What to write in books at a book signing
How to Do a Book Signing Event in 2020
hi guys if you're watching this video
you probably want to know how do you set
up a book signing or a book event and
then once you have it set up what
exactly do you do after that I'm excited
to tell you a few tips and tricks from
what I've learned in my personal
experiences from doing book signings at
Barnes & Noble I've done a couple
signings there I've done book sales at
the library I have even done the Twin
Cities Book Festival and book on in New
York and so I've just had a great time
learning how to do these events how to
find my way into them and how to do them
well so I'm really excited to share with
you my tips in this video the first
thing I want to talk about is actually
how to set up the book signing or a
bookish event because I think a lot of
people are actually mystified on how to
do this I know I would setting up a book
event actually just really boils down to
two things number one doing your
research and number two asking though
research is extremely important because
if you apply to an event or a location
or whatever that would not accept your
book they're just going to be frustrated
that you didn't look up the rules in
advance and figure it out in the first
place so for example a lot of authors
want to get into Barnes & Noble and so
they'll ask me like how do I do it what
do I do but they haven't done the
research because if they did I know that
they would have found this webpage that
Barnes & Noble has on their website
about how to be considered for an author
event there are also people who ask me
how do I sell my book at Barnes Noble
and again Barnes & Noble has a whole
page on how to sell your book at Barnes
& Noble and so there's a list of
qualifications if you do your research
you can find out the things that you
need to do to make sure your book is
qualified and able to be considered for
an event like Barnes & Noble for example
a lot of people aren't aware that Barnes
and Noble does require books to be
returnable and so that is a feature that
KDP which is Amazon's print-on-demand
company does not currently have and so
if you want to do a Barnes & Noble book
signing and have them actually buy the
books which they prefer to do and they
might require I don't know for a fact
anymore but they might require that they
buy the books themselves and
for the books have to be returnable
other places might require that your
books are put on consignment which means
that they don't buy them but you like
loan the books to the store and if the
book sells them then they pay you and
it's like a certain time frame so every
location is different if you go to some
place like book con or the festival like
the one I did today then you often have
to apply to be part of it and it's
there's a whole system and an
application thing that you have to go
through so you won't know these things
until you do your research penny just
left so again I feel like I can't say
this enough it's really really important
that you do your research because
booksellers will really really
appreciate this event people in general
will just really really find you
respectful and wonderful and want to
work with you more if you've done your
research and then the second thing like
I mentioned is you just have to ask my
favorite way to ask and actually the way
I definitely recommend if you're at all
able to is to go to the location where
you want to do the event or the book
signing and ask them in person it is so
so so helpful to have that in-person
face-to-face contact because once they
get to know you and actually like talk
to you face-to-face it's going to get
your foot in the door a lot more than
like an email would if you're not able
to go to the store then my second
biggest tip is definitely to call them
because again the more personal it can
be the more likely they are to actually
consider you so if you're talking to
somebody directly in real time and
you're like hey I would love to do a
book signing or an event at your store
is that something you would ever
consider doing for a local author and
what are the ways that I could possibly
get that started it can be a little more
awkward as you can tell when you're
talking in person so you can kind of
give yourself some talking points which
we'll cover in a second but whenever
you're talking to somebody in person or
over the phone it's going to come across
a lot more like personable and friendly
and just definitely more desirable
because they're going to get to see who
you are
and be more excited about somebody they
actually like know a little bit I don't
know how else to say it but I hope that
makes sense and
and the third way that I recommend if
you can't do that
and if you've called and you haven't
been able to reach anybody is to do
email and I would suggest email more as
a last resort but definitely above like
social media or anything else because
email is way more professional and you
definitely want to come across like a
business person because you are talking
to a business so you want to be as
professional as possible if you do have
to write an email though I definitely
recommend still calling the store and
getting the name of the correct person
that you should be addressing the email
to because you want it to be personal
and you want it to go you don't want it
to be like to whomever it may concern or
hello all or any crap like that do not
do that the more personal and
professional that you can be the more
likely they are to say yes I'm going to
give you an example of what I would say
if I were writing the email or if I were
talking to them in person and some of
the things that you're gonna want to
have on hand and ready to go or add to
the email again depending on which way
you go I'm gonna read an example of what
I might write to a book store if I were
writing an email and generally you would
say this same kind of information but
just in a more casual like
conversational way all right so the
first thing is hi and their name you
want to make sure that you personalize
it to the specific person that you're
writing to I personally think when
