Lauren: Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Publish & Prosper. And maybe more importantly, welcome back to my co-host, Matt. We really missed you last week, Matt. 

Matt: No, you didn't. You brought somebody in here to replace me. Um, I will say if you were gonna try to bring somebody in here to replace me, you didn't make a bad choice necessarily.

Lauren: That's true. I did have a great conversation. 

Matt: So hats off to Joe Solari for filling in for me. 

Lauren: And thanks so much for joining us, Joe. It was really great, really great conversation. And… to be fair, a million years ago when we last recorded, you did threaten to replace me.

Matt: Did I? 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: That sounds like something I probably said, yeah. 

Lauren: You put out an open casting call for a host replacement. 

Matt: I'm sure I was joking, but for real, if anybody wants to apply, just podcast at Lulu. 

Lauren: I mean, it was because I went to Disney without telling you or inviting you -

Matt: Oh, yeah. See!

Lauren: So it was actually very justified.

Matt: It's extremely justified. 

Lauren: But I then immediately replaced you, so. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: You didn't even commit such a heinous crime as going to Disney without me. 

Matt: I know, I would never do that. 

Lauren: I know, well. 

Matt: That's the difference between you and I. I have Disney loyalty, you don't. 

Lauren: I have a lot of Disney loyalty - to Disney. 

Matt: Well. You know what I mean. Let's just change the subject. Cause I feel my blood pressure. Um, on the heels of that, having Joe Solari in, I'm glad you guys got to talk about Author Nation, cause we're very excited about that event coming up in November. And so this episode is actually going to be about as an author, how to prepare for an event like Author Nation or some of the other events that you might be going to, whether local or otherwise outside of your home area. But we also have to give a shout out to Julie Barton. She sent in some questions to us, and a request for this episode. And so based on that, and some of the email exchanges that Julie and I had, we decided to make a whole episode out of this. 

Lauren: Yeah, thanks for the inspiration, Julie, because this was definitely a great episode topic.

[2:28]

Matt: So let's just jump in. At the top I'll say, when we say preparing for an author event or a reader event, or, you know, a publishing event, event does not necessarily speak to size. This could absolutely be something local that maybe your library is doing for authors or even readers that you want to try to get in on. It could be something that is on a national scale, like Author Nation, you know, and anywhere in between. Event is just kind of a catchall term that we’re using, but it stands for conferences, events, summits, whatever it might be. Maybe your local bookstore is having, like, an open house and they're inviting some local authors or people like… you know, event is just a catchall term. I believe that most of these things we're going to talk about can apply to any size though event for the most part. 

Lauren: Absolutely. Yes. A lot of this stuff is going to apply to any kind of event like that. Realistically, the only way it's going to vary based on the size and scope of the event is what your response to some of the details is going to be. 

So like, for example, one of the first things that I wanted to talk about was preparing for like the logistics of the event itself. And you know, one of the first things that you're going to have to find out that you're going to want to know is what are you actually doing at the event? Is it every author is going to have a table where they are selling books? Are you responsible for selling the books? Is the event organizer, whether it's a bookstore or like a huge conference, are they responsible for selling the books? Are you responsible for bringing the books? All the little details like the logistical details like that, that's the kind of stuff that's going to the answer is going to change depending on what kind of event it is. 

But what you need to know going into the event is really going to be the same, whether it's a single author signing at a local bookstore or local library or a massive 500 author event in Las Vegas. 

Matt: Yeah. So out of the gate, first things first, you need to make sure you find out as far in advance as you can, what opportunities are actually available at said event for you to participate. You know, every event is going to be different again, based on size, scope, and the goals of that particular event. Understanding what your options are will help you obviously jump in and start planning. 

You know, are they going to offer the ability for authors to come and sell books and sign books, or are they just going to offer the ability for you to put some of your books and, you know, like a little book sale table they're going to have there? Is it a much grander scope whereby they're going to have, you know, a hundred tables for authors? You buy a table, you sit at that table, you're able to sign and sell, and then on top of that… You know, are there other things going on where you might be able to get a speaking opportunity? Are there readings that are happening?

There's any number of things going on at most of these events, but got to do your best to find out what's actually available? What's free? What costs money? What are your thoughts on that?

Lauren: I always want to encourage authors to not assume that they know what opportunities are available at any given event or what the setup is going to be. I've been to a lot of book signings and a lot of book events and sometimes at the same location, like a single quote unquote book signing at the same place can be just a straightforward: the author is sitting at a table you buy a copy of their book they sign the book and then you walk away. 

I've been to events where they speak beforehand and it's a Q&A and a little bit of a reading and they speak to the audience as a whole and then they do the book signing. I've been to ones where it's, there is no speaking and there is no table signing. It's just almost like a cocktail hour where the author is around and you get to kind of mingle with them and talk to them. I've been to ones where they don't even sign the book in front of you, they pre-sign the book. And when you buy a ticket to the event, you get a pre-signed copy of the book and it's just a speaking and you don't actually meet the person at all. 

And those are all just individual author events. That's not even talking about adding in the element of multiple authors or like a whole conference quote-unquote or whatever it is. I think that's something that it's always really important to be aware of ahead of time, is to find out exactly what opportunities are available to you and what you're gonna be expected to do at the event. 

And it's also—if there is a speaking opportunity available, if it's this kind of an event that there are multiple authors at and some but not all of them are going to be invited to speak, if that's something you're interested in - and it should be because it's an incredible opportunity - there is very likely a deadline to submit your interest in being a speaker at that event. And I would hate for you to miss that opportunity because you missed that deadline. As soon as you become aware of or invited to an event like this, make sure that you pay attention to details like that. 

