Tips and Tricks for a Successful signingBy Stella Price
Hey everyone! Adam Messer, The Savannah Quill Founder, asked me to write up a small primer for signings, tips and tricks to making the signing successful. You probably wonder why he asked me right? Well I have been running an extremely successful event where 78% of the authors attending either sell out or sell down to 5 or less by the end of the event. I myself normally sell about 80% if not more of my stock at events, by following these simple tenants. I’m not saying they will work for everyone, but… use what will work for you.
Normally I have days before the signing to make an impression and get more people interested in my work. This doesn’t really happen at day events, so following these simple guidelines to make the event a success!
1. Make eye contact. I can’t tell you how many sales are lost when you aren’t paying attention to the event patrons. Keep your phone time at a minimum, and don’t edit or work on a book while at your table. Readers and patrons will see that, and will pass you by because they don’t want to bother you.2. Be friendly, but don’t be pushy. Readers are weird about their book purchasing a lot of the time. If they approach, be friendly, give your spiel and offer them to read the back of any of your books. This will make them feel more at home and comfortable.3. Have promotional goodies. People want free stuff. There is no nicer way to say it. They want free stuff, and they will approach if you have some. It’s after that initial meeting that you have a total of one minute to give your info. Most readers will make a decision in less than 3 minutes if they want a book or not.4. Have business cards or postcards with your website and info of your books . Some readers are strictly E book readers, but they attend events to find new authors because the industry is extremely saturated.5. Have a short pitch for your books. But don’t be mechanical about it. The more succinct you are the better, but the more conversational you are with that pitch means the better chance you have to make the sale.6. Have signage. This means banners, posters, a nice set up for your table where you look like a business, because that is what you are. The more professional your table looks, the more interested people are.7. Dress to sell. This means do not come in a ratty old ripped up shirt and jeans (unless you’re trying to sell a zombie apocalypse or gardening book, LOL). Wear what will make your target audience feel comfortable enough to approach you. If you are selling Erotica, you won’t dress like a hobo, and if you’re trying to sell Scifi you won’t be wearing a full on debutante gown. Be conscious of your choices of clothing as YOU are the first thing they spy. Your personal style doesn’t come into play when trying to sell a genre of books.8. Book sales are competitive. A book priced at 10$ that’s less than 100 pages is NOT going to sell. But a book over 200 will always sell at 10$. Price accordingly. Readers tend to pay between 5-14$ for a print book. Price right, and you will sell.9. Use a SQUARE or PP device to take payments. Taking credit, as well as cash gets you more sales.10. Be upfront about your work and don’t lie to get a sale. It might get you the sale, but the fallout especially on reviews later one, will hurt. If you write Romance, don’t dance around it. If you write Bizarro, or really gory Horror, or True Crime, let your patrons know. Clearing up any confusion will keep readers later on.
Be nice, be courteous and be accessible. Readers that attend events largely want the experience of meeting the author, of having a story to take back with them. While you can’t do that for everyone, and not everyone wants that, remember, connection is the difference between a sale and a passerby.
Bi-continental, Stella and Audra break all misconceptions about siblings. Writing as a team they have produced well over thirty novels under two names: Stella and Audra Price and S.A. Price as well as several novella’s and short stories, and nary an argument has come from it.
On their off time from writing, Audra is a chemist artist and Stella is a graphic artist and web designer, as well as the convention director for the Authors After Dark convention. They both love animals and have several including snakes and a peacock.
Audra lives in Scotland with her husband and children, while Stella Lives in South Carolina with her dog and Poe and her husband.
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