Holiday Cheer

Authors will be notified of their acceptance to the event by October 30, 2024. At this time, the Oregon Historical Society will ask accepted authors to pay a $25 participation fee, which is due by November 15, 2024. The Oregon Historical Society requests this entry fee to help subsidize some of the costs incurred in ordering books for this special event.

We appreciate the support of all the authors who participate in Holiday Cheer. As a thank you for participating, all authors receive a one-year family membership to the Oregon Historical Society.

The Oregon Historical Society will provide tables, chairs, and linens for all participating authors. At Holiday Cheer, authors are seated with two or three other authors at one long table. Your books will be on display by the time you arrive at OHS for the event, and we ask that you do not bring large display items (posters, laptops, large signage) as space is limited; small handouts, bookmarks, or business cards are permitted. We appreciate your consideration for your fellow authors!

The Oregon Historical Society invites all authors to suggest a maximum of three titles to have available at Holiday Cheer; however, we will likely not be able to order all three titles due to shipping costs. For all participants, OHS will order at minimum the 2024 publication that has made an author eligible to participate in the event, and it will be up to the OHS Museum Store staff’s discretion to order additional suggested titles. Authors may have up to three titles available, including the 2024 publication.

If the OHS Museum Store is unable to order suggested titles, the author is welcome to bring up to two additional titles to sell at the event. All books that will be sold at Holiday Cheer must be approved in advance and delivered to the Oregon Historical Society by November 27, 2024.

The Oregon Historical Society will handle all book sales through the OHS Museum Store. Books will be at the author’s table for signing, and customers will take signed books to an OHS point of sale station for check out; no transactions will take place at the signing table. OHS will carry at minimum the author’s latest title, which will either be ordered directly through the publisher, or will be provided by the author on consignment, according to the preference noted on the author’s application.

For authors who have noted on their application that they will provide their own copies for sale on consignment at the event, books must be delivered to the Oregon Historical Society in advance (by November 27, 2024). In the month following the event, the Oregon Historical Society will pay the author 60% of all retail sales, no exceptions. Please see Question 6 for more details if you would like to provide your own copies for sale at the event.

OHS limits the number of titles per author to a maximum of three to ensure fairness between new authors who have only one published work and those who have a long list of publications. While we would love to have everyone’s books available for sale, fairness and space limitations make a cap of three books per author necessary to make this event successful.

Authors are welcome to provide copies of their book(s) to sell through the OHS Museum Store at Holiday Cheer through our consignment program. All titles to be sold at the event must be approved in advance by Oregon Historical Society staff. If an author plans to provide copies of their own book, they will need to note this on their application. Authors are expected to take any unsold books home with them at the end of the event (unless other arrangements have been made in advance).

Books must be delivered to the Oregon Historical Society by November 27, 2024, to provide time for inventory and set up. Authors will also be asked to submit a W9 and sign a consignment agreement at the time of delivery.

Books can be delivered by hand during regular business hours or shipped to the address below:

Oregon Historical Society
Attn: Museum Store — Holiday Cheer
1200 SW Park Avenue
Portland, OR 97205

Download Blank W9 Form

It is always hard to gauge book sales for each author — with up to 70 authors participating, some authors may sell five copies at the event, while others may sell 50! Depending on your own personal inventory, we recommend bringing anywhere from 15–30 copies.

Of course, if you have sold more than 30 copies at a previous event or would just like to be on the safe side, you are more than welcome to bring additional — just don’t forget that all books must be delivered to the Oregon Historical Society by November 27, 2024, and all unsold books must be taken home with the author at the end of the event.

Absolutely! We have authors of all genres represented at Holiday Cheer, from cookbooks to children’s books to guidebooks and more!

Do you have additional questions that are not answered here? Please contact Lisa.Grimaldi@ohs.org.