people just write me kind of a spammy
message I will almost instantly delete
it but if they write hi Bethenny I will
take the time to read what they have to
say because they took the time to
personalize the message to me so just
saying I think that's really important
especially in this day and age when you
can get a lot of spam to make it
personal
the second thing I would do is lead with
what you're asking them so I would make
it brief into the point but I would also
make sure to include how it benefits
them because why did I care you have to
make them understand why they should
care so for example I'm writing to see
if you would be open to hosting a book
signing by a local author I think it
would really benefit your store and I'd
be very excited to market the event and
draw a crowd to your store so you can
see that I slipped in there that I am
willing to do the marketing which they
will really appreciate because book
stores don't usually do a lot of
marketing person
so if they know that you're promising to
bring people in to this event they're
going to be a lot more interested right
off the bat the next thing you want to
do is explain to them what your book is
and what it's about so you keep it again
brief and to the point so I would say my
novel is a young adult fantasy retelling
of Aladdin from Jasmine's perspective
and I would leave it at that I don't
want to ever like overwhelm them with
information although you could
potentially say something like I will
copy and paste the synopsis of the story
below this email if you're interested
but they can always look it up so I say
keep it short don't overwhelm them the
next step is to have your ISBN number
ready so if you're talking to them in
person or on the phone make sure you
have it handy and ready to tell them
because that is how book sellers look up
books but if you're writing an email I
just say the ISBN number is blank
whatever it is if you'd like to know
more details and then again they can
click on it to look up the book in their
system see the cover see what it's about
see all the information that they need
to know and then I like to sign with
something professional like I look
forward to hearing from you and I hope
we can partner on this event idea in the
future
sincerely Bethany so that's just an
example of the kind of email that I
would write you can make it personal to
you but I just think it's important to
number one not waste their time so keep
your email short and to the point number
two I think it's really important to let
them know what's in it for them don't
write an email that's all about you I'm
awesome you should definitely take me on
I write amazing books do and do that oh
they're just gonna be like that's nice
but why should we care so let them know
why they should care and let them know
that you're excited about the idea of
bringing a bunch of people to their
store and telling everyone about it and
I think that's going to definitely make
them a lot more interested most of the
time if you do your research and if you
ask them in a very polite professional
way a book seller or a book event is
going to say yes and so yeah awesome
we're gonna talk in a second about what
you do next but there are some reasons
that book seller might say no and mainly
those are if they're a business so if
the book doesn't look like it would sell
if it doesn't have like a specific place
on the bookshelf I got really lucky that
Barnes Noble was willing to do a sign
with me but technically Evelyn's number
is both dystopian and a little bit
Christian and so it's like kind of this
genre blend that doesn't actually have a
physical place on the shelf and so many
places might say no to that so you have
to be really aware same thing with
having a good cover a good blurb does
this booklet look like it's going to
sell and actually attract readers that's
really important to a bookseller because
that's their entire job so I'm not gonna
go into too much detail on this I do
have a whole book about how your book
sells itself
right there you can't see it above and
saw the shelf above but I will put a
little picture of it you can go check
out how your book sells itself I talked
about the ten different ways that you
can make sure your book is basically
selling itself and so you get the idea
if you have any trouble and you feel
like people might be saying no to you
for any particular reason you can check
that book out and get some ideas but now
we're gonna move on to the second part
of this video which is what do you do
once you have a signing like what do you
even expect I remember when I first had
I think my very first signing was at
Barnes Noble I did tons of research I
was googling things I couldn't find
hardly any information out there
and so I want to be that resource for
you guys today and hopefully help you
the first and biggest thing that I want
to bring up today is something that I
remember reading in multiple places
online that really helped me go into a
book signing with the right mindset
because otherwise I think I would have
thought that I was a failure and that is
that most of the time authors only sell
between 10 to 20 books total like total
like if you sell 10 books you did a good
job
if you sell 20 books you did incredible
and so that's excluding like bigger
events like book on where I think I sold
more like 80 ish plus or minus a few
giveaways that I did but most of the
time I have found that my range is
between 10 to 20 and so again that's
also excluding like I would say maybe
your debut your very first book signing
ever might do a little bit better but I
just want to help you set your
expectations because
I think if I hadn't known that I would
have assumed book signings you just sell
like hundred books I've been really
disappointed it's pretty rare even for
some bigger authors most of the time 10
to 20 is the range unless the book
signing had tons of publicity and then
it could sell more but what I read
online and what I've definitely found to
be true is that events and book signings
tend to be way more about networking and
making connections that will benefit you
down the road and help you get future
