Publish and Promote with Poetry Folds

A few years ago, I was invited to a reading series as one of the featured poets.  In the past when I featured I just went to read my poetry and build my brand as a regional poet without any wares to sell. But this particular reading stressed to bring your books to sell at a vendor table.  It had been years since I had self-published any of my copy-store poetry chapbooks.  I didn’t have the design files for them, I had procrastinated to the point where I didn’t have time to redesign them for a copy-store production, let alone POD printing, and I didn’t really have a lot of money to invest, but I didn’t want to show up empty-handed. I decided that the best thing to do was to create a new, inexpensive literary product I called poetry folds. 

What is a poetry fold?

Basically, I invested five dollars on a ream of cardstock and did some home printing.  A poetry fold is simply a folded sheet of paper printed as a booklet (I prefer cardstock for the weight and durability).  I used the front “page” as the cover, and put poems on the inside and the back.  This serves as a sampling of your work that your audience can pick up, either at a charge or for free as a promotional item.

How do I use a poetry fold?

At their inception, I did not sell the poetry folds, per se.  I created three different folds with three different themes, laid them out on the vendor table, and let the audience know that they were available to take, though donations were encouraged.  Of course, I could have charged a dollar or two per fold, but I wanted to encourage the audience to read some of my work, to build my name and have them take my name with them as they left.  Some just picked one up, or one of each, some gave me a dollar or two, and a few gave me five dollars or more.  It averaged out well.  Of the thirty I printed, twenty eight were taken and I made just shy of fifty dollars.  This was not a bad return on investment. 

Of course, you don’t need to charge if you want to use them for promotion.  If you don’t need to make back the money spent on ink and paper you can give them away to build your name recognition if you haven’t published an actual poetry book.  If you have or are preparing to publish, they are a great way to promote your upcoming or previously published book with some samples and release information.  Give them away at readings, leave them behind in a coffee shop, or stick them on a free rack at a local bookstore that will carry your book.

But how do I make a poetry fold?

This really depends on the program you are using, but most word processor and publishing programs have a “booklet” setting that you can create the pages in order.  You are basically making a document with four 5.5” X 8.5” pages, printing two per page on each sheet side of the 11” X 8.5” paper (landscape).  If your program does not automatically have a “booklet” option in the page setup or the printing dialog, you will need to design it so that the last page is first, the first second, second third, and third fourth.

Please let me know in the comments any questions you have or how poetry folds have worked for you.

The Best Place to Hold a Book Signing

If we want to do live book signings, as we covered in The Power of the Live Author, what is the best place to hold a book signing?  The short answer is anywhere and everywhere.  The more you vary your venues the larger and more varied group of readers you reach.

The long answer is that it depends.  First, it depends on your goals—are you just trying to garner exposure or do you need to maximize the money you make off of each book sold, do you simply need a location for those that you’ve invited or are you seeking a location that will drive traffic for you?  Second, it depends on the content of your book.

Let’s digress for a moment then move backwards.  Let’s quickly define what a book signing is, or, what we want it to be.  What we don’t want is to sit at a table for two to four hours waiting for shoppers to come up and buy our book.  This type of book signing rarely yields much fruit in sales or engagement.  We want to hold book signings that are literary events, that give us a chance to engage an audience with a reading, a short talk, and/or a Q&A session before we get down to the business of signing and selling books.  

TIP:  A book signing with multiple authors can draw a larger crowd, and larger sales for all authors involved, but we will save the how and what of book signings for a later post and get back to the where.

To Bookstore or Not to Bookstore?

This question brings us back to your goals.  If you need to make a book signing financially lucrative then stay away from bookstores.  Bookstores take a fairly hefty cut of the profit leaving you with little in the way of revenue for each book sold.  Yes, this means that you will have to buy the books to sell at the venue, but the increased profit margin to yourself (generally 40-55% of the cover price) makes this the best strategy. 

Bookstores can be a good place to have a book signing if they are willing to promote the event and draw people in, basically earning their stake in the profits.  This is particularly good for authors that are more concerned with building their audience than gaining returns.  Local, independent bookstores tend to do this better than the national chains and are generally more willing to make your signing into an event.  You do not want to sit at a table for a few hours to wait for your Facebook friend’s to show up and give the store the lion’s share of profits.

TIP:  If you still want to seek out bookstores after reading this, use Google Maps to search out bookstores in your area (Tutorial Here).  Visit each store’s website.  Bookstores that keep an up-to-date events calendar already featuring literary events are a good place to start.

Thinking Outside the Bookstore

So, you have decided to stay away from bookstores, or you are a wise author and want to gain as much exposure as possible by expanding your venues.  So now you ask, “Ian, where is anywhere and everywhere?  Where is the best place to hold a book signing?” 

There is really no wrong place to have a book signing, really.  There are the go-to places like cafes, libraries, restaurants, schools, community centers, etc.  

There are also places that most people wouldn’t consider.  I have planned or attended successful literary events at a furniture store, in a random college student’s basement, at a yoga studio, at a dive bar, in the middle of the mall, and so on.  If you can get a reading with a student group at a college, even better, as they do all of the promotion for you and have a built in audience.

