How to Schedule an Author Event at a Book Store for Your Published Book

You can't believe it, you are finally an author! Your book is in the hands of a publisher and it will come out soon. Now you need to start thinking about promotion. For some, you are with a large publishing house and are already working with a publicist. He or she has a good idea of how your book fits in with the available market and what kind of book tour to send you on. For others, you are on your own. You know you want to do some sort of author event at a book store; it's a great way to create buzz and rack up some concrete book sales. But how to begin?

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• A book about to be published, ideally 2-3 months away or so. If you have an existing book that has been out for awhile, it will be a much harder sell.
• Willingness to research and time
• A computer with internet and a phone.

1. First, figure out what kind of tour you would like to do. Some authors travel, either on their own dime or that of the publisher' s. If the publisher wants to send you, fabulous. But if you're a first time author looking at footing the bill yourself, I would recommend keeping it local unless you have a firm support base in a different city. Then you may want to branch out. Either way, find out which book stores in the area do author events. Look at their schedule, and what kind of books are getting events there.
2. Give the book store of your choice a call. Ideally, the number of the event coordinator will be listed on the website; if not someone in the store can forward you. Tell him or her that you have a great book coming out, and it would make a wonderful event at the store. If you have a chance to talk about the book, keep your description short, positive, and intriguing. Spend most of your time trying to address why you think it would be a successful event at this book store. If you have an affiliation to a local group, especially a group the book store is involved with, this would be a good time to mention it. Also, discuss any media you have lined up, radio interviews, etc. Depending on the store, you may be able to make a complete pitch over the phone or just email specifics. Sometimes the coordinator will request a face to face meeting.
3. Be persistent but professional. If you don't hear back within a week or so, send polite emails. Wait a few days between each, then leave messages. Be very patient; event coordinators are extremely busy people. Eventually you will get a response. Meanwhile, you might pitch the other book stores. Definitely pitch them if there is some driving distance between or they operate in different markets.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep in mind as you create your pitch that book stores who host author events want book sales more than anything else. Attendance is good too. Anything you can share about why your event will get both of these is gold.
• You may be talking to an assistant for your initial pitch. Don't be offended; in fact this may work in your favor. An assistant has a lot less to do with bookings than a coordinator and may be able to give your pitch better attention. If you win him or her over, good coordinators will often listen to their assistant even if their first inclination is to say no. Anyway, the assistant will often be the one handling your actual event, so it makes sense to make friends.
• "Not a good fit," is a standard rejection phrase, and the event coordinator has an excellent sense of what kind of event does well in his or her store. Your job is to figure out what that means for your book. Is there a store the coordinator could recommend that might be better? Is it a subsidy issue? Is it timing? Don't plead or make things uncomfortable, but this is valuable information that could help you on the next pitch.
• If you are planning to visit, say, Boston to visit your Great-Aunt Anita, you may want to try for a few events while you are there. If they say no, offer to do a drop-by book signing. Remember that a signed book is much more likely to sell.
• I wanted to thank Juliet Johnson for suggesting this article! Check out her articles on http://www.ehow.com/members/julietmyf.html
• Be warned that authors of subsidy presses have a harder time. Regular publishers have a lot of perks that subsidy publishers don't: promotion, name recognition, editing, etc. The real headache for bookstores with subsidy houses is their returns policy and lack of coop. Most regular publishers will let the book store return unsold stock, and most vanity presses don't. No book store wants to be stuck with items they can't sell; this eats into any profits made of the books that sold. Author events are especially vulnerable because the books have to be ordered in quantity. Coop is a fund provided by the publisher to offset some of the expense of an event, be it advertising, extra staff hours, etc. This is another area where subsidy presses fall short. Together these are fairly formidible obstacles to overcome; and some stores will refuse outright. Others will do it if they are convinced the event will be a success. Be prepared for this in your pitch; if you are lucky and your press does offer coop or returns for events, mention it. Otherwise, you need to convince the event coordinator that half the town will be there--and they had better be.