I Would Be Better Off Writing Porn, or Speaking Event Test #5: Library Authors Day

New rule: no photos for events that feel demoralizing, even if it does make for a prettier blog post.

Yesterday I took part in a local library’s local authors day. This is the second to last event I have lined up to promote EcoFrugal Baby: How To Save 70% Off Baby’s First Year before I come out with the third edition. I didn’t expect much from this event, because:

1) The event was not targeted toward green living or toward parents.

2) There was very little promotional work put into it, by me or the library.

Frankly, I’m running out of steam on this promotional stuff until I have a new edition of the book to promote. I’m looking forward to my last speaking event in 2 weeks, which is a mom and baby tea at the Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Tea Room in Ann Arbor (April 19th, 3:30 pm), but a generic authors day wasn’t something I wanted to throw my promotional energy behind.

The Result

Pretty much as expected. I talked with a lot of people and was complimented several times for giving a good talk, but I got the following responses:

From the older set: “Oh, this is about GREEN parenting?” *snicker snicker*. Right. So glad my lifestyle amuses you. Next.

From the younger set: “This is great! I’m getting married this month, so I may be back later to check out your book when I have kids.” That’s great, but no short-term results. I did get some sign-ups for my blog email list, though.

From the middle-aged set: “There aren’t that many people in this area who want to save money, but let me think of people I know who are about to have a baby… (still thinking)….”

That last comment taught me something, because I had expected this area north of Ann Arbor to be more family-oriented, but it turns out most people in this particular area have too much money to bother with frugality, and the culture isn’t oriented toward green living the way Ann Arbor’s is.

Lessons Learned

First, next time I promote this book, I’m focusing on Ann Arbor’s green-minded new parents plus online sales. It’s a total waste of time to try to convince people why green parenting is important in the space of 5 minutes.

Second, I’m targeting my efforts toward green living fairs, baby-focused events, or talks/book signings where I’m the headliner and where I can command a speaking fee where possible. These were the speaking events where I got real interest and results.

Third, I would be better off writing porn….

8)

I kid you not, the most successful author at the authors day was a romance writer who writes everything from erotica to paranormal romance to urban fantasy romance to steampunk romance. She writes an astonishing 10-12 books a year and is under contract at multiple publishers, including a subsidiary of Harlequin Press. She was friendly and intelligent, too. Damn. If only something in me didn’t resist writing books people are embarrassed to buy….

 

Speaking Event Test #2: Mom’s Night Out

Pictured: Laura K. Cowan. Not pictured: my fabulous shoes.

As part of my local test of various formats for giving a talk about Ecofrugal Baby and selling books, I agreed to participate in Children’s Orchard’s Mom’s Night Out last night (gosh that’s a lot of apostrophes in a row–sorry!). The event was hosted at Children’s Orchard, a used children’s clothing store in Ann Arbor that has an email subscriber list of customers who receive special offers for invite-only sales and such. They had been invited to this closed-door shopping and pampering event that involved prize drawings, snacks, and shopping. I was joined by several other entrepreneurs with products that would appeal to moms, but for some reason–I suppose because of the appeal of having an author at the event–I was given the table front and center. That’s a good start, right?

In participating in this event, I wanted to achieve the following goals:

1) Further develop my ability to talk with people at an event without overselling my book

2) See if this format for an event sold more books than my book signing

3) Gain more local publicity and word of mouth for my book.

Here is what I learned:

1) Women who shop in used clothing stores are often very interested in the topics covered in Ecofrugal Baby, but they weren’t really prepared to purchase the book at this event, either because they weren’t physically prepared to pay for the book or because they weren’t mentally prepared to buy a book when they arrived. Both these problems could have been solved with more advanced planning and marketing.

2) Some women love to talk forever and ever about saving money or green parenting or being a mom, but others clearly feel like they’re being sold something even when you’re just trying to engage them in basic conversation. I understand that defensiveness and I want to respect it. I feel like I’m getting better at identifying these women very quickly so I don’t come on too strong.

3) The first woman who visited my table said she had seen the book in the local paper. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear! There is a tipping point somewhere, after which people will start to buy my book because they’ve seen it enough places and heard it recommended enough times that they want to check it out. I’m still working toward that point, because that woman walked away.

4) I didn’t sell a single book at this event, but I did have four women say they would likely pick it up from my 29Diapers.com blog later. I know the key to sales is to close the deal before the prospect walks away, but I just don’t like to be pushy about these things and I hadn’t qualified these leads before they walked in the door, so what could I expect? Once I realized the low potential for sales for the event, I focused on meeting people, whether they were customers or employees or my fellow entrepreneurs manning tables at the event. We had a great time, I met a woman who has a similar mission as me that I may be working with for some cross-promotion of each other’s writing, and I got the store manager’s permission to leave brochures at the counter for employees to stuff in customer’s bags on an ongoing basis. Given the situation, I think this will be a much better way to get the word out to even more people, without having to spend any more time in 4-inch heels (though the shoes got as many compliments as the book, lol).