Matt: Yeah. That's the ideal scenario is that the event has the ability for you to speak in one way or another and whether that's just speaking about your book or whether it's an opportunity for you to provide some sort of educational content to other authors, you know, around the process, maybe of publishing your book or books, or, you know, how you come up with your particular stories or whatever that topic might be. Anytime you can get in front of people and speak, regardless of the topic, that is some of the best publicity and advertising you could get for yourself, so. 

Definitely try to take advantage of that if it's offered, even if you're afraid of public speaking or introverted like I am too. And it's a completely different experience when you get in front of a bunch of people. It's almost a lot easier than having one-on-one conversations with like one or two people. But I would absolutely recommend taking that opportunity if you get it. 

Lauren: It's such a great opportunity for name recognition, face recognition, brand recognition, especially if you're at an event that has like a decent number of authors at it. People have a habit of if they recognize somebody, they're more likely to pay attention to what it is that they're talking about or what it is they're selling or marketing. And if somebody saw you speaking at a session earlier and then later they see your book, that might be all it takes to be like, oh yeah, I saw this person talking earlier and I liked what they were saying, I'm gonna go check out their book. 

If you have an opportunity, I'm a big advocate for authors speaking on panels, especially if you're somebody like me and Matt, that the idea of public speaking in general is a little dicey for you. Panel speaking is a great opportunity to, like, take some of that pressure off and have other authors up on stage with you. 

I have absolutely in the past gone to events where it's been five authors and I knew four of them. And I was getting books signed by four of them. And that fifth one, I bought a copy of their book and had it signed by them just because I would have felt really guilty and awkward about getting four of the five of them to sign my book and engage with me. And at least one time that I can think of, I actually really liked that book that I wound up buying and not knowing anything about ahead of time. 

Matt: So according to Lauren, you could at least get a couple of guilt sales out of it too. So why not?

Lauren: I’m actually pretty sure that somewhere in this outline is the phrase never underestimate the power of social guilt. 

Matt: Oh my god. Alright.

Lauren: It might have been in a different outline, but nope, actually, no, no, no, in this outline, it says ‘never underestimate the power of conversation and social guilt.’

Matt: Wow. Well, as true as that may be, I guess we'll get to that later. 

Lauren: I stand by it. 

Matt: Okay. Well, you should. 

[9:42]

Matt: So, you know, there are several opportunities that may be available at a particular event or conference or whatever that might be, making sure you're aware of everything that's available to you is extremely important and anything that you can take advantage of—again, especially free, but even paid sometimes is not a bad thing. If you could pay for a table or booth to have your books at and sign, and it would come with a little speaking session or the ability to sit on the panel or something like that. It's worth it in most cases, depending on the cost. And again, if you're going to get in front of the right audience. 

If you're a sci-fi writer and it is a romance conference, it might not be worth it for you to pay money to have a table in a speaking session. You should absolutely take that into consideration, but I can't imagine there's anybody listening that that is a sci-fi writer that would just barge into a romance conference, but maybe, I mean, I'd like to see that. 

Lauren: If you are, shoot us an email. Let's talk. I have a lot of questions for you.

Matt: But you know, along that point, making sure that you fully understand, like - a lot of conferences and events, they're multi-genre, that it's not specific. And then there are a lot that are specific. But if it's multi-genre, again, you want to make sure that you're getting in front of the right audience while you're there. When they do talk about tables or booths or things like that, you want to make sure that if you are a sci-fi writer, that you're around other sci-fi writers. So make sure that they're going to put you in the right sort of area. If you are a sci-fi writer, you don't want to be sandwiched in between all of the romance writers and then all the other sci-fi writers are two rows over. That really doesn't do a lot of good for you to be honest with you, so. 

Lauren: Yeah, I could see somebody trying to make the argument that you being the lone wolf in that area kind of brings more attention to you. It's absolutely not true. Absolutely not. First of all, you're gonna get ignored by anybody in that section, but more likely is if the conference is set up in a way or the event is set up in a way where all the romance writers are together in one corner. If I'm an attendee who is specifically there looking for romance authors and romance books, I'm only going to walk over to that section. So if there's one or two islands of romance authors that are mixed in, in other sections, I'm probably not even going to find them. 

So definitely something to keep in mind. If you have any control over your placement, even just requests, or they ask you to please identify what genre you're writing in so that we can arrange you accordingly, like, make sure that you're representing yourself accurately and authentically with that.

Matt: Yeah. And if for no other reason, like. I love horror. If I was a horror writer, I can't think of a worse horror than having to sit at my table surrounded by like cozy romance authors. I mean, they're all nice people, but if I'm super into horror and I write horror, I don't want to be sitting there all day A. getting ignored by everybody walking by and B. having to listen to twenty, forty, sixty, eighty cozy romance writers all day. You know? Or let me not pick on them, you know, whatever, sci-fi or fantasy or you know what I mean? Like there's just more reasons to be in your genre than not. So don't try to take that, like Lauren said, that lone wolf approach. It never works. It's not a good idea. Don't do it. Stick with your people. 

Lauren: It's also, you know, we've, we've talked a lot about the importance of networking with other authors. This is a great opportunity to meet and connect with other authors in your genre, which proximity helps, honestly. Because if you're sitting at a table for the entire time that a show floor is open at an event, the people that you're gonna wind up talking to more than anyone else at that event are the people sitting immediately to your left and right. So wouldn't you wanna be surrounded by other people that are writing in the same genre as you, that are your peers, that you can actually forge really valuable relationships with while you're there? 

