was looking for fun books to work into her curriculum and took some of my book info. There was an older woman who said she bought Lark last year for her niece’s 50th birthday — I remember her. Her niece, named Lark, loved the book and cried, she said! A couple different people noticed the Kuhnlein name at our table. One was the spouse of Tim’s cousin, another a good friend of another of his cousins. There are many Kuhnleins in the Grosse Pointe area. I met some of Davey’s friends and coworkers who stopped by to see him.
At the Detroit Bookfest, I held a raffle for cute and somewhat realistic rabbit and lark stuffies (when squeezed, it chirps). For their email, to subscribe to my infrequent enews, they’re entered. I had about a dozen entries and randomly selected one near the show’s end. The mom of the happy recipient was kind enough to share a photo! She hadn’t yet bought my books, but said she was going to do so.
Last week, I happened to check my Amazon rankings and was excited to see that the Kindle version of Into the Thicket had soared into the top 50 best sellers in the Children’s Rabbit Books category! The highest I saw was in 26th place, they update hourly. I checked my sales reports and there was nothing new happening there. I figured they might take time to post. I chatted with the Amazon’s AI bot that told me how long they can take to post, for Kindle, 24 - 48 hours. For book purchases, not until they ship. After several days and seeing nothing new, no Kindle sales in July, two (so far) for August, I checked in with the bot again, who let me know that a sudden rise in rankings may not be due to your book’s sales, but to the lack of sales by others in your category. Sigh. The ranking is still great for visibility, but what a bummer. I was somewhat disappointed. The latest on this is that I asked Tim to buy a Kindle version as a test. This was on Saturday. It’s Tuesday and still nothing. I’ve contacted customer service to see if there may be a glitch in reporting somehow. We’ll see what’s going on.
Into the Thicket (Kindle) is in the midst of a Countdown Deal that I arranged to potentially boost sales. It began at .99 a few days ago and will rise by $1 every day until it’s back to the regular price of $5.99. I’m also working on setting up some ads on a new service called Zeely that are reputed to give real results in terms of driving sales. They use AI to help target people most likely to make a purchase. It’s worth a try. Some of the early AI versions of my ads were really bad until I realized I need to be very specific with what my prompts, such as keeping my book cover and illustrations as is.
I recently received checks from two local shops that carry my books, a bookstore, Schuler’s and a cafe, Brewed Awakenings. It’s nice to know there are some sales happening locally. As I’ve said before, it’s not as much about the money, but a desire to share the books with more people. Also, it’s been great to find so much support in our local Ann Arbor area among businesses. Not all are willing to carry the books, but enough that I feel good about it. I nearly forgot an exciting finding when I visited the West Branch of the Ann Arbor Public Library, where I was going to donate Into the Thicket to the collection. The information desk checked for me and they have five copies, one for each branch! What a happy surprise!
For those of you reading, thank you for being with me on this grand adventure — a second career in a way! I appreciate your friendship, interest, support. Contact me with any questions or comments. And always remember, reader feedback is food for the author’s soul! Whether you leave a public review, send a little note, tell a friend about a book you love, follow an author on social media, like or comment on some of our posts, there are many ways to show your support without spending a dime.
Don’t miss the night sky features Wednesday, August 12! The peak of the Perseid meteor shower under new moon conditions (meaning less light from the moon to interfere), a partial solar eclipse in the U.S. (full in Greenland, Iceland, Spain) and a six planet line up just before dawn. The sky is just endlessly fascinating and gives us perspective.