So, the conclusion is that I will likely skip any similar events I was planning at other local used clothing stores, unless those stores heavily promote the event and my attendance in particular. I could do it just for the extra publicity and heavily promote it myself, but it doesn’t seem worth the effort of making my husband watch my daughter for two hours and keeping her up past her bedtime. In a few years that won’t be a big deal at all, but she’s still nursing so I’m constantly aware of not being with her, and I think she feels the same way. Baby girl and husband come first! And you know what? I told my husband I was hoping that this event would either be a great success or a total flop sales-wise, because I need a clear winner for sales that I can then focus my efforts on and scale up nationally. As a one-woman show I definitely have to work smart and not spread myself too thin.

I hope this was interesting and helpful to any of you planning similar events. Please let me know your best tips for book sales, publicity, or any questions in comments. Blessings!

Bucket List: Book Signing–Check!

Signing a copy of Ecofrugal Baby for a fan.

I hosted my first talk and book signing last night at the Ann Arbor Barnes & Noble as part of their National Authors Day, and it was a resounding success! I had 2-3 dozen attendees to my talk while the five other authors on the floor had maybe one person to talk to at a time. This was no accident. I’m glad I read up on how to host a good book signing before the event, because several key tips made all the difference, and I wanted to share those, plus what I learned from doing the signing, with you:

1) Arrange to speak as well as sign books. I billed my event as a free talk as well as a book signing. Not only did this attract dozens of people who wanted to hear what I had to say before buying a book, but it meant that the bookstore prepared for the event by giving me a table 3 times the size of the other tables on the floor, brought balloons to identify the table as the location of the talk, and agreed to set up chairs for my event. Now, they didn’t actually set up the chairs, but this ended up being a great thing because so many people showed up (right after the event planner apologetically told me that traffic was nearly dead that day and she didn’t expect anyone to come) that they moved my table to the other side of the floor where there was enough space for everyone. How cool to be able to say in my post-book signing press release, “Local author Laura K. Cowan’s book signing such a draw for Barnes & Noble’s National Authors Day that event had to be moved to location with more space”!

2) Never sit down. This is one of the tips I picked up from Jump Start Your Book Sales, and I’m so glad I read it because I always imagined authors at book signings sitting behind the table signing books. The table is really a barrier between the host and the attendees, so I didn’t even put a chair behind the table to tempt myself. I stood in front of my table and greeted people, offered them a brochure, asked them if they had any questions, told them about the giveaway I was doing for a cloth diaper and invited them to put their name in the box, and so on. The other reason this was a great move is that I’m a little shy and it would be hard for me to approach people and stay in the groove of being sociable if I were sitting behind a table looking authorly (no, that’s not a real word, but it should be).

They did make a sign with my mug on it for my own table, at least. I saved it and will frame it over my desk as a memento.

3) Promote your own event. I’ve been told before that neither bookstores nor publishers put much effort into promoting book signings sometimes, so it’s important for the author to be involved in promoting their own event. Well, in my case my print-on-demand publisher won’t be doing any promotional work for me, and I could tell from my interaction with the event planner that the bookstore wouldn’t be doing much of anything either. She encouraged us authors to email our contact lists and invite them to the event, so we would have a good start to some traffic for the event. Yikes. When I got to the event, there was one sign in the atrium that said “National Authors Day” with the covers of five books, none of them mine, below the text. Double yikes. If I hadn’t promoted my own event, no one would have come at all. So what did I do? I posted or distributed 150 flyers; I got a local natural childbirth education center to email their customer list about the event; I sent out press releases to the local media (I ended up with one article in my local “paper,” AnnArbor.com, which was reprinted on the front page of their Sunday print edition) and obstetricians at the local hospitals and called the TV and radio stations; I blogged about the event on my cloth diapering blog 29Diapers.com and posted about the event on Facebook and Twitter using both my personal accounts and my 29 Diapers fan accounts; I told EVERYONE who seemed remotely interested about the event; and I cross-promoted the event with my Christmas giveaway event on 29Diapers.com via press release and blog posts, billing the book signing as a virtual book signing as well as a talk, so my more remote readers could “attend” as well if they were interested. It takes a lot of work to gather 3 dozen people to a no-name new author’s book signing.

4) Rinse and repeat. I have learned from planning other events that most people who say they’ll come will not, for one reason or another, so I didn’t stop promoting my event until the day before, when I took a short break to rest before I had to be on-stage. Sure enough, dozens of people who promised to come had surprise funerals, worked late, didn’t feel well, forgot–my book signing was not on the top of everyone’s priority list.

5) Book signings are not for selling books. No, really. Book signings are famously bad for selling any real quantity of books. My sales goals are modest since I’m just starting out, so I was happy with my small returns, but I actually did the event to help me get my foot in the door for other speaking engagements and signings. Being able to say I had a successful book signing with Barnes & Noble when talking to someone who has the power to let me use their facility for a class or book signing is a gold key that opens doors to more opportunities. I also did it because I wanted a local debut for the book with some visibility that I could use to not only build a loyal local fan base (who doesn’t love to be part of a “local author makes good” story?) but also as material to send out more press releases after the event and keep myself in contact with the media, who will mostly ignore me until I have half a dozen worthwhile news stories I’ve sent them.

Do you have more tips for me to use for my next event? I’d love to hear your feedback on these tips in comments. Thanks for reading!