We often talk
about bookstore events and while those are great, libraries are often big, missed opportunities.
Not exact matches
I learned
about this because I was at a
bookstore presentation for another author and after she spoke, the book
events coordinator told the audience to come back next week to hear this author.
Make a list of 10
bookstores you could easily drive to, find an email address for each of them, and reach out to inquire
about how they book
events.
So don't be disappointed if your pitch to your area's
bookstores about a signing
event for your self published book gets a shrug or «No, thanks!»
Those titles include Haunted Hamilton: The Ghosts of Dundurn Castle & Other Steeltown Shivers (2012) Spooky Sudbury: True Tales of the Eerie & Unexplained (2013 — co-authored with Jenny Jelen), Tomes of Terror: Haunted
Bookstores and Libraries (2014), Creepy Capital: Ghost Stories of Ottawa and the National Capital Region (2016) and Haunted Hospitals: Eerie Tales
about Hospitals, Sanatoriums and Other Institutions (2017 - co-authored with Rhonda Parrish) and the forthcoming Macabre Montreal: Ghostly Tales, Ghastly
Events and Gruesome True Stories (co-authored with Shayna Krishnasamy)
Thinking locally and regionally
about events /
bookstores / series can also help increase your visibility and network.
Ask a
bookstore owner or library manager
about local
events for authors in your area.
When a buyer picks up your book in a
bookstore or book signing
event, he or she will usually look at the front cover first, then flip to the back to learn more
about it.
You can't tell an editor how to write the interview, or tell a reviewer what to say
about your book, just as you can't insist that a
bookstore owner keep a poster of your
event beside the register for two months.
If friends have promised to organize
events, get in touch with them and keep the publicist apprised of what's going on — keep in mind that most
bookstores don't have the staff to sell books at offsite
events (like your friends» parties) if fewer than
about 100 people attend.
And that's the indie authors» grapevine at work: there was a presentation
about SELF - e at Alli's IndieReCon
event at Foyle's flagship
bookstore in Charing Cross Road in London on the 17th of April.
What you need to know: Being something of a technogeek myself, I've talked to a number of
bookstores about the possibility of them hosting virtual
events.
Inquire
about their
bookstore carrying your book on consignment as well as hosting a signing
event.
My book, Unlikely Companions: The Adventures of an Exotic Animal Doctor (or What Friends Feathered, Furred, and Scaled Have Taught Me
About Life and Love), is available for sale online everywhere (seewww.LaurieHessDVM.com for details and book signing
events) and will be on
bookstore shelves on November 1st.
The company described Bulletin as a way for others to communicate information of local interest, like
bookstore readings, high school sporting
events, or information
about street closures, for example.
«People everywhere want to know what is going on in their own backyard at a very local level, ranging from local
bookstore readings to high school sporting
events to information
about local street closures.»