{Day 16} 31 Days of Craft Show Preparation – Book Review

I’m following along with Molly as I learn how to prepare for a craft show. Today she shares her best book recommendations for handmade business. She shares the ever popular The Handmade MarketPlace by Kari Chapin and a few others.

The one book she shares that I have read is Blogging for Bliss by Tara Frey. I  enjoyed reading this book about all these beautiful craft blogs and journals. It was blogging simply to showcase your life, your art, your love – not for money and not for fame – although each blogger is famous and they do make money it was second place to the purpose of the blog.

I felt a bit intimidated because the bloggers are so good. They have fantastic photography and craft skills. I come no where close. It is definitely something I aspire to but I’m afraid by the time I get there blogging will become retro and a thing of the past.

My Book Recommendations

1. Craft Business Power (aff) by Jeff G. and Cinnamon Miles of Liberty Jane Clothing – I choose this book because of the success Jeff and Cinnamon have had with their business. They, like many small businesses, started out small. Their first goal was to earn $100 – they met it and have slowly pushed themselves and their business into a highly successful business. Now they are giving back and have a membership site.
   
2. Pricing Crochet Fairly for Maximum Profit  (aff) by Sedruola Maruska – If you haven’t read this book yet, you need to. Sedie offers some excellent advice on pricing plus she kicks your little fanny a bit for not valuing your work. She, like many crafters, undersold her work but then she just got real with herself. She is crocheting as a business and needs to support her family. Stop playing around, value yourself and your work. Your first step can be buying her book and doing what is suggested. 
3. 31 Days to Build a Better Blog (aff) by Darren Rowse – Following this blog you know that I patterned my 31 days of crochet biz blogging after this book and after blogger Michelle Shaeffer’s Ultimate Blog Challenge. This is a great book to help you fine tune your blog. I am finding that going through it once is not enough. I get lax on my blogging and need to update it at least every year. Darren is the blogger behind the popular blog – ProBlogger.

What are your crafty business book recommendations? Share them in the comments below.

Join me in the 31 Days of Craft Show Preparation by Blogger Molly of http://mollyeleen.wordpress.com. Molly was inspired to do the 31 days challenge when her friends took on the challenge that The Nester hosts each year. (based on the 31 Days to build a better blog by ProBlogger)

 How You Can Participate

1. Visit Molly’s Blog post which has all 31 posts in the series
2. Blog about it. You can do one post for the entire week or one post per day. I’ll be doing one post a day. (31)
3. Chat about it either on the Crochet Business fanpage or in either the CBB Google+ community or CBB Fb group.