On Saturday I attended a book signing. Of course, calling it a book signing is a bit generous since no books were signed. Yes, it was one of those events. I spoke to three customers(I think there were only three customers). I sold zero books. It was supposed to be a two hour event but I skipped out 45 minutes early.
I can’t blame the book store owner only. She’s young, she’s new to the business, she needed someone(me!) to prod her along.
So here are my mistakes–hopefully you can learn from them. I know I did.
1. Multiple Authors — Because there were three other authors featured that day I thought I could benefit from people coming in for their books and liking mine also. Like me, they didn’t draw any customers in or, I suspect, do any advertising.
2. Advertising — I didn’t do any other than a mention on my Facebook page a couple of weeks before the event. I should have been mentioning it in the days leading up to the event as well as sending a release to my local paper.
3. Advertising Part II — I didn’t ask the bookstore owner what she was doing to advertise the event. I didn’t suggest that she send a release to her local papers, mention it on the store’s Facebook or hang a sign in the window.
The only thing I did do right was offer to hold a trivia contest(my book is about trivia)and offer my book as a prize, thinking the possibility of winning a free book might draw in people who would ultimately pay for the book. Perhaps it would have worked if anyone had known about the contest.
On the upside I did meet one woman who told me about another woman that led to two small writing jobs. The silver lining I suppose.
So what’s the moral of this story?
Getting the venue to agree to host an event isn’t the end of your job. You’ve got to get your butt(literally and virtually)out there making sure people in your network know about the event and the bookstore owner is telling people in their network.
Get out your bullhorn! You don’t want a sequel of Book Signing: The Disaster.