Matt: Definitely.

[13:28]

Lauren: So. Logistics, whatever boring. We got more boring logistics stuff later, but let's talk about some fun stuff in between. So you also have to do promotion while you're figuring out all your logistics and while you're getting excited and prepped and ready for this conference or event, big or small, whatever it is, you've got to actually promote it, right? You want people to know that you're going to be there and you want specifically your fans to know that you're going to be there. So this is the time for you to tap into your network as much as you possibly can. The only other time that you're ever gonna go, like, full all out to your entire mailing list and your entire like social media contact list and everything is when you have a book launch. Like a book launch and an event, those were the big opportunities to send a big blast out to everybody and say, hey, really exciting opportunity coming up for me. I'm gonna be at this place, would love to see you there. 

Matt: And to clarify, the reason why Lauren's saying that is: you really want to send very few mass emails and posts to your followers. Ideally, whenever you're sending out something, it's often being segmented based on what you're sending out and who it's most applicable to. But there are definitely several times where it's appropriate to send a mass message to everybody about a singular thing. And again, events are definitely one of them. 

Doesn't matter where they live or where they reside or… they should know that you're going to be at an event. If they're able to make it great, you'd love to meet them. But if not, they know that you're doing it, that you're out there. And maybe they know somebody that's going to be in that area that could stop by and… absolutely. 

Lauren: Yeah. It could be a great opportunity for your fans to help you grow your fan base. 

Matt: Yeah. I think - 

Lauren: You never know.

Matt: I think too - not just authors, people in general, creators - but authors often have a hard time with self-promotion. Sometimes it feels icky to them. The same as selling their book or, you know, an author honestly should be posting about their books all the time - 

Lauren: Sure. 

Matt: And asking people to buy them all the time. I understand that again, it feels icky sometimes, or some people feel like they don't know the right way to do it, but underestimating your audience is the worst thing you could do. And underestimating what they'll purchase or where they'll go to see you, or even how much they like you, you're only going to hurt yourself. So getting over this idea that you don't want to like blast it out to everybody that you're going to be at your local bookstore doing a signing or participating in something… I would get over that.  I would tell everybody I'm doing this. It's part of who you are. Your true fans and followers, they will appreciate that they won't feel like that's icky. And again, never underestimate how far they might drive or what they might do to come see you or meet you or whatever, or just support you in general. If you do that, you're only hurting yourself, so definitely put it out there like Lauren says.

Lauren: The worst case scenario, the people that you're emailing say, oh okay can't go don't care whatever. They can't make that decision to not go if they don't know the event's happening at all.

Matt: That's right. 

Lauren: So you might as well let them know and people do. I went to a book signing here in Raleigh a few months ago and there were at least two people there that I was talking to at the event that they drove six hours to come to the event.

Matt: Yeah, for them, it probably wasn't that big of a deal to see an author they really like.

Lauren: It was absolutely like they were… six hours to them was nothing to drive to see this author that they loved. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: That they were really excited to go see. And that makes sense. I mean, I've driven that far for a concert before.

Matt: Sure.

Lauren: I’ve driven further than that for a concert before. 

Matt: Yeah. 

[16:44]

Matt: And if it's a bigger event, then you know, you might also want to just throw in that communication some of the other stuff that's happening at the event that would benefit your followers and readers. You know, if it's a larger event, like let's say Author Nation in Las Vegas, it's okay to say: hey, I'm so excited. I'm going to have a table there. I'm going to be signing on, on the reader day, but I'm also going to be speaking a little earlier in the week on this particular topic. And by the way, there are tons of great speakers and education sessions going on. So anybody out there even considering it should really look into it. And plus I'd love to see you. You know what I mean? If you need to sell some of the other benefits of that event, you should. If there are other benefits there for your fans and followers and readers, you should. 

Lauren: Yeah. Don't be afraid to sweeten the deal, especially if it's a bigger event that people are going to have to travel for. If there's something that you're doing that's really cool at that event, if there's some kind of exclusive… maybe you're going to have a limited edition copy of your book at the event, or you're going to have a limited edition art print of an alternate cover of your book that you're selling at the event. Or you're going to have a sample, like a two chapter chapbook of your next book that's coming out that you're only going to be giving out at that event. Any of these things. 

Also, other authors that are going to be at the event. If you're looking for a reason to connect with other authors that are going to that event, maybe this is your opportunity to reach out to them and say hey, I'm going to send an email to my entire newsletter saying that I'm going to be at this event and so are you. Maybe you can do the same and plug me and then we're both cross promoting each other to our respective audiences. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: Great opportunity to kind of, you know, solidify your connection with another author, speak to your fans, speak to other fans. Also gonna point out just timing for your promotion. If it is one of these bigger events that we're talking about, if it's something like a big conference, a big author event, something that you're gonna be traveling to, other people are probably gonna have to travel to, you're going to want to start your promotion as early as possible.

Matt: Yeah. If the event is local, don't think that because they're not in your reader network or even author network of peers, that you shouldn't tell people about it. Friends and family, uh, if you know anybody that owns a local business, you can always ask if you can put up flyers in their business, uh, local community bulletin boards, things like that. Like don't be afraid to, to really talk about this event and your participation in it to anybody, especially locally, if it's a local event. It does not have to be confined to your reader and an author peer network, and in fact should not be. 

Lauren: Definitely not, it definitely - you should tap into all of your resources. I think I’ve referenced this on the podcast before, sorry if it's a repeat. One of the most successful local author events that I hosted when I used to work at the bookstore was an author who was a professor at one of the local colleges, and she offered her students extra credit if they came to her book signing.

