So you want to Self Publish...

My self published books have sold about 60 000 copies in the UK alone. They have also launched recently in German, published by Bertelsmann (Random House books) who bought the rights to translate them about 18 months ago. I think this qualifies me to offer the following advice.

I produced these notes for a group of writers for children and teenagers I was addressing at a conference in the UK. Some of the book store names and details may be different where you are, but the same principles will apply. I hope you find these notes useful.

Mark Robson on Self Publishing & Selling Yourself
© Mark Robson - 2009

Much of what I tell people is neither based on, nor necessarily in line with, traditional methods of marketing books. My talk today is based on personal experience from having started with no sales experience eight years ago. The strange thing is that my methods have worked very well and much of what I include in these notes is either common sense, or is driven by simple communication skills. These are often easy to understand in theory, but not necessarily so easy to use to full effect in practice.

There is some repetition in these notes. Some is for emphasis and some is down to my having cut and pasted sections from different talks.

Self Publishing

Market Research

Identify your market.

How do you do this? Firstly, why are you writing your book? Who is it aimed at? Get some people from this target audience to read your work before you commit to print.

If the market is specialised/niche, how big do you realistically think it is? Even if the market is big, there may be other books in competition with yours. Again, ask yourself, if not – why not? Has this type of book been tried before? If it has and it failed, why did it fail?

How much of the available market share do you think you could get? What sort of cover is used traditionally on your sort of book? (Have they used special effects to lift the overall effect - embossing/spot UV treatment? Adding effects to cover art costs money!) If you are considering breaking with tradition, will you still attract the right sort of readers? Get some other books in the same field and ask people for opinions as to which of them they would buy and why? Find out what it is that will make someone buy one book over another – price/cover/blurb/description of contents/reviews.

Look to see who reviews the sort of work you have written? Do you have any contacts amongst reviewers? Are the reviewer’s contact details available? (Writers and Artists’ Yearbook, internet etc)

Having done this, you must price out the full costs involved in self publishing your book. Take into account:

Typing, Typesetting, Proof Reading/Copy Editing, Artwork, Graphic Design,
Printing, Binding, Delivery, Storage, ISBN, Bar Code.

Mandatory Free Copies to go to National Libraries (in the UK) – x 6. Copies for reviewers.

You need to price in the discount that you will have to give the retailers. A good working average is 40%, but if you are going to sell through the big chains, then you need to be working on 50-55%. Amazon Advantage (their advantage, it seems!) takes 60% - beware! You also need to bear in mind the costs of getting the books to the bookshops. If you are going to distribute your own – books are heavy and packing materials cost more money. Don’t forget to price this into your RRP (Recommended Retail Price).

Once you have done all this, you should be able to price your book such that you won’t lose money… assuming you sell them all!

Target your sales efforts at your identified market – Age range?
Social class?
Male/female?
Religious faith?

How? Research where your readership would traditionally buy your sort of work. If it is largely from the big chains – beware! You are already on dangerous ground. If it is from specialist bookshops/independents/internet, it is far safer to proceed.

Who/What do you need to get your book in print?

You will need help. It is highly unlikely that you have all of the skills/equipment to print your own book without some outside help. How much of the process that you do is entirely up to you these days. There are lots of ‘Self Publishing’ companies out there who will be all too willing to help you get your book into print, but beware – they don’t do this out of kindness. There is obviously a financial advantage to them, or they would not be in business. To be fair, there are some companies who do print on demand/short print runs of books and are very good at satisfying the needs of the author. There are always tales of ‘satisfied’ customers. However, unless you are planning to take your venture very seriously, then beware of companies who require you to pay for the printing of large runs that will leave you with a mountain of stock which will take you years to sell, if indeed you ever can.

If you are going to ‘go it alone’, then as a guide, consider the following possibilities of helpers:

An Artist for cover artwork.
A Graphic Designer for cover layout.
A typist. (Though most authors do their own these days.)
A Copy Editor.
A typesetter.
Proof readers.
A Printing Company (preferably who offer a binding service).
A Book Binding Company (if your Printer is not linked to one).
An Accountant!

