BOOKSIGNING FOLLY #5: NO FOLLOW-UP

So, you’re tired from standing for six hours. You get home, have a glass of wine, and wonder why you weren’t writing instead of selling. Good question. If you didn’t get the sales and connect with potential readers, you’ve wasted your time. Rethink the event for the next year. My sense is: If you can’t improve the book signing event for the following year, don’t go back to the same site if you didn’t sell or connect or collect e-mails.

Recently I ‘signed’ at a book signing with 35 other people, in a room connected to a major city library. While I have to thank the organizers for all their hard work, the salient point is: No one came.

And if you think about it, after the fact, library clients are people who come to a library to check out books…they do not buy books, regularly. This was an event without a good ending. Either I need to help the librarians alter the event so readers actually attend and buy, or pass this ‘opportunity,’ for something better next year.

MOST IMPORTANT STEP after a book signing. Determine your raffle winners and make sure you write to them and e-mail their ‘winnings’ to them. For all of those who didn’t win your prize, write to each person thanking them for subscribing to your newsletter and for attending the book signing. Talk about the age-old benefit of supporting artists, of being a patrons of the arts, of being willing to take a chance on a less known author.

If you can, direct them to your website where you’ve set up an opportunity for them to download a short story or a novella. Keep in touch with each person whose e-mail you’ve captured. THESE ARE YOUR READERS, FOR NOW AND INTO THE FUTURE! My friends tell me, we keep these readers by offering them special gifts, ARCs, chances to promote an FB ad, etc. Help them help you with your social media popularity.

Bottom line: An effective book signing helps you gather subscribers and future readers. It’s what you do AFTER a good book signing that will make all the difference!

Thanks for reading about my Book Signing Follies. My main point is, don’t be afraid to go out and sell in person, but be sure you gather e-mails along the way!

So here’s one of my two novels, released in 2017. Since the novel is about golf and Italy, I chose to have my first book signing in a golf pro shop. I had fun and great success with:

BAD LIES http://a.co/0DuYNPn:

Italy’s haunted caves spell danger for an American golfer and a NATO geologist

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Sophie Maxwell is a late-blooming, unorthodox golfer, and mother of a precocious thirteen year-old. Determined to put divorce, bankruptcy, and a penchant for gambling in her past, Sophie goes to Italy for a qualifying golf tournament.

Jack Walker turned his back on a pro golfing career to become a geologist. As a favor to his ailing father he’ll caddy for Sophie; off hours, he’ll find caves on the Mediterranean coast, suitable for NATO listening posts for terrorist activity.

Someone is determined to stop Jack’s underground hunt and ruin Sophie’s chances to win her tournament.

On a Rome golf course and in the Amalfi coast’s haunted caves, all the odds are stacked against Sophie and Jack. In their gamble of a lifetime, who wins?