Important Update: In light of the current Coronavirus situation, much of the information below regarding events, talks and conferences is temporarily suspended. However, we would encourage you to think about creating “virtual” online events using one of the following platforms or similar:
SKYPE
Stay in touch! Free online calls, messaging, affordable international calling to mobiles or landlines and Skype for Business for effective collaboration.
SKYPE TUTORIAL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
ZOOM
Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars.
ZOOM TUTORIAL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
FACEBOOK LIVE VIDEO
Live is the best way to interact with viewers in real time. Field their burning questions, hear what’s on their mind and check out their Live Reactions to gauge how your broadcast is going.
https://www.facebook.com/
TUTORIAL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
YOUTUBE LIVE
YouTube Live is an easy way to reach your audience in real-time. Whether you’re streaming a video game, hosting a live Q&A or teaching a class, our tools will help you manage your stream and interact with viewers in real-time.
https://support.google.com/
TUTORIAL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
BE.LIVE TV
Professional LIVE streaming made easy and effectively engage your audience
TUTORIAL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
LinkedIn Live
Stream live video content to drive record engagement with your professional audience
https://business.linkedin.com/
TUTORIAL: https://www.
Physical Events
Bookstore signings, workshops, talks and conferences are good ways to meet readers and launch books. Booksellers and event organisers are keener than ever to invite authors to participate in promoting and selling their books. There are many guides on the internet on how to run these affairs.
An event can be set up as soon as publication date is set nine months ahead. If you have a speaking event and you need stock of your books, this is possible; please order your copies via the Event Material. You will have to estimate the number required.
If the event is set a lot earlier than the publication date, it will not be possible for the general public or bookstores to order the book until we print stock a month prior to the actual publication date. Thus it is advisable to organise an event close to the publication date so that books can be purchased. Bookstores order books through their distributors, and the book will only be shipped once stock has been received into our warehouse 3-4 weeks before publication date. An event organiser that doesn’t ordinarily order books, can also order from the distributor of their country.
Books are supplied on a sale or return basis.
If you arrange a book event or any other publicity regarding your book, alert us to it by adding it to ‘Add Event’ to ensure we know about it and can pass on the details.
What we do
We will send you a notification nine months before publication date, encouraging you to approach local bookshops and organize a book launch. For further advice/help on hosting an event, please use the Author Forum in the section under Marketing and Publicity on Events/Signings.
If we are contacted by an event organiser we will then pass on the organiser’s email address to you. Bookstores are more interested in you than us – and usually want to deal with the author directly. The organiser needs to speak with you directly about the details – when it’s going to be, how many are likely to come, whether you’re going to speak or not, when you have to finish by, how they want to receive the books, and so on.
We support events by offering good discounts, designing posters and flyers, printing sufficient books, crediting retailers with returned stock, and suggesting venues in our Contacts database, but we don’t contribute to the cost otherwise.
Our US and UK distributors can offer your book(s) at a discount (20% is normal) to readers. This is known as a “discount code”. It can last for a specified amount of time, particularly if you are doing several talks/events/conferences. Typically, we have organised codes to run for 6 months.
You can then produce a flyer with an order form to use at events/talks/conferences. These need to follow a specific format for the distributer to work with.
We attend some fairs and, very occasionally, launches; but we’re limited in what we can do here, being scattered thinly, worldwide.
What you can do
Some of our authors get regular sales and exposure for their book/s for many months/years after publication, through events at shops, schools, etc. Time and travel are the main limitations here. If you work with an organisation that we do not currently have in the database, it would be a great help to enter onto the system:
- Individual contact name.
- Email address.
- Phone number.
- Organisation name.
- Organisation website URL.
- Country.
- State.
You can then enter an event on the Author Homepage.
When an event is completed and there is a link available, the Publishing Manager will get a notification and can highlight this event on social media. Photos taken at an event are useful to use on social media. If you have a photo of the event, you can upload this to your book’s Marketing page under Publicity.
Promoting the event
- Spread word of your event through online social media especially to your friends on Facebook and to the followers of your blog and Twitter. Go to your Author Closed Facebook page and tell them about your forthcoming event. When it happens, take a photo and post it there. Your publicist/publisher can use it for social media and perhaps put it in the blog.
- Email your networks. Ask your networks to contact their networks and hope news of your book goes viral.
- Enter your event onto the System so that it can be included in newsletters to subscribed media and trade contacts and to readers who have signed up to receive fan news.
- Be prepared for this…http://lithub.com/what-to-do-when-no-one-shows-up-…
Tips from authors
- “It is only big names that draw the crowds; keep promoting yourself on radio and in magazines and your name will grow.”
- “Ask if you can sign author copies (the larger chains usually do that as a matter of course) and you will sell more.”
- “Do a talk instead of just a signing, move about and don’t just sit at a table.”
- “Some people will come up to you, but it is incumbent upon you to initiate contact most of the time!”
- “Location, sitting at the front of the store, helps. You have to greet and say “hi” to everyone coming and going.”
- “Work with a specialized rather than general store, especially if they have a dedicated client base. They will market the event which increases the chances for sales.”
- “Hand out flyers, bookmarks, any kind of bag stuffers.”
- “Have the book close by you, for sale, hold it when you talk about it.”
- “At the beginning of a talk, poll people to find out what bought them there, or what they hope to learn. See if you can solve their problems.”
- “Make friends with the bookshop people, get to know them.”
- “Track the stores in the website in your area, see which titles have been launched there, contact the authors privately through the forum and ask how they got on.”
- “It doesn’t have to be a bookshop, could be anywhere different.”
- “Show up early, hand out flyers and talk it up.”
- “Just keep plugging away, and throw away all your expectations.”
- “Check if they supply chairs. Most people are happy to stand for a short talk, but it is helpful to have some for the elderly/infirm.”
- “Buy yourself a table-top easel. It is great to show-off your book in an upright position!”
- “Place a nice good horizontal pile of your books next to that (you can fan them out if you want to be arty!)”
- “Get yourself some bookmarks printed… Try www.thebookmarkshop.com/promotional.htm.”
- “The main value of some events is in the contacts you can make rather than direct sales. Have a couple of extra chairs for conversations.”
- “At book expos, walk the floor, have postcards of the book handy, give them out to booksellers (denominated by color of badge) and encourage them to come to your table for a signing event for a free copy.”
- “It is easier and more productive if you can join forces with one or more authors in your area, post on theAuthor Facebook Group or on the HELP/Marketing&Publicity Forum.
Notes
- We will send you an allocation of printed copies of your book (as per contract) about six weeks before publication, one of which you should take with you to the bookstore along with a printed copy of the AI/sales sheet, which you will find on the Marketing page.
- Please do ensure that you arrange events a few weeks in advance to ensure books reach the event or signing. Six weeks is a long enough lead for many stores but some may need longer.
- You can email the store the digital review copy PDF from your Marketing page in the Publicity section. Some authors recommend that you take extra copies of your book to the event. It has happened that bookshops forgot to order, ordered too late, didn’t order enough copies, or even that they sell out. Estimating how many books to order for an event is a black art, but it helps to pool experience. Contact us by posting in the Author Forum.