Matt: Yeah.

Lauren: And like, a bunch of them came. 

Matt: Yeah, who cares? Get them in there. 

Lauren: Yeah. It was just about having people and like - 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: I mean, it helped that the book was related to the topic that she was teaching. 

Matt: Sure. Right. 

Lauren: But she got people in the store. 

Matt: Well, and you know, that also has a secondary effect, which is the event organizers, whether it's a bookstore, an actual event, whatever, they'll see the effort you're putting into promoting their event and yourself. They'll appreciate that. And next year, or, you know, even at this particular event, that's going to win you a little bit of favor with them. So, you know, it can never hurt to put in that extra effort, not only for yourself, but again, you know, sometimes people - the event organizers, ie - notice those types of things, and they'll appreciate that one way or the other. 

Lauren: I can absolutely tell you as somebody who spent a year and a half organizing specifically indie author events… I remembered the people that were really rude and problematic. And I remembered the people that were very gracious and went above and beyond to make the event as good as possible. In between those two, largely unmemorable. 

Matt: That's normal. 

Lauren: Which is, yeah. But, and there's nothing wrong with that either. But if one of those people who went above and beyond came back a year later and said, hey, I have another book out, I'd love to have another book signing here. If we had a good experience with them in the past, it was an instant yes.

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: Instant yes. If we remembered them fondly as having a good experience at their last signing, immediate approval. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: So, you know, to that point, make sure that when you're promoting, when you're doing any kind of social promotion, anything like that, that you are tagging the event, the event organizers, if there is a specific hashtag for the event - 

Matt: Right. 

Lauren: Anything like that. You're not just letting the event organizers know that you're talking up their event. You're also making it as easy as possible for your fans to find out more information about the event.

[21:15]

Matt: Yeah, definitely. A few other quick things on promoting. If you're traveling to this event, if it's outside of your local area, some other things you can do. Do you know anybody who is local to that event, or do your friends and family know anybody who might be local to that event? You know, I don't obviously live in Las Vegas, but if I'm traveling to an event in Las Vegas, and if I have anything to do with an event in Las Vegas, I might reach out to people I might know in the area or friends and family and just say, hey, you know, I'm going to be here for this event. Do you know anybody that would be interested? Maybe they know people who are local businesses that would also be willing to, to help you with a little bit of promotion or things like that or their social network, right? 

 Like if you got an Uncle Jimmy who lives in Las Vegas, and you know, he does whatever but he's got a social fall in the 20,000 like yeah, have Uncle Jimmy promote the fact that you're going to be there and November, you know, speaking at this big author conference and…

Lauren: Yeah. You never know who might read that email that you sent out. Like if you have… maybe you're a member of some kind of organization that has multiple chapters based on different location, and maybe you don't know anybody in Las Vegas, but you do know that this organization that you're a part of has a chapter in Las Vegas. There's probably a way for you to either directly or indirectly connect with them and tap into their network.

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: Or send out an email nationwide to your whole organization and say, hey, anyone going to be in Vegas at this time, I'm going to be there. Who knows? Explore those opportunities. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: It's never going to hurt. It's just going to make potential new opportunities for you.

Matt: Yeah. Anytime you're not willing to do some of this shameless self-promotion when it's absolutely necessary, you're only hurting yourself. And nobody's gonna get mad at you for doing it. You know, all of your fans and followers, they're gonna appreciate it. And anybody who's not a fan or follower, even if they did take issue with it, who cares? 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: Tell them to kick rocks. 

Lauren: Yeah, pretty much. I mean, you know, within reason. I'm not saying... Look, I've spent the last four years watching people spam comment the identical like, copy and pasting a paragraph with a link to their book, commenting on every single social post on our Facebook page for two weeks straight. That - you're going to burn some bridges really quickly if you're doing that. 

Matt: That's totally different. 

Lauren: But sending out a single social post once a week to your own fans and followers saying countdown to this event that I'm going to be at. I'm really excited about it. If you're going to be in the area, would love to see you there. Do it. It's not going to hurt. Just do it. 

Matt: For sure. 

[23:38]

Matt: All right. So getting ready for the event. Some of the things that you should do to prep, you know, you need to be thinking about inventory, if you're going to be selling your books there, the print versions, obviously. 

Lauren: Back to the boring part. 

Matt: This is not the boring part. This is the fun part. So inventory, how are you going to facilitate book sales? Do you have an app on your phone where you can charge cards if they don't have cash, because most people don't carry cash and swag? Are you going to offer any cool freebies or giveaways or things like that? You might be in a position where you can afford to have a couple hundred bookmarks print it up at whatever, VistaPrint, who cares, with something really cool on them that, you know, on one side has something funny and on the other side is obviously plug in promotion for your book, or you as an author, and a way to find you at your community. I think unlike Lauren, I do find the inventory sales and swag, the whole prep part fun. I think that is the fun part. 

Lauren: Oh, I was kidding. I actually do find this fun too. 

Matt: Yeah, I thought that was kind of weird, but I couldn't tell from your face. Like you love swag and stuff like that. 

Lauren: No, I do. I actually find that these logistical details in particular are my bread and butter when it comes to stuff like this. Like this is the stuff that if you need someone to do this job, I got you. I'm your girl. 

Matt: That's right. Yeah. So, yeah, anyways, you're trying to throw me on the track. You know, the first thing you need to figure out is, are you going to be selling your books? And if you are, you got to figure out - if you don't got a pallet of them sitting in your garage, which hopefully you don't. How are you going to get them? Right? Like who you're going to order them from if you don't already have that sorted out, hopefully it's Lulu. How are you getting them to the event? Are you gonna have them delivered there from the printer or are they already at your house and you need to box them up and ship them or you know, all those things? How much are you going to take with you? Right? 

