How to Fill a Room

One of the great pleasures of being an author is reading from and signing your book at a bookstore, library, or other community venue. But unless you’re famous, even a bookstore (in fact, especially a bookstore) is just an empty room – and it’s your job not the publishers job, to fill it.

Here’s my checklist for how to fill an empty room.

At least eight weeks ahead:

Set a goal. Given the size of the room, I set a goal of 40 attendees, of whom I hoped 15-25 would buy books. In the end, 100 people came – standing room only – and the store sold its entire stack of pre-ordered books.

Make your contact list. Wrack your brain for every single person you can think of. I haven’t lived in the area for decades, but I was able to draw up a list of 100 names, include, high school friends, old roommates, and former coworkers. It took me a couple of hours to sleuth out all their email addresses.

Send the venue your head-shot, cover photo, and a brief description of your book. I also sent (and later also brought with me, in big print) a one-paragraph introduction for the staff to use on the night of the event.

Arrange with your publisher, if possible, to “co-op” with the bookstore or other venue. The bookstore placed ads on local radio and in local newspapers, and my publisher helped with the cost. (Note, I also arranged to speak at a local university, which covered my travel expenses and paid an honorarium.)

Six weeks ahead:

Email a press release to local newspapers, radio, TV. I concentrated on the local newspaper, and instead of trying for a feature article, I sent an opinion article (including a notice about the talk), which ran close to the time of my reading.

Create a recruitment team. I picked out five likely people from my list of 100 contacts and asked if they would draw up their own lists of five or ten people to invite personally. (And I thanked them at the event.)

Add an after-talk gathering. On the Internet, I located a casual-seating restaurant near the bookstore where people could gather informally after the talk. My Team of Five and I invited our contacts to come to the talk and to join us afterwards for conversation. This added a warm note to the invitation. We asked for RSVP’s for the gathering, which gave people an opportunity to make a commitment (albeit non-binding) to come.

Design an e-mail invitation for use by yourself and your team. Include a brief description of the book, the time and place of the reading, and the restaurant invitation. Add: “If you can’t attend the reading, you can buy the book here,” with a link to your website, your publisher’s website, or a bookseller of your choice.

Notify organizations whose members will be interested in your talk. Email them a notice to post on their website or bulletin board. You can also track down the Facebook pages of organizations, “friend” them, and post a notice yourself.

Three weeks ahead:

Send email invitations. I sent to my list of 100, and my Team of Five sent to their lists. As RSVP’s began to trickle in, I kept a tally, so I could get a sense of whether there would be enough people or whether we needed to work harder. I also kept a list of those who sent regrets, so I could exclude them from the reminder email that went out just before the event.

Let EVERYONE know, even people who don’t live in the target area. They will tell friends who do. I posted on my Facebook, page, sent out a notice on Twitter, and wrote an “e-blast” to my full list of contacts.

One week ahead:

Send a reminder email, and ask your recruitment team to do likewise. (Send them a ready-to-go text, so they won’t have to compose one themselves.) Remember to exclude people who’ve already said they can’t come.

Understanding Your Target Markets

Just because a book is available for sale, doesn't mean that it will sell many copies. Book sales ultimately come down to this: is there a viable market of people and organizations who are willing to pay money for your book, and can you reach those people?

Most books actually have more than one target market, and it's important to understand who those potential customers are, why they buy books such as yours, and how to find them.

• Who is the primary target market that the book was specifically written for?

• What other readers have an interest in your topic or genre?

• Who would buy a book like yours to give to others?

• Who reaches these target markets and could help to spread the word about your book?

• How can you reach these people?

• What would motivate them to buy your book?

It's also helpful to put yourself in the buyers' shoes: How many books do you buy a month? Where do you hear about those books? How do you decide which books to buy? Why would someone buy your book?

One of The Biggest Mistakes Self-Published Authors Make

Failing to produce a high quality product.

There are more than 300,000 new books published in the U.S. each year (not counting the millions of existing titles that are still available for sale) so each book faces huge competition for readers.

If a book hasn't been properly edited or proofread and the cover looks like you did it yourself, it's not realistic to expect it to stack up favorably against the numerous other choices available to book buyers. It's also difficult to get reviews or the support of influencers who can spread the word about your book. If you want to sell books beyond your circle of family and friends, you'll need to write and produce a quality book.

If your book has already been published in ebook format, it's easy to edit the book file and upload a new cover. Revising printed books can more of a challenge, depending on exactly how the book was published, but you may want to explore your options if you think that improvements can be made.

Are any of the five issues outlined in this article series keeping your book from reaching its full potential? Now is the time take positive steps to give your book a chance to shine!

The Biggest Mistakes Authors Make

Waiting too late to think about marketing.
 

When should authors start thinking about marketing? Before they ever write the book!

Understand who you are writing to (your target markets) so that you can tailor the book to meet their needs and wants. How can your book be different or better than existing books or information sources on your topic? How can your book appeal to the readers of popular genres or authors? What hooks can you put in the storyline of a book that will allow you to promote it to niche markets?

Some types of books are more challenging to sell than others. Can you broaden the focus of your book to broaden the appeal, or narrow your focus to a very specific niche?

It's also critical to begin the process of building your expert reputation, social networks, blog followers, and connections with as many influence people as early as possible. These things take time, and you shouldn't wait until the book is available to start the process.