SIMON SAYS – Tips for a Successful Book Signing
October 15, 2008 by Writing for Children
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For book signings, I choose stores based on the traffic they generate. If you want to get people to pay attention to you and your book, you have to go to the busiest locations. It’s a selling job after all and you have to treat it almost like having a booth at a trade show.
Don’t sit there reading the paper or a book or otherwise not engage your potential customers. Smile constantly, until your face hurts if necessary. No one is going to approach an author, no matter how interesting their book appears to be, if they are wearing a sour expression. Be friendly, greet people as they go by and you will have their attention, at which point you can tell them all about you book and hopefully persuade them to buy it.
Yet, even a seemingly tireless self-promoter can have an off day and occasionally I have not always looked forward to the start of another book signing season. This year I am very motivated about meeting readers and potential readers in the local stores, but sometimes I have had little enthusiasm at the prospect of sitting at my table for hours at a time. However, a book signing is not just about selling books. You meet all sorts of people in a bookstore and these can often be incredibly useful connections if you are a full time writer with lots of services such as school presentations, coaching programs, workshops and so on.
Teachers are professionals who can be almost guaranteed to take their children to a bookstore, so I meet a lot of people with great contacts in the school system, as well as parents who are influential on school committees, or are active as volunteers and so on. I have secured many visits and residences as a result of meeting people at book store events.
I also do children’s parties and have secured booking for this, usually for the Christmas season, at a book signing, as well as making contact with writers who are looking for manuscript evaluation and editing services. Being in the bookstore has also allowed me to meet people in other professions similar to my own such as filmmakers, cartoonists, illustrators, book collectors, journalists, technical writers, musicians, entertainers and so much more, all of whom I have forged relationships with, exchanged ideas and generally been pleased I have encountered.