The worst thing in the world is to show up with ten books and you blow through those in the first ten minutes and then you don't have any for the rest of the event. The second worst thing in the world is to show up with 500 books and you only sell 100 and now you got a truck 400 back home. Understanding your inventory levels, what you want to take with you, what you already have, what you need to order. 

Also understanding: do you want to actually do something different for the event itself? You might have a book that you just launched recently, and maybe it's in paperback and ebook. Now might be the time to consider doing a cool hardcover version or something more limited edition, maybe have a new cover design done up for this particular event. Or, you know, there's a lot of different things you could do that are really cool that make it like a limited edition thing that would encourage fans even more to come and see you and get a copy of it and get it signed. 

Lauren: Yeah, that's a great selling point to get people at the event, an event exclusive. I say this as a collector of many things. 

Matt: Yes. 

Lauren: Not only will I absolutely go out of my way to get my hands on event exclusive products, but I will also pay the surcharge that will likely come with that. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: So if it's something that you're doing, that, this, like a special exclusive, it might be a nice opportunity to bump the price a little and make a little extra profit off of it, especially if you've put out a lot of money upfront to be attending this event in the first place.

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: Might be a way to recoup some of that. 

Matt: I mean, theoretically, if you do it right, you should be able to recoup every dime you spent on the event through your book sales and some other stuff, so. 

Lauren: That’s true.

Matt: Yeah, absolutely. That'd be a goal. And you know, along those lines, if you're somebody who has several books under your belt, you know, and you've got a back catalog, you need to decide like, which books am I going to take with me for sale? Am I going to do special editions of all of them or just have my most recent one and then bring a few paperback copies of each of my back catalog or you know, you need to figure out the mechanics and logistics of all of that. What size is your table? If you only get a five by five spot, don’t try to pile up 600 different books up on the table, that's not going to work either. 

So you need to understand all of those mechanics involved with, you know, again, how many books am I going to take? How many titles if I have more than one or two titles? What makes sense for that event and the genre that, that you're focusing on? 

Lauren: I also would definitely recommend that you have a backup plan in place for what you're going to do if you are lucky enough to sell through your inventory at the event. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: You know, we've seen a lot of authors that will do especially with something like print on demand, where you can, once you've sold through your inventory on the floor, you can still continue to sell copies directly from your website. You can take sales from people at the event and then just the books will be printed and shipped directly to them. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: And then if you're in a place where you're doing something like a book signing or something like that and they're still, you know, they're disappointed because the book that they've just ordered from you is not going to be signed by you. Have bookplates on hand - 

Matt: Yep. 

Lauren: So you can sign, those are the stickers that you sign and put right in the book. Have those on hand, or maybe you know Matt was saying bookmarks earlier, have a bookmark that you can sign the bookmark and give it to them and that'll, they can put that right in their new book. Find some kind of solution, have some kind of plan in place both for selling additional copies that you can ship out to people later, and providing some kind of value to - you know - so sorry that I ran out of books, but at least you can have this. 

Matt: I love the bookmark or postcard idea. 

Lauren: So do I. 

Matt: That is a good point, yeah, definitely. Having that backup plan and again, like she said, maybe you have your iPad there with you, you just keep your own website up, you know, or whatever that might be. You take those orders and again, have something else on hand that you could sign. Absolutely, yeah. 

[28:39]

Matt: One last thing to mention is you always want to find out, are you able to sell other things besides books? A lot of authors have other types of merch or other things that they sell, whether that's t-shirts or you know, whatever that might be, photo books, calendars, cups, whatever, uh, if you're allowed to sell other things and you do have some of that stuff, then absolutely bring it because your fans not only love your books, they love other stuff that you put out as well. And for those who are not experimenting with that, this is kind of your wake up call that you should give it a try, an event is a perfect place to do that. 

Lauren: Yep, it absolutely is. I would also encourage you to think about potentially having things that you can hand out, not just sell and obviously, you know, the cheaper end of collateral. Things like bookmarks, postcards, stickers, something like that. 

Matt: Yeah.

Lauren: Depending on the size of the event and the scale of the event and the number of people that are attending it, you know, you might have attendees walking through that event saying, okay, I'm only allowed to buy two books and I'm only here to buy two books and I've already picked out what those two books are and that's it. But they're still browsing the event and they're still gonna walk away from it with a bunch of recommendations and a bunch of books that they might look into later and say like, oh, I did have a really nice conversation with this author and I'd like to look into their books that maybe, you know, for next month's book splurge, I'll buy one of their books instead of the two that I bought today. So you wanna make sure that you have something available that you can give interested readers so that they can come back and look into you more later.

Matt: Yeah, I agree.  But I'll give a piece of branding advice here. Don't just create a sticker that has the title of your book on it. And that's it. Nobody cares. Nobody wants it, you know, especially if they're not necessarily a huge fan or follower yet. If you're going to create swag to give away fun things, you should create something that’s somewhat universal, right? Like put a funny saying on it or you know, we tend to do things that resonate with whatever audience we're going to be in front of for that particular event. Or we'll do something that's fairly universal, like a sticker that says book nerd, right? Like if you love books, you'll probably take a book nerd sticker and you'll probably put it on your laptop or your water bottle. 

