Working the crowd

It is NO fun to sit at a table for three hours waiting to meet readers... and the only people who show up are those relatives you haven't seen in a while who took the opportunity to see you during your visit to their town.  Most, especially new authors, don't receive a whole lot of fanfare during a “Meet the Author” event no matter how good their book is. Make your event a success by giving people a reason to come out of their way to meet you, ask for your signature or listen to your words. There are bookstores and libraries who won’t want to book an appearance unless you can guarantee traffic.


Short of bribing folks monetarily, you have to give them some kind of an incentive.

You could offer a writing workshop where you work with writing hopefuls to help them hone their work, make their writing more eloquent, encourage them and even guide them through (the beginnings at least) of publication. Many large chain bookstores or local libraries would love to have you offer a series of writing workshops FOR FREE. The effort can be time consuming, you need ot be able to focus on the students needs and certainly not be "full of yourself" - students come to learn to write, not listen to your pitch about your books. In the long run though this is a terrific way to get your name out there and if it suits your temperment, may work very well.

If you want to land an appearance and focus on YOU and your book (and there is nothing wrong with that, it's called PROMO) look at the topic of your book, fiction or fact  – What can this topic be tied into? Look at news headlines, both national and local, and find a link. It doesn’t have to be headline hard news, it can be a local human interest or community story. You can also look at the calendar for related themes such as national holidays, ethnic observances, notable anniversaries and more.

Offer to facilitate a book discussion.

My very first book discussion was for my novel Bartlett’s Rule, the story of a rape survivor who falls in love; the story deals with the after-effects of the rape and also the effect it has on the people around her. The bookshop I appeared at was promoting a Women’s Empowerment theme and they hosted a “Book Club Study Discussion Group” (the bulk of the audience read the book prior to the event). The book was featured at the bookstore for a month before the discussion date so the shop saw revenue and the audience was plentiful on that date (which incidentally worked out well as audience members purchased a second novel by me from the store shelves).

Come prepared with a few starter questions to begin and liven up the discussion. Be prepared with deeper research int the topic.  Talk about the characters and their behavior and response to the events in the book. Ask why these characters were memorable, liked or disliked? Talk about the punishments that may have been dealt out in the book to both evil and good characters and if the readers thought they were justified. Be prepared for readers to come prepared with their own questions and comments which will capture the audience’s interest.

If your potential audience has not had the opportunity to have already purchased and read your book, then talk about some of the topics covered in the books in an informational format. Using Bartlett’s Rule as a subject, discuss statistics in a “Did you know…?” format. Introduce suggested methods of protection and information about resources for victims. Hand out literature from a local rape crisis center.

Promote the event.

Make sure that you publicize your event beforehand. Don't leave the publicity to the venue, you have a lot more ar stake than a retail chain would, and smaller independent stores don't really have the time to promote you as well as they should. Use your local media, contact community groups that would have an interest in your topic and post notices or hand out flyers (if permitted) at the venue where you will appear. Post it on your website and social media like Facebook, and make sure you Twitter about it as well.  Build the buzz and then enjoy the crowds.

  Writing exercise: Interview yourself. Make up a list of ten to fifteen questions you might ask of ANY author - and then answer these questions yourself. Popular questions and topics might include when and how you decided to become a writer, what is your writing method, say things about the writing experience, give some back story about your book, and what advice you would give to new writers just starting out. Be creative, be curious, but remember you want questions (and answers) about the author and his/her writing - this does not include questions like what is your favorite color unless it has some significance to your writing.

Writing prompt: Write down the names of the last five females and the last five males you had contact with most recently. For each person listed, write ONE sentence describing something very good about this person. Now if you really want to challenge yourself, write ONE more sentence for each describing the most horrible thing about that person (be sure to tear this up afterwards...)