The other thing you will need is money. Depending on the scale of your venture, you may need a little, or you may need large sums. Whatever the scale, it never turns out to be negligible, unless you are a member of the super rich. The more of the above list of people that you decide to employ to help you, the more expensive your project will become. The bottom line is: never commit what you’re not willing to lose! If you treat self publishing like a hobby, then you can view it positively regardless of the outcome. People spend money on hobbies, so if you spend money on getting your book into print, then how is that any different to spending hundreds/thousands of pounds on belonging to a golf club?

Your book will need an ISBN (International Standard Book Number). This can be obtained from the Standard Book Numbering Agency Ltd. The address and contact details for this company can be found in the Writer’s and Artist’s Yearbook, which you will find in the reference section of your local library – or you can buy a copy for about £14. There is a lot of good information in this book for anyone interested in publishing. Both traditional publishing and self publishing are well covered. It is a useful resource material that is, of course, tax deductible.

You may wish to get a bar code for the book, though it is unlikely to be used by bookshops unless you achieve a wide distribution. This is not an expensive addition – about £20 if you get your Graphic Designer to get it for you, though I understand you can get a free download programme from the internet that will generate a barcode for you, which is readable by shop scanners. How good the quality of this would be, I’m not sure.

Quality

I have learned to my cost that just providing quality in a few areas is not enough. Your book needs to have a quality about it that allows it to compete favourably with the competition. If possible, it should look and feel better than the competition. As a self publisher, you need every edge you can get. I made the mistake of not ‘biting the bullet’ when it came to cost of artwork. If I had paid for a more experienced fantasy artist at the beginning, then I would not have had to go through the expensive process of redesigning my covers.

Paper quality is a double-edged sword. If you go for good quality paper, the books end up being heavy. These are then expensive to mail. The big publishers print on the next best thing to toilet paper for good reason!

I am not going to insult your intelligence by telling you that your content should be of the highest quality you can make it. Your first book may well make or break your reputation as an author. If you want to gain a readership who will follow your work, then you should always strive to give the very best you can offer. This means not just getting people to proof read for you, but actually listening and considering all and any advise you receive, no matter who it’s from.

I’ve Published a Book – Now How do I Sell it?

The Golden Rule - Be Nice!

I shouldn’t have to tell anyone this, but all too often people who have written books think that the world owes them a stage to market them from. Get real! No matter who you are talking to, or how obstructive they are to your personal goals, be nice. Trust me - it never hurts to keep a friendly tone, even if you’re spitting feathers inside! Booksellers talk to one another. If they feel particularly inclined they might even talk to you – one set of staff in what was an Ottakars store during my launch tour of Imperial Spy spilled the beans on several authors (who shall remain nameless, but fortunately none of whom are personal friends of mine) who had ‘a reputation’ amongst booksellers for being ‘difficult and obnoxious’.

Establish some Goals

Decide in your mind how many events you want to do, and of what type. Commit them to paper if it helps motivate you. Ask yourself what you want from these events. Sales? Publicity? People who will go away remembering your name? In an ideal world we’d all like to speak to a small friendly audience who will then buy a set of every book we’ve ever written there and then … and one for each of their friends and relatives plus a few extras in case they think of anyone they might have forgotten. Unrealistic expectations cause more disappointment than anything else, so again – get real.

Having something to work towards is essential. Many of you probably set targets for your writing. Start setting them in other areas like:

Press coverage – articles, radio interviews etc.
School visits – number and quality.
Signing events – number and quality.
Personal Sales – if that interests you.

How do you set the targets? Initially, it’s best to start by setting goals no more than a week in advance. This way, they are imminent and will force you to focus. Once you have a little bit of data about how well your efforts are being rewarded, you will be able to set realistic longer term goals.

Set sensible goals/targets. Don’t set unachievable goals – it will cause you to lose heart very quickly. I try to set goals that I cannot fail to achieve if I am true to my vision. They are not always based on numbers of books sold, though when I’m on a promotional push I do set targets for straight sales figures. My guaranteed achievable targets might be to contact 5 new shops, or to speak to 10 new people about my books, or to ring 10 school librarians. This does not mean that I have to sell something to them, simply talking to them with the idea of sowing a seed of interest counts.