As an author though, what you'd want to do is real small just below book nerd, you would put your, let's say your Instagram handle like @ Lauren Vassallo or you know, your website address if you have one. Which would be great, you know, real small, put your little website down there. But if you have something universal, people are more inclined to take it and actually use it, which is the point. You don't want them to just take it and then throw it away so that you just waste the money and throw it down the drain. A bit of branding advice. Nobody wants a sticker with your name on it or the title of your book. In most cases, they want something that's fun, clever, witty, funny, genre specific, doesn’t matter - sci-fi nerds do it better or something like that. Do something fun and cool and then put your little, you know again, website or social media handle or something so that they can find you, but they're gonna use that sticker, or that bookmark, or that t-shirt. Yeah, also don't do a t-shirt with just your book cover on it and that's it. 

Lauren: Definitely don't. 

Matt: No. You're gonna be donating a lot of stuff to the local charity within a few weeks. 

Lauren: Especially because that's expensive. 

Matt: Yeah, and even if you have the coolest book cover on the planet, don't just do that. If you have the coolest book cover on the planet and it really should be on a t-shirt, put it on the back of the t-shirt and put something else on the front that would make people more inclined to want that shirt and wear it. All right. That was your free branding lesson, by the way. 

Lauren: It's a good one. 

Matt: Take that with a grain of salt if you want, but.

[31:55}

Lauren: One last thing that I want to mention for prepping for the event. Remember that presentation matters, especially if you're at an event with multiple authors. You want your table to be eye-catching. It doesn't have to be over the top, but it's really nice to have a book stand for if you're displaying different copies of your books, it's really nice to have a way for those books to stand up. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: It's something that people can see as they're walking past it. If you really want to get elaborate, you might want to have like I've seen authors do a little mini bookshelf, like a tabletop bookshelf that they had a, like a display of a couple of their different book products on the table. You might want to have a poster of your most recent book cover that is a tabletop sized poster or a backdrop behind even like a tablecloth. Something that you can do to dress up the space a little bit, that will make the presentation that much better and make it look like you put that much more effort into it. 

Matt: Conversely, don't go overboard.

Lauren: Agreed. 

Matt: So, If you have too much stuff on your table, it's going to look messy and cluttered and people are going to hesitate to come up to it and want to engage with you. And also, you know, we see so many people doing this and it's, it's oftentimes easy to forget. Your table is not a place to store all your junk, your drinks, your sodas, your leftover lunch, your friend that came to visit and they set their purse on top of the table or, you know, their kid or… that's not what that table is for. So like Lauren said, presentation matters. Keep it simple, keep it clean, keep it inviting and engaging and don't turn it into like just a dumpster fire of where everybody stores their stuff. 

Lauren: Yeah. I mean, to the point of not overdoing it, you still want your books to be the focal point of the table. You don't want to distract from what you're there to do, which is sell books. 

Matt: Absolutely. 

Lauren: Keep that in mind. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: And you know, not for nothing, if you can find some very simple display and design elements that will make your books pop, you know, if you've got a, a book cover that is mostly black with blue and pink elements on it, and you have a pink tablecloth that matches the pink of the book cover, that book's gonna pop on that tablecloth. Something as simple as that could be a nice little touch. Just saying. 

Matt: Definitely. 

[33:59] 

Lauren: All right, should we get to the actual event? 

Matt: I mean that'd be nice. I'm sure they want to hear a little bit about what to do once you get there. 

Lauren: I guess. 

Matt: Well this obviously goes without saying but sometimes it doesn't. You should absolutely know who your audience is and I would say, and Lauren would say, it's a little easier to know who your audience is, a little more complicated to figure out what value you might bring with your book and or your presence at that event to your audience. It's not just show up with your book and be done. I mean, it can be, but this is your opportunity to make a really good in person impression on fans, followers, readers and potential new readers. Let's not just show up, throw a few books on the table and sit down and wait for them all to come because it's not going to happen. 

Lauren: No, it’s not. 

Matt: A few, maybe, but. So know, kind of what value you might bring to your audience, but definitely know your audience. Obviously, if you’re attending a fiction event, outside of just your fans, but even your fans knowing and understanding what kind of tropes they love. What's your hook? Why do your readers keep coming back for more? You can lean on those as marketing tools and ways to talk to potential new readers as you pitch your books and your stories to them. So knowing what your current and existing fans already love about your work is really helpful. 

Lauren: Yeah. You know, if you can… if you can say like a fiction event, if you're having a conversation with a reader and let's say somebody asks me like, Lauren, what's what do you love about a romance novel? What's one of your favorite things about a romance novel? And I say, oh, I love a good slow burn. I want them to drag it out for as long as possible. And the author says back to me, I got you. They don't even hold hands until page like 150. I'm like, yep, okay, here we are, I'm here. 

Matt: I'm going the other direction. I'm not even in that section by the way. 

Lauren: That's so fair. But if you know what your audience is interested in and you know what to sell them - 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: - to sell them on your book, that's super valuable. 

Matt: Yeah, for me, the first body better hit the floor within the first ten pages. 

Lauren: Yep. 

Matt: Stabbing, doesn't matter, but yeah, somebody better die in the first ten pages or I'm not interested. 

Lauren: That's very fair. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: And not at all surprising.

Matt: By that same token, nonfiction, right? Knowing and understanding what problem your book or books solve for your existing readers and fans and why you're kind of sought out for your content will really help you, again, also talk to potential new readers. Understanding what problem do you solve with your content? You as a particular expert or writer on these subjects, what is it that you can offer that's really going to help somebody? Why should they read your book? 

