The Writers' Network! discussion

So, I'm looking for advice.

I have an opportunity to "present" my book at my local library during a weeklong local author's spotlight event. I think I'd be a fool to pass on something like that, but to be honest...I'm not sure what to do with it.

The application they gave me is extremely vague -- basically they want me to tell them what I want to do, and when I want to do it. I've considered the possibility of doing a public reading, but the last time I read anything I wrote in front of an audience was my poetry, and that was 17 years ago, back in high school (obviously a different venue, too). Has anybody ever done a reading before, and if so, can you share some experiences? How long did you allot for it? Did you read a short excerpt from your work, or several chapters? Did you follow it up with anything, say a signing for example, and how did you funnel people from one to the other? Most importantly, how did you promote it?

Also, I'd love to hear any other ideas anybody might have for something as open-ended as this. The application made suggestions such as "reading, performance, singing, etc". None of those really seem to fit here except for the reading, but "et cetera" makes me wonder what other sort of ideas there are out there.

Finally...has anybody ever tried to do a signing for a POD work in a venue such as a library, where the host is obviously not going to be buying the books? How many copies did you bring with you? How many is a good rule of thumb versus the size of the event?

Thanks all!

Hi, Scott! I don't know how much help I'll be here since my experience as an author at the library is limited, but I can give you a couple of pointers. :) The first thing is that even a publisher rarely gives an author a large number of books to use for promotion. I think my friend only got 25 when hers went to print, so don't worry about having tables of books to sell. That's especially true because if your library has the same rules as ours, you can't vend anything there anyway. You may want to consider having 5 or so books on hand and maybe doing a raffle? Or some kind of fun contest or something like that. In lieu of books to sell or give away, have bookmarks you can give out for free with your name, title, and links to your books. You can usually get about 1,000 bookmarks for around $100 at any printer. You can sign those as well as a book and readers can ALWAYS use bookmarks. :)

As far as the reading, I HAVE to tell you from experience not to read just one big chuck of your book, but find the best smaller chunks and read those. The people in your audience like variety and want to see the big picture of the book, not just one exciting snippet. As far as time, the last time I spoke I was given 30 minutes, so I had to have it all thought out and be quick and keep it going. Don't be afraid to talk about YOU either. You're not just there to sell a story, but to build relationships. People like people and if they like you, they're more likely to buy your book later when they get home. :)

I'm sure that there will be somebody else with a lot more targeted advice, but I hope this gives you a place to start and some things to think about. Oh, and CONGRATULATIONS! You'll do great!

Thanks Melodie, that's very helpful!

This particular venue is a library that does allow me to sell my wares at their location, in return for a percentage. I appreciate the advice on putting it in perspective -- I didn't really want to foot the bill for a table full of copies anyway. If any, it would most likely be half a dozen tops, and then of course I would offer to sign anything anybody brings with them.

I guess maybe it's more about the presentation, than the reading. I was thinking of saving the actual reading for last anyway, though I can see your point about not reading just a single chunk of the book. I suppose I'd need to do some homework in figuring a good way to break it up.

I have been in readings where I was ready to chew my own arm off to get away - OK so it was perhaps mostly the materials fault, but you just cannot listen to a long reading, its not like an audiobook that you probably listen while doing something. Think of the length, keep it short - you can always ask the people if they want more and if the answer is "mmmmmmmm", stop. Have time for discussion. Seed the audience with a friend who will ask the first question, just in case, some crowds are really shy and you end up staring at each other like owls. Have some copies to sell, the size of the venue and the previous crowds attracted should give an indication how many are possible, and do have some sort of clear instructions at hand you can give on where to buy further copies, preferably a bookmark or business card or postcard - I doubt anyone ever does go and buy a book afterwards, (I at least have bought books on a whim from a reading, but I cannot think of a time when I went afterwards to order one online or some such) but it does look silly when people have been promoting their work and then suddenly have no clue where it is obtainable. And good luck!

Help! I'm feeling so stupid right now but I've spent way too long trying to get a simple answer to this question.
I've published through Bookbaby so they've distributed my book to all the big retailers. It's easy to get a link to post to my social networking sites-they usually have buttons or the URL at the top.
But iBooks (apple iTunes) is giving me problems. It's only coming up with the option to share via e-mail or FB or Twitter and I have millions of others like Tumblr and good reads. But there's no URL at the top of the page so how do I get a 'one-click' situation going for my iBook that will let people go straight to it's place on the apple store?'

S.K. wrote: But iBooks (apple iTunes) is giving me problems. It's only coming up with the option to share via e-mail or FB or Twitter and I have millions of others like Tumblr and good reads. But there's no URL at the top of the page so how do I get a 'one-click' situation going for my iBook that will let people go straight to it's place on the apple store?'

I have never used iBooks so I'm not sure how to fish the URL out of there directly. I find Apple stuff generally confusing. But, if you do share to facebook or other service in the internet, it should give the link - if it shows a thumbnail or whatever, rather than an URL, right-click it and choose from the menu "save link location" or rather, "copy link location" (Firefox at least.) Then you can paste that wherever you want.
It may be possible Apple has found a way to make this somehow not work, but it works for other links at least. Test the link first, of course, to see it leads where it is meant to.

This is like the ducktape and wire solution, there must be a more elegant one somewhere.

Tura wrote: "S.K. wrote: But iBooks (apple iTunes) is giving me problems. It's only coming up with the option to share via e-mail or FB or Twitter and I have millions of others like Tumblr and good reads. But t..."

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try that now!