Signing Events

How do you get signing events? You ask: it’s really that simple. You have to be humble and be prepared for rejection, because you will be rejected. I am still rejected now by venues, despite a track record that many major authors would give their right arm for! Why am I rejected? Because events are hassle to the managers and staff… or at least that is how some will view it. The answer – make the event as simple and minimal hassle as possible and you are less likely to be turned away.

Don’t aim too high too quickly. Yes, when signing in major WH Smith and Waterstones stores you will inevitably sell more books than you will in your local independent. However, don’t write those guys off. I sell an amazing number of books in some of the independent stores, because to them having an author in to sign books is a big deal. They will treat you better than the big chains and will put in much more effort to make the event a success.

I often tell shops not to bother advertising unless I have signed there at least a couple of times already. The reason – no one is likely to have heard of me, so why would anyone take the time to come and see me? If a shop is willing to put up posters, don’t turn down the opportunity, but whatever you do, don’t insist on it. Indeed, don’t insist on anything!

Just because you have signed somewhere successfully and sold a lot of books does not mean that you have ‘done’ this store. I go back to stores regularly and rarely meet the same people. In most stores I have seen a rise in sales with each visit. Why? Because the people who met me the first time have since told others about me. Even if these people have not rushed out and bought my books, the fact that they have heard about me before is a step along the road to them trying one. Seeing me in the store, having already heard about me, normally tips the balance.

Make yourself useful rather than an inconvenience. I always: arrive early, set up my own table (unless the store has set it up the night before), learn the layout of the store so that I can be of help to customers, bring my own food and drink, and have any necessary paperwork printed ready to be signed at the end of the day (for my self published titles).

Don’t expect the store personnel to do anything, or provide anything. I signed in one store, (when still just self published) which had a huge coffee shop within the store and was not offered so much as a glass of water in a 9 hour day! Not one staff member spoke to me during the entire time I was there. I set up my own table, sold books solidly all day without a break, and then I had to go and find the manager to sign off the delivery note and let him know how many books I had sold. I would have thought that he might have noticed, particularly given that the total was in three figures, but apparently he did not really care. Any author of lesser standing than Pullman, Rowling or Horowitz might as well get used to the idea that you are a nobody – and get on with what needs to be done. I have never failed to be invited back to a store that I have signed in, but that is not to say that I’ve always wanted to go back. Building a good reputation is essential if you want to be invited into the larger stores.

Have fun. Talk to people. Don’t try to sell books – sell yourself. If you’ve written something interesting, then by definition, you are an interesting person with interesting stories to tell. Chat to people and focus on them as if they are the most important person in the world to you, whether they want to buy your books or not. If nothing else, the person will go away saying that they met a really nice author, who was willing to spend some time talking with them.

Wear a badge. For ages I wore one that said AUTHOR in bold letters. People will not notice what the badge says, regardless of what is on it. (Several people mis-read it as ARTHUR!) Customers will automatically assume you work in the store no matter what you have on the badge. This is good. Why? Because people will come to you, if only to ask for help to find particular books. Never be afraid to leave the sanctuary of your table to help people find what they came in for. Yes, you might miss a few potential customers, but this doesn’t matter.

I always start by saying ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t actually work here. I’m the visiting author today, but I can show you where the appropriate section is.’ I then take the customer to the appropriate section of the store and do my best to find the book they are looking for. If after a few moments I cannot see the book they are looking for, I then go to customer service counter and get the sales assistant to check the stock to see if they have the title in store. Often, I will find the specific book with little difficulty. The number of times that the customer (who was initially only focused on getting their one particular book) has then asked me ‘So what is it that you write about?’ is beyond count.

Where to hold Signing Events?

The answer to this is: anywhere that’ll have you! I started at tabletop sales, car boot sales (I don’t recommend this!), Christmas Fayres, Summer Fetes, schools and RAF Airshows. I’d like to get a table at a County Show sometime, because I sell a lot of books wherever there is a big footfall, but it would depend on the type of book that you had written, as to where you might try to sell.

