{"id":1374,"date":"2010-05-16T21:22:57","date_gmt":"2010-05-17T02:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisatener.local\/blog\/?p=1374"},"modified":"2024-09-30T09:00:48","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T13:00:48","slug":"how-to-set-up-book-signings-strategically","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/2010\/05\/how-to-set-up-book-signings-strategically\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Set Up Book Signings&#8230;Strategically"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1376\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1376\" style=\"width: 240px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1376 \" title=\"img_2334\" src=\"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/img_2334-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Your book writing coach\" width=\"240\" height=\"160\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1376\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Your book writing coach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Someone recently asked me the best way to set up book signings&#8211;go in person, call, or write a letter or press release and follow up with a call?<\/p>\n<p>Whoa. I told her I&#8217;d first step back and look at the big picture. Book signings have their place but they can also be the largest waste of time. I remember a great signing at Barnes and Noble in Warwick where the manager had end-capped our book (put it on a separate display table) and we sold 25 books before the signing ever took place&#8211;YAY.<\/p>\n<p>And I&#8217;ve had signings where I sold four books, two of which were to my mom (It was Newport in the Fall and a perfect beach day). No one but my mom and a neighbor came into the store that day.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1380\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1380\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1380\" title=\"kathy-lemay1\" src=\"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/kathy-lemay1-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Kathy LeMay signing books at a corporate event in TX\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/kathy-lemay1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/kathy-lemay1-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/kathy-lemay1-100x133.jpg 100w, https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/kathy-lemay1.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1380\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kathy LeMay signing books at a corporate event in TX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A few strategic in-person book signings can provide some word of mouth traction and good local publicity, if you do it right. One key would be to couple the signings with a great press release that offers tips for a media friendly topic related to your book (rather than making the press release about the book itself).<\/p>\n<p>Consider also a virtual book tour or blog tour where you can reach many people, over a longer period of time, and never have to leave your home.<\/p>\n<p>Now, a few well-chosen venues can work well. If it&#8217;s easy, go in person. You&#8217;ll make a personal connection and maybe even get ideas together how to make the event most successful. Go for quality over quantity&#8211;someone who will help get people to the event or a place with lots of foot traffic.<\/p>\n<p>You may also want to do what Kathy LeMay has done for <a title=\"the generosity plan\" href=\"http:\/\/thegenerosityplan.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Generosity Plan<\/a>. She offers her services as a keynote speaker to companies who want to offer extra value to their clients and customers (such as financial services companies) and to large nonprofits like the &#8220;Y&#8221; and philanthropic foundations.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re approaching organizations, like the YWCA or a corporation, a letter  with phone call follow up can work well. The main thing is to be  strategic about every event you choose. How many people can you reach in  each event? Can you garner publicity from the event? Will it be well  promoted? Does it have viral word-of-mouth potential?<\/p>\n<p>You can find out more about Kathy&#8217;s complete book event strategy in my guest blog post at <a title=\"marketing tips for authors\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.marketingtipsforauthors.com\/2010\/04\/tips-for-marketing-book-through.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">marketingtipsforauthors<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Someone recently asked me the best way to set up book signings&#8211;go in person, call, or write a letter or press release and follow up with a call? Whoa. I told her I&#8217;d first step back and look at the big picture. Book signings have their place but they can also be the largest waste&#8230;<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/2010\/05\/how-to-set-up-book-signings-strategically\/\"><em>&nbsp; Read more<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,16,17],"tags":[225,226,227],"class_list":{"0":"post-1374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-book-publicity","7":"category-pr","8":"category-public-relations","9":"tag-book-marketing-strategy","10":"tag-book-signings","11":"tag-how-to-set-up-book-signings","12":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279390,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374\/revisions\/279390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}