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Hometown Book Sales
– By Nicole Riley
Once you have a completed book in your hands, it’s time to get out there and show it to your hometown.
The first step is to be vigilant. The key to direct selling is to look for opportunities everywhere. Very few places will be as excited about your book than the area where you live.
Remember, people in your hometown will be more receptive to hearing about your book than those that have no connection to you. Sell your book to friends from church, work, local bookstores, local places you shop, the local gym. If your town holds any festivals or fairs, rent a booth there to promote your book as a local author. If people from your area like your book, they’ll tell their friends and a ripple effect will form. You might want to volunteer with organizations with whom you identify. Get involved and your customer base will grow. Civic Organizations are often looking for speakers in various topics.
Try not to be scared of giving copies of your book away.
Donating is a great way to build a name in the literary community. If appropriate, give copies of your book to local schools or reading organizations. Those who get a copy of a book for free may enjoy it and recommend that their friends buy it. Some customers may be reluctant to buy a book they don’t know. Word of mouth is a valuable effect of direct sales.
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There are a few suggestions for you to follow when visiting your local bookstore.
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Visit your local store between the hours of 10-11 or 2-5. Avoid busy traffic times such as lunch time.
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Identify the shelf your book may fit on. Is there a section for your category? Is there a local author section?
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Each book store and buyer will have its own personality. It is important to evaluate and adapt to the stores culture before speaking with the person in charge of ordering.
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When dealing with retailers always remember to look and act professional.
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Identify the person you may need to speak with. In Independent bookstores it may be the owner or the book buyer. In a chain store such as a B&N you may want to ask for the Community Relations Manager or the store manager.
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Have promotional material and a copy of your book at your fingertips. Promotional material may include a Sales Sheet or a Press Release. Make sure any material being given includes correct contact information.
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After identifying the appropriate person to speak with introduce yourself as the author, and offer a copy of the book and materials for review. Be confident but not pushy. You will be asked where your book is available. You will need to provide availability and ordering information.
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Ask if the store participates in any type of author events or book signings.
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Ask when and if, following up with them would be appropriate. Making a follow up connection is much different than being overly harassing.
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Be considerate of a store’s right to turn you down, and simply move on to your next location.
Now that you have the basics to selling to your hometown, please do not be discouraged if you are not receiving desired feedback. New Shelves Publishing Services is dedicated to being a resource for you throughout this process. We can sit down and brainstorm ideas that will help you stick to your goals and stay focused. Good Luck!
The Power of Three!
Things you can do TODAY to
increase book sales:
By Amy Collins
Don’t have time or the budget for a large marketing outreach? Use the the power of three to help your book get the attention it deserves:
- Reach out to 3 bloggers and offer to write a guest post based on a subject in your book
- Call 3 stores and ask if they would consider doing a display of your book in October if you gave them the first 6 books free of charge.
- Re-write your Amazon book description to include 3 recent book reviews and media hits
- Set up 3 author events at your local school, library or bookstore
- Contact 3 radio or TV stations and pitch them a story idea around your book.
Watch how the power of three can help increase your book sales starting today!
For more information on increasing your book sales….
Author Tours
Are Author Tours Worth It?
By Nicole Riley
I am often asked if author tours are successful. We are very honest with the folks we have worked with on what a book signing might look like, yet there are still a number of authors who think there is going to be a line wrapping around the building to purchase their books at every event no matter what we say. Although we would love to see that happen, I would like to provide a more realistic view to the process, and help you define the word “successful” for yourself.
Before going any further, I would like to say that this is my opinion solely based on my experience with booking author tours for the last couple of years. I too often receive feedback that an event was just ok, or the author hoped that more people would have attended, or flat out that this was a waste of time! I would like to add that we have had several clients we have booked extraordinary author events for that have had success written all over them! Many of which have used these events to graduate into another phase of their career development.
Before booking an author tour, ask yourself…
- What makes an author tour successful?
- What defines the word success for you?
- What are your expectations?
- Most importantly, what strategy are you using to reach that definition of success in promoting your tour?
- Do you have a publicity campaign going on in conjunction with your events that includes radio interviews or major network television?
- Have you sent a press release to the local newspaper?
- Have you taken out any ads where your event will be taking place?
- Are you promoting your book on your own website?
- Is the store hosting the event promoting the book on their website prior to the event?
- Are you aware of how much a display and prominent positioning of your book would cost without an event?
- Do you want your book to be in a store weeks prior to an event, being displayed when it might otherwise get lost on a shelf?
- Do you want your book to remain in a store and potentially be reordered because of a connection you may have been able to make with the buyer?
- Do you realize that by having an event you give journalists a great reason to write about you?
- Are the amounts of books you sell at your event defining your success?
I think it is very important to think about these questions. In my experience the most successful tours are those that are synchronized with a publicity campaign of some kind. I have seen author tour sales figures range anywhere from 3-100 books at a signing. If you sold 5-10 books at your signing would you deem your event “unsuccessful”? Of course the goal is always to sell as many books as you can, but I think we should remember that these book signings are equally about selling yourself, as it is about selling books. They are a perfect opportunity for you to promote yourself.
Invite anyone who will listen. Word of mouth is powerful! Piggybacking off of my hometown book sales blog post when I said there will be no one more interested in you and your book than your hometown, I believe the same holds true for the start of your tour. I often will refer to this type of an event as a Book Launch Party. A date that is close to your pub date, premiering in a local store, surrounded by family, friends, co workers, etc. are great ways to jump start your tour! I also suggest finding a store that hosts Local Author Festivals. This MAY bring in an extra book sales for you, but if not wasn’t it still nice to meet other local authors in your community while practicing your self -promotion skills? Successful? Only you can answer that.
If an event is not in your hometown, you will not have your local support system. If you have no media hits, and you factor in the genre of your book and pray that you have been able to reach your target audience through telepathic waves, would it be semi-delusional to think that there will be a line of buyers extending out the door? Is that expectation you set to high? For example, let’s say this is your first book, you have no publicity to speak of, and you just drove many miles to be at your 2nd event on your tour. There are 3 lucky shoppers who run into your table by accident and buy your book, and 2 customers who came in to see you because they saw the in store signage last week. Was this event unsuccessful? I guess it would be if you went into it expecting that you were going to sign 50 books that day. Again, what were your expectations? Are you being realistic? I guess my point is that you will get out of your author tour what you put into it! At the same time I say this, there are times where authors are doing all of the right things and the number of attendees is still low. Maybe it was a beautiful day, or it ended up snowing in June…. I don’t know.
So are author tours successful? I believe they most certainly can be. This is your opportunity to meet potential buyers face to face and captivate them and your audience. Plus it adds a personal touch to your book promotion efforts. Not to mention, prior to the author event your book is given free display that without the event is otherwise extremely expensive! Drive a crowd, smile, talk to people, have fun, share the message your book was intended to send. Be realistic and define your own success!
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