Bookshops are great, but they are not the be-all and end-all. For example, if you take your own books, a Christmas Fayre is far more personally profitable than a signing in a large WH Smith store, because you will make retail profit on all sales. You can offer discounts that the stores are unlikely to do, make more money per book than the standard royalties, yet you will gain a similar number of readers from this event as you would from signing in a bookstore. The only thing you won’t get is the sales figures on EPOS.

A List of Do’s and Don’ts

Do:

1. Be nice to everyone. A sales assistant who I was nice to on my first ever book signing is now the manager of a major Waterstones store. She has never forgotten how I made a point of speaking to her by name that day. As she has climbed the ladder through the Waterstones sales system, I have enjoyed invitations to every store she has worked in. Another who was a deputy store manager at an Ottakars store is now the National Events Manager for Waterstones.

2. Be prompt – it sticks in people’s minds if you’re late.

3. Have fun and be enthusiastic! People like to be around people who are having a good time. It is amazing how infectious it can be.

4. Give stuff away. Bookmarks are best. They are cheap to produce, they have a purpose, and they are less likely to be discarded thereby causing a litter embarrassment to the shop staff. The bookmarks don’t even have to feature your own books, (I’m sure there are plenty of other authors who will be delighted if you volunteer to give away their bookmarks for them) but they are a great ice-breaker to get a conversation going with customers.

5. Talk to everyone you can. You never know whether the little old lady pushing her shopping trolley is shopping for herself, or her 10 year old granddaughter’s birthday. Cherry picking those customers trailing children of the perfect age is fine, but only if the store is really busy.

6. Help customers find what they’re looking for. Unless you have a line of people waiting for books to be signed (and how often does that happen?) then look to help people. It’s not hard for someone who knows their way around a bookshop. You will be amazed at how many incidental and inadvertent sales you will win by going the extra mile.

7. Dress appropriately. I’ve tried all sorts of different approaches to this, but I found that smart casual was best.

8. Check with the store that all is in place for the event. Don’t quiz them over every detail, but a quick call a week before the event is ideal to save embarrassment on all sides. It acts as a reminder to the in-store organiser to make sure the stock is there (if it isn’t already) and that there are a few things they will need to get done during the week – put up posters, call the local press etc. Just ask ‘Is everything still OK?’ and confirm the times they are expecting you for.

9. Hand a book to each positive customer that you talk to for them to look at. This is a bit of a salesman’s trick really, though I discovered it by accident. If you place something in someone’s hands they are far more likely to buy it. I understand it’s a sort of – touch it, feel it, want it, subconscious response.

10. Recommend books by other authors to those customers who are not interested in buying yours. I’ve found this to be a very powerful way of getting people to remember my name. If a customer is not interested in my books, I talk to them about whatever they like reading. As I’ve read quite widely, there is normally something I can recommend that they haven’t tried yet. Whether they enjoy my recommendation or not, they will always associate that book with my name as strongly as the person who actually wrote the book.

11. Wear a badge. If nothing else, people will talk to you because they will think you work there.

12. Put a positive spin on your events. It shouldn’t matter whether you sell one book, or a hundred, but it does. We all know that. However, if you get to the end of the day and feel it’s been a disaster, don’t tell the staff that. Find something to enthuse over. Remember that they’ve just had another day at work and don’t want to be burdened with your woes. If you thank them for a fun event and enthuse about some of the positive conversations you’ve had with customers during your visit, this will raise your image in the eyes of the bookseller no matter how many books you’ve sold.

Don’t:

1. Sit behind a table looking glum. In fact, don’t sit behind a table at all. If you must have a table, then sit to one side of it, or in front of it, but not behind it. By doing this you remove the barrier between you and the public, thereby becoming less intimidating and more approachable. This alone will encourage more customers to chat to you.

2. Ever be tempted to snipe back at a rude customer. Oh, I’ve come close on many occasions! There have been times when I’ve had great put downs on the tip of my tongue, but to date I’ve always managed to keep a lid on them.

