What are Some Tips to Have a Successful Author Reading?

PageMaster Authors often have book signings and readings with their local bookstores or other settings and many have questions about how to start. Here are 8 tips to let you have a successful author reading.  

1. Prepare

Choose four or five short passages from your book, although you may only read a couple. People are trained by watching TV to have commercial breaks every 10 – 12 minutes. Plan to only read that long and then take questions from those gathered.

If you intend to talk about the book and how you came to write it, prepare an outline with key talking points.

2.  Rehearse

Consider your appearance to be a dramatic performance from the moment you walk through the door. No matter the size of the audience, you have to be on. That means preparing on every level.  Read your selections out loud at home, while facing a mirror. Then recruit a family member or friend with a video camera to preserve your delivery so you can watch yourself in action and make any necessary corrections.  Practice the material without reading from a script until it becomes familiar and comfortable.

3.  Answer the questions people are asking.

Readers who come to events featuring authors who write novels, memoir or narrative non-fiction, history and biography, often want to know about the deeper meaning, choice of symbolic action, characters, and relationships in the work. They’re hoping for a personal connection when the author is someone they admire and appreciate. They want to find out what’s behind the story, why it was written and how – the artistic, creative, psychological process.

At events featuring the authors of how-to books, readers are more apt to ask questions related to the writer’s expertise, like “What’s the best way to get leads through social media?” or “How can I get my plants to flower in this climate?”

4.  Look your audience in the eye

Make eye contact with your audience, and to be sensitive and respectful to their needs and responses.

And some authors get a real dividend from events where they take the time to look at and listen to readers face-to-face. You should be getting direction for your next book or possibly seminar that’s coming out of your present book.

5.  Work with your local book sellers

Cultivate a relationship that will interest them in you and your work. Take the time to see who’s coming into the store and find a connection between their demographics and your work.

6.  Go beyond bookstores

Some titles might lend themselves to appearances in settings other than bookstores and libraries. Identify your potential readers and ask yourself where they meet to discuss or shop for their interests. Possibilities could be as varied as a baby shop, the local botanical garden, or a professional conference.

If you’re writing fiction, find an element or location in your story that connects with a local organization or meeting.

7.  Publicize your event

Put an announcement on your website. Mention it in your blog and twitter repeatedly leading up to the event. Send out a press release to local print media like shopping guides with calendars of community events.

Think of special personal touches that are uniquely yours. Is there something you could give to those who attend that will make them remember you, want to check out your website, or sign up for your newsletter.

8. Make sure your books are stocked for the event. 

Maintain your own inventory of books.  That way, if the local shop can’t get them in time, they’ll buy them from you to insure they have enough available. Bring them to your event just in case the books don’t show up through other ways.  Sign all the copies you bring regardless of how many are sold on the spot, since bookstores will often keep an autographed  book on the front table long after your appearance for book collectors and gift-givers.