Book Signings - Straight Advice

STRAIGHT ADVICE ABOUT BOOK SIGNINGS IN BOOKSTORES.

The news on the street is: A BOOKSTORE IS THE WORST PLACE TO SELL A BOOK. Why? Returns, publicizing the event, and all the middlemen who stand between you and your profits. Also, the big chains stores have changed their corporate policies to discourage in-store book signings.And smaller, independent stores often have little floorspace and slower customer traffic. But, if you insist on a book signing in a bookstore, we will help all we can.

If an author insists, Nightengale Press will work directly with bookstores for your signing events. We talk with the store manager whom you have contacted and make arrangements for their purchase of the books through us or through the wholesaler. We are very conservative when it comes to suggesting how many books a bookstore should order through Ingram or Baker & Taylor. Typically, we suggest 15 books, and then have the author bring his/her own books to supplement those the bookstore orders for the book signing event. If they order directly through Nightengale Press, we are more willing to allow for a few more books, but still in conservative numbers, perhaps 25 books. The bookstore wants to see that you can sell the books they’ve put in and more, so they will usually allow you to bring some along to supplement their order if necessary.

Count on bringing 25 books from your own stock, and try to sell them all in addition to the 15 to 25 the stores supplies. That would be 40 to 55 books sold, and is a really great amount to sell in a two or three hour period of time. 10 books sold is good, 15 better — etc. But, you must sell the store’s books first. They will return any unsold copies to the wholesaler, and you will lose royalties (see below) on those unsold books. This is to be avoided like the plague!

When a local author is doing book signings, it is important to have a little gimmick:

TWO GIMMICK EXAMPLES that were highly successful in drawing customers in to buy books:

Recently, one of our children’s book authors, James Beverly, had his dog Seamus (The Adventures of Seamus the Sheltie) attend the booksigning with him. He sold over 50 books. The dog is a great draw — and the book is wonderful too! So, the bookstore stocked the book. This bookstore also ran radio ads three times a day for two weeks before the book signing, and there was a feature local newspaper article about the author, the dog and the book the week before the signing.

One of our mystery authors had a signing on the first day of Spring. She brought silk daffodils (it was a rainy day, by the way) and handed them to those passing her table with this comment “Happy Spring and you can win a free book if you look on the tag.”  People love to win free stuff, and of the 100 daffodils she handed out, only four had the winning tags. Everyone asked about her books, the daffodils went around the store, and others asked “where did you get that daffodil?” Then the customers sent others over to her table. Four customers won free books and the author sold 42 books that day!

YOU CAN’T JUST SIT THERE AND HOPE SOMEONE WILL BUY YOUR BOOK.

 

  1. YOU MUST TALK WITH EVERYONE WHO COMES INTO THE SPACE NEAR THE TABLE.
  2. STAND UP AND MOVE AROUND AND HANDOUT BOOKMARKS
  3. DEVELOP A SUPER OPENING LINE.

HERE ARE SOME SIMPLE IDEAS:

Anything you can try to draw them into conversation about your book will be good. Even just asking questions of people as they pass by can start the ball rolling. You can say just about anything to get them talking — you'll come up with you own best way to do this.

One of our humor writers is a natural comedian, and just has a great way of teasing a stranger about something — such as the tee shirt slogan the person is wearing, or the way they walk — or the way they’re trying to pretend he’s not there, and drawing them into a conversation.

A simple introduction works for most people: “Hi, I’m ___(your name)____, a local author, and I am signing my ___(genre)____book today. Do you read _(your book’s genre)___ books?

If they say “No” to your question, have a comeback ready. The obvious one is “Why not? These are very entertaining — better than movies.” If they are still resistant, hand them one of your bookmarks and thank them for stopping by. You’ll be surprised how many of these nay-sayers come back and buy a book.

If they say “yes” it is much easier to begin your “elevator description” of your book (30 seconds to tell the listener about the book). Hand them a book, let them read the back cover, and keep the conversation going. Suggest it as a gift for someone else. That often gets them interested.

BE SURE TO SIGN THE BOOKS to the person buying the book — or someone they want it for who say they'll buy — that way they really must buy the book. They take the book to the counter to pay for it as with any other book. The store handles all the money, for their books and for the ones you brought in as well.

COLLECT YOUR MONEY
After the signing is over, the store owes you money for the books you brought in and sold. The store gets 40% of cover price, you get 60% of cover price...times how many books you've sold. Keep track! Know how many books you bring, know how many books are signed (purchased) do the math — know what they owe you. They pay the tax because they collect the tax money. The rest is all yours. It feels great.

For the books the bookstore ordered and you sold first, you will receive royalties through the system. The store does not pay you on the spot for those sales. So, be sure to track which books are theirs and which books are yours. You must sell the store’s books first, then yours.

SOME FACTS ABOUT BOOKS SALES: Bookstores are not the best place to sell your books.

1) Sales made in bookstores take four months to filter all the way back to your publisher. Your Nightengale Press royalties are paid in May and in November. So, you will receive a detailed accounting of all sales (bookstores signings, online sales and Nightengale Press online store sales) every six months. There is nothing the publisher can do to make the stores pay faster, and there is no way the publisher is going to pay royalties to you that haven’t yet cleared the system. So, patience is a virtue in the books sales business. Nightengale Press is very meticulous about getting all the details for you.

2) If you do not sell all the books the bookstores has put in for your signing, they may keep them on the shelves for a few weeks, and then return any unsold copies to the wholesaler (Ingram or Baker & Taylor). These are then returned to your publisher. The expenses for the printing and shipping and handling of the books are deducted from your royalties by the WHOLESALER before they send payment to the publisher. This is why you really need to make sure you do not let the bookstore put in 100’s of books for your signings. You won’t sell them all and the returns will reduce your royalties. It sometimes happens that the royalties are reduced into the red against future sales because of returns.

3) Selling your books at talks you give is much more lucrative for you. You earn a greater percentage on books you have purchased for re-sale. These also do not have the wholesaler 55% discount coming off the top of the retail price, so you have a larger amount coming to you. Look at the details on your royalty sheet. The numbers tell the whole story.

 

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