Book fairs, conventions and markets are the most expensive marketing most independent authors do, once you count the table fee, travel, stock and two days of talking. They are also the hardest to evaluate: a good weekend is a feeling, and the sales that follow a fair arrive without a label.
Codes fix that, if you set them up before you pack.
One code per piece of paper
Create a separate tracked placement for everything a visitor might take away or scan:
- The table sign. A large QR code on the banner or a stand, for people who look but do not buy.
- The bookmark or postcard you hand to everyone.
- The flyer for the series, the newsletter or the next event.
- The book itself, which carries its normal cover code.
Each gets its own QR code pointing at the same destination. The destination can be identical; the code is what tells the scans apart.
What to point them at
For a fair, point everything at the hosted book page with the retailer links, or at a direct store if you sell online. Resist pointing at a social profile: it is a dead end for someone who wanted to buy.
If you are launching a discount for the event, point the table sign at the discount page for the weekend and move it afterwards. That is the whole advantage of a dynamic code.
During the weekend
Scans show up as they happen. Glance at the dashboard on Saturday evening: the city will be the fair's, and the placement breakdown tells you whether people are scanning the banner (curious), the bookmark (took something away) or the book (bought it or handled it).
The week after
This is where the data earns its keep. Visitors go home, unpack the bag, and scan the bookmark on Tuesday. Those scans arrive from their own cities, which tells you where the fair's audience actually lives, and clicks on retailer links tell you whether any of them bought.
Compare the total against the table fee. A weekend that produced 60 scans and 14 retailer clicks from a $200 table is a number you can take into next year's decision; "it felt busy" is not.
Reuse the codes
Keep the placements from year to year rather than creating new ones, so the comparisons line up. If you change the flyer design, keep the code; the code identifies the placement, not the artwork.
A note on honesty with visitors
Scans record a city, a device type and the code. They do not identify the person, and no cookie is set on their phone. If someone asks what the code does, the answer is simple: it takes them to the book's page, and it tells you that someone from the fair looked. Most people find that reasonable, and many find it interesting.