Lauren: Yeah, I actually pulled a quote from Matt’s email directly, when Matt was having a conversation with Julie as she was asking questions about this topic. I really liked this quote: focus on the solutions that you offer and how you can help someone with your book, your message and your insights. Books will sell when you give value. He's right. 

Matt: Every now and again I earn my paycheck. Thank you. 

Lauren: That's your June paycheck done and covered. 

Matt: So, you know, all this is speaking to like, basically how you pitch yourself. This is the part that I think a lot of authors and creators hate is the whole selling and pitching of yourself. But if you figure out, like we're telling you, if you figure out the right way to do it, the most simplified and quick way to do it, it doesn't feel icky. Like, you're just talking about the content you create and it will resonate. So having that quick pitch ready when somebody says, oh, you know, what's, what's this new book about, or what are your books about? Cause maybe they've never read you. Understanding that a quick one to two sentence answer is the way to do this, but it has to be compelling enough that they'll say, okay, I want to hear more. It's got to be memorable enough. You don't want them to walk away without one of your books, but if they do, again, you want it to be memorable enough that maybe they come back past your booths a little bit later and, and they do go ahead and pick up a book or something like that. 

Lauren: Yeah, I feel like that's an issue that people have a lot with elevator pitches, they think that they actually have to give a synopsis of their entire book in two sentences. And you absolutely do not nor should you. What you do want to do is give just enough detail about what your book is about that the person that you're talking to is going to go, oh yeah? Tell me more. That's what you're trying to do with that elevator pitch. You want to keep them in the elevator with you after the door opens and they're supposed to be going out to their floor. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: That's something that you should have established and ready to go long before you show up at this conference, and you should definitely be prepared to answer the question, what is your book about? 

Matt: Definitely. And again, it is, it is hard for some people, right? This concept of an elevator pitch, but you know, you can also reuse this stuff for social media content, you can ask your followers for help, tell them, or ask them what's the first thing that comes to mind when they think about your book or your books or your content. Lauren has a cool note in here. Ask them to describe your book in emojis or to vote on which of your top pitches they like the best. 

It never hurts, like we've said in previous episodes, to involve your audience and fans in anything you're doing. Anytime you can make them feel like they're a part of what you're doing solidifies the bond that they have with you and that you have with them. So use that audience for what it's worth, get the feedback, leverage that, and hopefully come up with a really good one to two sentence pitch that you can use at events and other things as well. 

Lauren: Also a great way to create some of that collateral that we were talking about earlier. If you're, if you're looking for something that you could put on a sticker or art print or something that you can either make to sell or make to hand out to people, ask your fans and readers what standout quote they loved from your book. What's the first quote that comes to mind or scene that comes to mind or something like that, when they think of what they loved about your book. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: If ten people give you the same answer, one quote, you know what quote you have to put on a sticker. 

Matt: I already got mine. Somebody better die in the first ten pages. 

Lauren: Can we get those stickers made? 

Matt: I'm already on it. 

Lauren: Great. Fantastic. 

Matt: Yeah. Don't forget that people are buying a book from you. You're the reason that your book will sell or not sell. We see this all the time, just sitting behind your table or your booth and just doom scrolling through social media, it's not going to sell books. People are going to see you sitting there, you're going to look uninterested in your own stuff, so why should they bother to come over and talk to you? It's not going to feel very welcome. Stand at your table, you know, always kind of look and try to interact with the people that are walking by and make them feel like you want to talk to them. They're going to want to come up and talk to you or see what you have to offer and it's going to feel more welcoming for them. 

We see this at conferences, you know, forget about reader, author, whatever, we go to marketing conferences and things all the time to other publishing industry conferences. And, you know, we've had our booth next to booths before where we look over and they've got nobody visiting their booth. We're packed. But they're also just sitting there doom scrolling, or just having a conversation with each other with their backs to the like - 

Lauren: Or not even sitting there at all. 

Matt: Yeah, it's just not inviting. Nobody wants to walk up to that. So, again, keep that in mind when we say have a really good presentation at the booth, a really good presence, but remember, you're the reason they're either going to buy that book or not, point blank. 

Lauren: Yeah, that's it. If you need a refresher, we did a whole 45 minutes of it on author branding a few episodes ago. 

Matt: That’s right. 

Lauren: So just go back and listen to that one. 

Matt: There you go. 

[40:56]

Lauren: One last thing when it comes to being present at events, find some way to collect contact info from the people that you're connecting with at these events, whether it's getting them to follow you on social media, getting them to sign up for your email list. If you're selling direct and you're capturing email addresses as they're checking out or anything like that, you're gonna want to be able to follow up with people that you spoke to at this event. 

And whether that's people that purchased from you or people that didn't purchase from you but just showed interest in you and your books, you're gonna want a way to stay in touch with these people. And some of the conferences do have built-in ways of doing that. Sometimes, you know, there's like a badge scanning system, or you're going to get a whole mailing list from all the attendees in general after the fact. But if you can find a way to personalize it, it's a great opportunity to do so because you are definitely going to want to follow up with people once the event is over. 

Matt: Yeah. And I'll, I'll back up a little bit just for a second because before we go into after the event, one of the things you're going to need in order to make use of what Lauren's saying, which is the ability to contact after the event. One of the things you should be doing while you're at the event is taking lots of pictures. 

Lauren: Oh yeah. 

Matt: Because after the event, you're going to want to email people. You're going to want to go out on social media and post about the event. Anytime you can get pictures with some of your fans, whether at your table or, you know, some of your friends that are authors that are also at the event, or maybe a new author that you made friends with that you can take a picture with and shout them out on social media and you guys can trade posts and followers and make sure that you're taking pictures whenever you can. 