3. Hand out leaflets, or flyers. These tend to be dumped on the street outside the store. It leaves a bad impression of both you and the book store – something they won’t thank you for. Do, however, have information sheets to hand for teachers, but only give them out if they ask for them.

4. Expect or demand anything from the store, or the staff. Go prepared to look after yourself. This way it’s always a pleasant surprise when they are really nice and give you the red carpet treatment. I limit myself to asking if there is somewhere that I can get a glass of water from. If they offer coffee I consider it a bonus. I keep a list of the venues that look after me well and offer prime spots for follow up events on the launch of each new book.

5. Build such a beautiful, neat display of books that no one wants to pick one up! A large Waterstones store did this for me - as soon as no one was looking I deliberately messed the entire thing up.


Publicity

Getting press coverage: to do this you must do something notable. “But writing a book is notable,” I hear you cry. Wrong! Writing a book is often not enough unless you have written about something that is newsworthy in its own right.

Look for a different spin, or something that the press think to be a story. I got emails from film scouts enquiring about film rights – that was enough to get a double page spread in the Northampton Chronicle and Echo.

Public speaking will get you a fair bit of local press. Some of us are good at it… some are hopeless. However, this is a skill that can be learned if you are of a mind to do so. The largest part of it is the confidence that comes from practice. There are a plethora of venues that you can speak at and they will pay – normally more than you would get for sales of your books at a signing event.

Public library events attract quite a lot of publicity, both in the local press and on local radio networks. They don’t pay very well, but they do raise your profile in the public eye and the more times they hear about you, or see your picture in the local paper, the more they will wonder what you write about and the more likely they are to try reading your work. I recently spoke in a local little town Library to a crowd of… 5! Was it worth it? You bet it was! I got articles in three local newspapers and two radio interviews for that event. People are generally apathetic about going to events, but they do listen to radio and read newspapers. Giving a friendly chat to 5 people for an hour was a small price to pay for that sort of publicity – besides which, we had fun in the Library and the few people who were there went away feeling special because they had spent time interacting with an author.

Smaller Literary Festivals are always on the lookout for speakers, (though I know many of you have graduated to the bigger events a long time ago) both for giving lectures and for being members of panels for discussions. The size of the Festival will determine whether you will be paid for your time, but paid, or unpaid, you will gain more public profile for your writing.

Local Radio will often feature an interview. These are, more often than not, live and not very long. You will sometimes be asked to provide a suitable list of questions for the interviewer to ask. In my experience they rarely throw you any fastball questions. The presenters are generally looking to produce a good show that flows, rather than humiliating anyone on air. I have found the experience both enjoyable and beneficial. If you don’t feel up to the local BBC station, why not ask the local Hospital Radio station for an interview. They are normally very friendly, pleased to have someone different to have on the show and will offer you a good place to experience this medium of publicity.

For both radio and newspaper interviews go prepared with a list of up to a dozen key things that you want to say, or have printed. Have it in plain sight. The interviewer will be pleased to see that you’ve come prepared, will often ask what’s on the list and see to it that all of your key points are covered as a result. This will help you to come away from an interview without that “Oh I wish I’d said …’ feeling.

Television is a tricky one. Wouldn’t we all like to have our books featured on Richard & Judy? I wish I had the magic wand that would wave us into the limelight, but that is again, impossible. Local TV will sometimes take an interest. My local network in Oxford interviewed me for a local interest program for about 15 minutes. It was a live interview in the TV studio, which might frighten the living daylights out of some, but the interviewer was a complete pussycat. I think that he genuinely thought I was barking mad to be self publishing fiction, but he couldn’t fault my enthusiasm. That show was broadcast 4 times on a 6 hour loop. You would be amazed at how many people actually watch local TV – I was!

Game shows can be good for a bit of press! I joined with two other children’s authors, Charles Butler and Linda Strachan and we auditioned as an ‘Authors Team’ for Codex, an ancient history knowledge quiz set in the British Museum hosted by Tony Robinson. I’m no history buff, but I’ve picked up a fair bit of ancient history through reading fantasy. We didn’t embarrass ourselves despite going up against a team from the Institute of Field Archaeologists! The show was broadcast on Channel 4 at 6pm on a Saturday evening – prime time for our readers. Fantastic! As a result, I hit the BBC’s radar and was then invited to do an interview on the BBC Breakfast Show on BBC1 a month later.