signings and events which totally
totally happened to me I have gotten
this weekend I did the Twin Cities Book
Festival last weekend I did a library
book signing both times I got tons of
business cards and met so many cool
people and if I hadn't even done the
library signing I wouldn't have known
the Twin Cities Book Festival even
existed because they actually had a spot
open up and they asked me if I would
want to fill it so as you can see I am a
living example of how it's not just
about selling books it's also about
networking so you need to be aware of
that and have that mindset going in so
that leads to my second tip which is
bring business cards because it's really
hard to make connections if you don't
have a business card to give away and I
just ran out of business cards today so
I can vouch for that that it's really
frustrating to run into somebody cool
and be like hey I don't have anything to
give you to contact me but let's connect
you know it makes it tricky so the
second step I would say it's get
business cards and bring them with you
at least my third tip and the one that I
completely forgot to do today and I
always regret when I forget to do this
is to bring an email signup and all you
have to do honestly is you could bring a
piece of paper and a pen and you can
just write name and email or you can
make something fancier on your computer
but it really doesn't have to be that
fancy again it could just be name and
email with a column for each and if you
do this it's going to help you a ton
because there's so many people who
they'll look at your book and they'll
consider it but maybe they didn't bring
enough money maybe they already spent
their whole budget for the day on other
books or maybe they want to see what's
out there but you're leaving
they come back or something like that so
it can be extremely helpful to have an
email list because a lot of people are
way more willing to just give you their
email and just like see what you send
them and so if you start sending out
emails where they get to know you and
they get to know more about your books
and they they get free thanks for me
like your opt-ins eventually the rule of
seven kicks in which is to say that in
marketing they say about seven times
someone needs to hear about a product
before they decide to buy it so your
first time that you told them about the
product was at the event but then they
sign up for your newsletter and I hear
about it six more times or however many
they really need and they end up buying
your book in the future so you can see
how valuable this is and I'm kicking
myself that I forgot to do that today my
fourth tip if you want to is I have seen
writers bring fun table decor and random
beautiful things that make the booth or
the table or wherever you are a little
bit more interesting so when Mandy and I
did book on we did this we had the super
fun like Polaroid and Mandy actually was
the one who ended up putting it together
once we brainstormed it I think when you
do stuff like that it can make your
table just a little bit more personal
and a little bit more interesting and
eye catching and so it could definitely
be the reason that it draws somebody up
to your table like I saw an author who
had a dragon in a cage and I thought
that was so cool so I definitely think
if you have fun table decor ideas you
can make it as unique as you want just
remember you have to carry it which
leads to my next tip and that is to use
a rolling suitcase whether you have a
lot of books or you're not even bringing
that many either way I found that a
rolling suitcase can be a lifesaver
because it made it made today so much
easier and I just really appreciate it
having that the next one is to bring
sharpies of some kind or a pen so that
you can sign the books and then my last
tip of course is remember the payments
so I know that a lot of people will do
cash and it's good to bring change for
that so you can bring a handful of ones
and a few fives maybe a ten call it good
but a lot of people also want to buy
with their credit card and I found that
if I don't have that option I kind of
lose sales if you're doing a Barnes &
Noble book
where they have bought the books then
they will take the payment you won't
have anything to do with that so don't
worry about it but if you are taking the
payment yourself like I did a book on
and the festival in the library for
example you can use something in the
u.s. called the square reader I believe
that's what I chose to use because a lot
of people recommended it to me and it
was just the easiest option but I
definitely recommend that you do your
research I am NOT going to give you
advice on what else there is out there
because I don't know figure out what's
best for you and if you're going to take
credit card payments just make sure that
it's safe oh I will add a bonus tip
which is to also make sure that you
charge your phone and if you're able to
bring some kind of charger especially
awesome if you have a charger that
doesn't need to be plugged in and it's
like the case itself is a charger bring
that make sure your phone is at 100%
because you're gonna need it for the
square app if you're taking credit card
payments that way you're also gonna
probably want it to take pictures and
another bonus tip I guess then would be
to take a lot of pictures because you're
gonna be very happy that you did it's a
fun memory to look back on and you can
also share it on social media and
draweth or newsletter so I would
definitely encourage you guys to give
this a shot don't be afraid to just dive
in do your research and ask because the
worst thing that could happen is they
can say no and then you move on to the
next person and you try somewhere else
and I really think that this is a fun
thing to do so again I'll caution you
not to buy too many books because I have
definitely bought too much stock in the
past but if you do happen to have too
many then I guess you just have to start
doing another event right alright give
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see you guys in the next video I hope
you have a great day and I'll talk to
you again soon bye
[Music]
