Book Events - Make Yours Successful

A book event (a book signing) is a popular way for authorsto create awareness for their work. Most large publishinghouses require authors to participate in a 10-city booktour, at the minimum. For self-published authors, it's agood idea to arrange as many events as your time and budgetallows. But, no matter who's making the arrangements, thereare five key ingredients to making the event a success:

1. It is very important to plan your book event carefully.This means knowing exactly what you're going to say and howyou will say it. Some authors believe that they can justwing it, relying on the audience to provide questions fordiscussion. Leaving the content to the audience to defineis a poor idea. The author should take the lead. Audiencesare there to hear more about the book, usually before theybuy it. Have a plan for what you are going to say. You'llfeel much more confident, and then if the audience isfamiliar with you and your writing, you will have that muchmore to enrich your talk. Remember the purpose of the bookevent: you are there to convince people to buy your books.Be prepared, and don't leave things to chance!

2. Keep it interesting, build a relationship with theaudience, and leave them wanting more. More, is for them topurchase a copy of your book. If you've written a book,then you have a story to tell. Connect with the audience,take them into the palm of your hand, and make them want tohear the end of the story.

3. Practice so you are natural, be consistent with who youare as a person. Even the greatest speakers practice theirspeeches before they give them. Have you ever watched theOscars and cringed at some of the acceptance speeches? Haveyou ever been captivated and want more from the actors?What's the difference in those speeches? The amount of timeand care that went into practicing what they were going tosay, and to whom.

4. Keep to the time frame. Tell your story, but don'toverstay your welcome. Practicing your speech allows you totime your speech. That sense of time makes it possible toshift naturally from building a relationship, telling thestory, and moving to the business portion of the book event.

5. Allow time to tell people about the book itself, whatit contains, and how it completes the story you just sharedwith them. And don't forget to tell people how they can owna personal copy! After all, that's the reason you are therein the first place.

Marilyn J. Schwader is creator and publisher of the "AGuide To Getting It" book series. Her articles on topicsrelated to books are published in ARE Books News the leadingresource on-line for information about books. Visit thecomplete archive of articles here: http://www.arebooks.com/