Bookstores often hold special events for authors. On Sunday, September 16, 2018, we attended one such event at Mysterious Galaxy, an independent bookstore in beautiful San Diego.
You should attend author events for a variety of reasons. They are fun. You get to network with book sellers, fellow authors and current and potential fans. Best of all, you sell more books!
Below are the Top Ways to Sell Books at Author Events
Get people to show up!
Post the event on your social media pages. Make sure you invite everyone you know and encourage them to share your invitation with others.
Create event posts on Facebook and other social media sites. You will need to provide the location and date of the event. If you are trying to get more followers, try paying for a Facebook Boost. You don’t need to spend more than $10 and run it for three days.
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Create Signs
You need to create a poster or a sign for your event. Many bookstores want you to bring a nice advertisement for display. Make sure your sign is appropriately sized and features the title you are trying to sell. Floor signs should be under 36 inches tall and table-top signs should be around 10 to 12 inches.
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Distribute Flyers
Create and distribute flyers and post cards prior to your event. This is necessary to help generate interest and awareness in your author event. Be sure to leave some cards with the book store as they will want to sell through the inventory of your book they purchased for the event.
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Send Invitations
Do not forget to send out invitations to your event to everyone you know. Contact all of your fans and followers. It’s time to dust off your email list and start notifying everyone!
Create A Good Experience
Be sure you set up your table to be attractive to shoppers and fans. Remember, everyone sees you as a celebrity. Not everyone has written a book. Even fewer have published a book. What you have accomplished is truly worthy of admiration. When vampire novelist M. A. Marrissette attends events, she decorates her table with fake garlic, a skull and some fake vampire teeth. Our friend and faery novelist Patricia Bossano decorates with shimmery veils, scarves, faery wings and glitter.
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Have Shwag Ready
Make sure you have plenty of free bookmarks and cards to hand out to event guests. Everyone loves to get something for free. It also provides you with an opportunity to speak with a potential buyer about your book.
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Craft Your Sales Pitch
You should practice and hone your sales pitch. At author events, you will be invited to speak to the audience. Make sure you have worked on your sales pitch and it is perfect! Be sure to mention the title of your book, a brief synopsis of the story, and if you have anything new in the works that readers should be expecting in the near future. Make sure your pitch shows your book in a good light and reveals why it is interesting to readers. Make them want to buy your book!
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Promotions
Offering a promotion, discount or bundle is a great way to sell more books. If your book is one of a series or trilogy, offer the other books at a discount to encourage multiple book sales.
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Guest List
Encourage attendees to sign your guest list and collect their email addresses. This enables you to send them emails about your books and future events. Working a mailing list is an important part of being a successful author. Writing books is only the first part of the job. Selling and marketing is the most important part of being a successful author. You should always be selling.
Author signings and live events offer great opportunities for you to spread the word about your book, introduce you to current and potential fans, and help build a connection between you and your readers. Create an event people will want to attend and be glad they did.
Have you attended any author events? We’d love to hear about them! Tell us in the comments below!
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