What you are really looking for is a place that can help draw in an audience and can benefit from the audience that you work together to create. 

Begin with places you are comfortable with or to which you have some connection.  Do you know the owner of the local drugstore?  Set up a signing there and leave a few books behind for them to sell.  Worked out theological details of your Christian fiction book with your pastor?  See if you can hold a reading in the fellowship hall.   Belong to a local club or lodge?  Speak with the events coordinator about a signing during an annual event or as a standalone event. Even some chain restaurants have hosted authors I’ve worked with because they spent so much time writing there.  From there explore other go-to places and then start to think outside the box.  Start close to home then expand geographically.

Venues that have a connection to your book’s theme can also be invaluable.  You published a non-fiction book on sports?  Approach a sporting goods store.  Your mystery novel is set largely on a golf course?  Consider a reading and a game at the country club?  The possibilities are endless.

 

Some months ago, I spent five minutes of a morning meeting with my team of Book Consultants on an activity brainstorming venues that were feasible for a book signing.  I listed bookstores and the other go-to venues before we began.  Within five minutes we had fifty different venues.

Where is the Best Place to Have a Book Signing?

Again, the answer is anywhere and everywhere, so long as you are comfortable approaching the venue, they are willing to have you, and it will give you a chance to engage an audience instead of sitting at a table.  The best place isn’t a single place, but as many places as you can muster.

The Power of the Live Author

There are many facets to marketing a book and building your platform as an author (i.e. gaining an audience over a variety of media).  There are also a lot of articles, blogs, and experts telling you how to market correctly and which facets to put your energy into.  It seems that one of the most overlooked (or abandoned) practices for authors are live events.  That is, an author engaging an audience through a reading, signing, and/or speaking engagement.  A launch party is a great way to kick things off but continuing to hold live reading and signing events will perpetuate the following positive results for new and veteran authors alike.

Add Value to Your Book

Just as an album signed by its band becomes more valuable, so does a book signed by its author.  Readers that receive a signed copy of a book are more likely to recommend books throughout their sphere of influence, leave an online review for the book, or post the book to social media sites.  There are even ways to encourage your readers to do this when meeting them face to face.  Too many authors tell me that they don’t want to schlep their book, as if it is somehow beneath them.  It was not beneath successful authors like John Grisham and Louise Hay, among others, who both started out this way.  Remember that selling is marketing.  Every signed copy that lands into someone’s hand is another person that can tell others about your book. 

Engage and Energize Your Audience Directly

Beyond getting a signed copy in their hands, performing live and being able to speak with and shake hands with your audience makes them more engaged in your book and in you as an author.  This is the reason why politicians travel on a campaign to give stump speeches instead of simply airing commercials, doing interviews, and reaching out on social media.  It lets you get to know your audience and them to get to know you, to make a personal connection.  People buy products from people they like and they suggests books by authors they like.  Not only will you have made a personal connection, but you have a chance to ask your audience face to face to leave a review on Amazon, follow your blog and social media sites, or post your book on their Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or other social media site.  Even a small reading or book club can turn out to be a very intimate event and lead to some of your most ardent reader-promoters. 

Rise Above the Internet Noise

The bad news is that there are more authors than ever trying to promote their books.  The good news is that a vast majority of these authors are trying to promote solely by means of the internet.  This kind of competition makes it even more difficult to get noticed online, but holding live events puts you into a unique class of author.  Not only are live events a great way to seed your social media following by reaching fans through a noiseless medium, but it can add content about you are your book to the online world.  Live events give not only you, as the author, but your audience something to post about online beyond a review of the book, excerpt from the book, or summary of the book.  It is refreshing to read about an author having a great time with fans instead of another thinly guised plea for you to buy and promote their book.  It is a great way to supplement your online efforts with additional advocates and unique news content.

Give the Media Something to Report About

Your book is out, you’ve sent out a press release about its availability to every newspaper and online news source in the world, but months later there is nothing new to excite the media masses.  What to do?  Though a book signing or author reading won’t make the front page of the New York Times, or much of a splash in any large city, it can garner attention in smaller communities with smaller newspapers.  Not only can you get exposure in these smaller towns and cities, with a crowd that can become even more excited about this event that is more rare, more special to them, but most publications (even small town newspapers) post online now.  This will help your online clout and give your book additional Google listings when it is searched.

Make More Money

While bookstores are the go-to place authors think of when they want to launch their book or have a signing, it isn’t necessarily the most effective and certainly isn’t the most profitable.  We will cover this more in an upcoming article, “The Best Place to Hold a Book Signing”.  One of the greatest benefits to having live signing events (outside of bookstores) is that it gives you the chance to become your own bookseller.  This means that you make the lion’s share of the profit of the book because you don’t have a distributor or bookseller taking a huge discount—this portion goes back into your pocket.  This is especially great for self-published authors who are trying to not only gain an audience but recoup the costs of publishing their book.  If you do not want to appear like you are schlepping your book or seem like a salesman more than an author, have a friend or family member sell copies of your book at one table while you greet readers and sign books at a second table.

Originally published by Holon Publishing at http://holonpublishing.com/blog/2014/9/5/the-power-of-the-live-author