Posters

These can be as professional, or as homemade as you like. I have done both – the professional ones are very expensive for short runs. (I spent £1700 designing and printing 4500 posters) To make this a worthwhile investment you need to have a genuine need for them. Sadly, I ended up trashing nearly half of these, as they became obsolete before I’d got even half way through them. My home generated, colour photocopied ones are of sufficient quality to build promotional displays from. They have been used every bit as much as the professionally produced ones by bookshops for signing events. Cover jackets are good display fodder. You could ask your publisher to run on a few hundred to use as advertising material. These are high quality and cheap – a very worthwhile investment on the part of the publisher if they are not going to produce posters.

Flyers

These can be effective, but it depends on how you are going to use them. Door to door is not a productive use of time or money. (I have tried some bizarre things since I started!) You can expect less than a one percent return. On the other hand, having flyers to hand out at an event can be very useful if designed for a specific purpose and only given out when asked for – teachers/librarians wanting author visit information springs to mind. If you are going to use flyers, then again – don’t spend too much money. Flashy full colour artwork is unnecessary. I can tell you from experience that simple flyer – with black ink text printed on brightly coloured A5 paper is likely to generate identical returns as the expensive full colour ones.

Gimmicks

Gimmicks are fine, but only work to generate sales if reinforced by some other means. How many of you know of someone who has bought a book because of a bookmark, a pen, or any other gimmick for that matter? Probably not very many!

I’ve not really ventured far down this route… yet! I did see someone else using bookmarks successfully in a WH Smith store and decided to try it. There is something less threatening about someone giving away bookmarks than there is someone giving away flyers. This is most likely due to the fact that a bookmark has a purpose. Given that you can have 10 000 printed in full colour for about £250, this can be a fantastic investment… if you are willing to stand there and give away 10 000 book marks!

Flyers could actually lose you more readers than you might gain through them. A person will often take a flyer and then dump it the moment they leave the shop – or even before they leave the shop in many cases. A litter build up with your name and book title printed all over it is not a good advert. However, flyers with very specific information on – for teachers interested in school visits, for example – are a great asset. You don’t need many, but having a few for those who specifically ask for them is fine.

There are companies that will produce no end of gimmicky material with information printed on it. Personally, I don’t think they are worth the money, but I am willing to be proved wrong.

Being a technophobe, I consider a website a gimmick. However, this should really class as an essential marketing tool. I have certainly seen a good number of sales through this medium. IMO the most useful result of having one, however, has been the avenue for feedback. By putting my website in each of my books and including a ‘contact the author’ page on the site, I have received a wealth of feedback. People are far more willing to write to you via the internet than they are to put pen to paper and write a letter. The site does not need to be fancy, but it does need to be: simple to navigate, have links to the relevant pages on amazon (as most people who buy books on the internet buy through this company) and it should be kept up to date.

I have also found that a website can give a cheap avenue to communicate with readers, letting them know when and where you might be holding events and when new titles are going to be released. In the past I have used a newsletter function on my website, where people can add their email address to a list on the basis that it will be used for nothing other than sending out the author’s newsletter. This was good, because it gave yet another way to gain retail sales, which are very high profit margin. I have stopped doing it now, purely to cut down time spent on the net.

Even from a traditional publisher, an author should get a clause included into their contract such that they can buy books at a 50% discount. (I have a further clause that allows me to get them at a higher discount again [60%], but I have to waive my right to royalties on those copies) These can be sold through the site – collectors always seek signed copies and only you, the author, can do this, so you hold a monopoly. It doesn’t take the brains of a rocket scientist to see that this is a strong marketing position to hold.