It's really hard. So if you have a friend or family member that's attending the event for you, designate them your official photographer, let them have some fun with it, and just say, hey, get as many pictures as you can, and we'll weed through them all after the event, but make sure you're getting photos. If you don't get really good photos and other information, then the post event followup stuff becomes a lot harder. And then you also don't have much to talk about on social media. 

Lauren: That's such a great point. Honestly, that's - 

Matt: From somebody who hates taking pictures, by the way. 

Laure: That's so true. It's very true, but no, it is. It really is like, events are not just good for the immediate day of the event. And one of the things that it is great for in the aftermath of the event is that it is fantastic content for you. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: It's fantastic social content, newsletter content. It's something that you can keep coming back to that you can keep sharing. 

Matt: That's right. 

Lauren: You want to have as much content available to yourself as possible. And I know firsthand how hard that is. I've spent a lot of time at conferences that we've attended with Lulu trying to get exactly this kind of content and it's never easy to do, but it is so worth the effort. You will use this content a lot. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: If you have it. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: And you can't use it if you don't have it. 

[43:43]

Matt: So we'll go real quick, just through a couple of the types of follow up emails or communications you might want to make, and then touch on one or two last things that create really good content post event. But real quickly, a few of the things you may want to send an email about, or communicate through DMs, or other things, is: you're going to want to follow up with anybody who bought a book from you, right? So you should have gotten their email address, whatever, they should get a thank you email for buying your book, appreciate you stopping by, hope you enjoyed it, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 

Anyone waiting on a book from you. So if you did run out of books and like Lauren said, you took some book orders and then you're fulfilling them after the show. You want to shoot them an email or some sort of a DM or an update that, you know, the book’s on the way, you appreciate their business, you were happy to meet them. 

Anyone that signed up for your mailing list or followed you on social media or whatever actions you were asking them to take, you're going to want to follow up with them. And then authors or organizers of the event. So other authors you made friends with or had connections with and event organizers. So those are some of the main like follow-ups you'd want to do. 

And then back to kind of social media and some of the posting that you’re gonna do, Lauren has a really good note here that, and she has personally had good experience with this, by the way, create your own personal post-event recap. 

Lauren: Yes. 

Matt: Right, so people like to live vicariously through others. And so for anybody who couldn't make it to that event, again, it doesn't matter if it was a small one or a big one, doing your own sort of recap, your rundown, your summary of the event, that's a great idea for a piece of content that you can use to send out to everybody. You can post it online, you can put it on your blog, you can do whatever you wanna do with it, put it in a newsletter. I think that's a great note that you had in here. 

Lauren: It's actually - not only is it great for content, it's also a great way to potentially ingratiate yourself with the event organizers, because a lot of times they themselves don't have time to do that after the event. So to see content from one of their attendees or sponsors sharing that, they'll probably be very grateful for that. 

I'm also gonna add a sidebar to that, that you should keep a version of that for yourself. You should absolutely have like a public recap that you share. You should also keep a version of that for yourself, for your personal records, where you add details like something that you saw another author doing that you thought was a really good idea that you'd like to do in the future. How many books you sold, how many books you brought with you so that you know next time like I brought 50 books with me, I sold 20 of them so maybe next year I only have to bring 40 books with me instead or vice versa. I brought 50 books with me and I sold all 50 of them in the first two hours and next year I want to bring 100 books.

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: Keep something that is a reference point for the next time that you're going to an event, you can look back on your notes and say, oh yeah, I forgot I saw this author that had brought a tripod with them because they didn't have anyone there to take pictures. So they had a tripod posted up near their booth and were just using, you know, a remote to take pictures. That's a great idea. I should do that next year. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: Public post-event recap and a personal post-event recap. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Lauren: For sure. 

Matt: That's great. The last thing that Lauren has here in our outline is that you should celebrate.

Lauren: Absolutely. 

Matt: You've earned it.

Lauren: You've earned it. You deserve it. Events are exhausting. 

Matt: Yeah. They are. 

Lauren: They are so fun. They are so worth it. They are valuable. They are exhausting. 

Matt: And you know, I'll just say to, for, for all of the authors, listening creators, people who were interested in some of these events, some of our favorite events: Obviously CEX, it's our event. If we do say so ourselves, it's the best event, but you know, there are some other really good events that we enjoy going to and participating in. Um, one of them is NINC. which is Novelists, Inc. It happens usually in September-ish of every year, but you can find them online. It's a great event for authors. It's an author education event. 

And then, you know, again, we talked about Author Nation, which used to be 20Books. That's happening in Las Vegas in November. Also a great event, arguably probably the largest in the US for authors. And there's a handful of other good ones out there too. Definitely try to find some in your local area, but if you can, I would recommend attending all three of those ones we just talked about. And maybe find a few more along the way.

Matt: No notes?

Lauren: No notes. 

Matt: Huh. 

Lauren: That's it. Well, thank you, everybody, for listening. Thank you Julie, for requesting this episode topic. 

Matt: Yep. 

Lauren: And asking questions about it. It was - it was really fun to talk about. And just another reminder to everybody that if you have a particular topic you want us to cover, if you have questions, if you have anything that you want to hear more about, if you want us to dive a little deeper into something, even if it's something that we've already covered, but you want us to dive a little deeper into it. Send us an email. Podcast@lulu.com. Maybe we'll just reply via email. Maybe we'll do an entire episode about it. Which at this point it's currently a 69 minute episode. So who knows? Hopefully it's not that long when I publish it, but we're getting there. Until then, thanks for listening.