Engaging People in Conversation

There are no hard and fast rules here. Everyone does this differently. However, if you want a tried and proven opening line, then try this:

‘Good morning, I’m the visiting author today. Would you like a book mark?’ If the person is cold and disinterested, what have you lost? There are some very rude people out there, (fortunately a lot less than there are nice people) but I’ve found that once you accept that, it is easy to rise above it. If the person you have approached gives any indication of warmth, or interest, then you can follow up with a simple pitch. ‘Out of interest have you got any readers in the family who like/read …fantasy, thrillers, true life stories, animal stories, board books’ insert whatever it is that you have written. Keep it simple. All you’re doing is opening conversation – you should never look to twist someone’s arm to buy.

By identifying yourself as both a visitor and an author, you instantly become both less threatening to their personal space, and more interesting to them. It is, after all, not an everyday event having someone (who in their mind is something of a celebrity) engage them in conversation like this in a bookshop. When you ask them whether they have anyone in the family who is interested in your work, make it easy for them to say yes. I write fantasy, therefore I ask them whether they have anyone who reads fantasy and cite examples like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. This is a ridiculously wide spread and my work is like neither, so why do I use these examples? Because:

a. People have heard of them.

b. The books are so popular they are likely to have someone who has read one of the two.

c. If they don’t have anyone who has read these two, they are highly unlikely to read my work, so I can politely withdraw.

If the store is quiet, I will often ask people with no interest in fantasy what sort of books they do read and then talk about their interests for a moment or two. If I can recommend a book within their sphere of interest that I know is good, then I will do so. The reasoning for this is that assuming my recommendation is a good one, and they enjoy it, they are far more likely to tell the story to others about how they came to read this particular book. In order to tell the story, they need to remember my name. By default, my name as an author is spread.

There are also some people that I will not approach, regardless of whether the shop is otherwise empty. These are mainly those who are ‘on a mission’. You can pick them out easily with a bit of practice. They generally stride into the store with a look of purpose. Stopping them is not only pointless; it is likely to irritate them – a result to be avoided at all costs.

You will get a variety of responses from customers, some of which I covered within my talk. Most are friendly even if they are negative. Managers of busy stores have asked me how I choose which customers I talk to. Personally, I find it easier to talk to women. Perhaps it is because I feel they are less threatening. However, I have found that when I speak to the men, they are much more likely to buy multiple books than the women. Men are more impulsive with money in my opinion. Where a woman will buy the first book of my series to try it out, a man will buy the whole set, because he might not get another chance to get them all signed.

You will see the occasional rude person. Don’t allow yourself to be offended by them. They are not worth your time if they are rude. Remember the golden rule:

BE NICE!

Never, ever, lose your temper, or be tempted into sniping at someone, no matter how attractive the idea might be. There are a surprising number of rude and ignorant people out there, but they are unlikely to read your book anyway – which is their loss, not yours.

Speaking Venues

There are plenty to choose from if you have a mind. To give you an idea, I have spoken in: numerous schools, writing circles, meetings of The Cotswold Wives Club, The Masonic Ladies Fellowship, Libraries, Literary Festivals, Prize Giving Ceremonies… the list goes on and on. If you have a mind to speak in public, there is always a demand for a willing and able speaker.

As for techniques, well that’s a whole new lecture!

Look for venues that you would feel comfortable speaking at. Unless you are an accomplished speaker, don’t try to run before you can walk. Libraries are quite good, because you are unlikely to have a huge audience and they are generally a forgiving crowd.

Other Events

I’ve touched on a fair number of different venues and events, but there are always more. There are always events that you can go to, or places that you can sell books at. Conventions, Craft Fayres, County Shows … pretty much anywhere that large crowds of people gather can be utilised. The closer allied the crowd is to the subject matter of your book, or your target audience, the better you will do. You just have to go out and look for them. Drive and energy will take you a long way if you will just let them.

Final word

You will make mistakes. I’ve made more than I care to count. Don’t dwell on them. Learn and move on.

Be prepared for rejection. You will get this wherever you go. If you do things right, however, you will also receive a wealth of encouragement and positive feedback. Again, don’t dwell on it, or the danger is that you will become bigheaded. Try to remain humble and you will find that people respond well.

Be Nice! I really cannot stress this enough. It is essential if you are to progress.