Book Signings Made Simple: Don’t Do Them
So a guy walks into an airport bookstore and sets up a table and a stack of books ready for signing. If you saw this, how likely would you be to rush over and buy his book?
What if this was Gary Vaynerchuk with his new book about monetizing your passion to increase sales revenue through the internet? Think about it. You’re a potential customer. Here’s a chance to pick the guy’s brain, get a picture and an autograph to take home- is this offer worth your hard-earned ducats, even if the subject matter didn’t interest you?
The reason I ask is because this very opportunity recently took place in six airports across the country within twenty-four hours. The book is apparently selling well, but how much of a sales boost the guy actually got from this tour is still in question. For one thing, most of his signing locations were post-security, so if he was relying on his fans to stop by they’d have to buy a plane ticket to get to him. Healthy ego or bad planning: you make the call.
For reference, here’s some background on the author: he’s a wine expert and host of popular video blog Wine Library TV; is an award-winning businessman; has garnered much media attention in both print and television; is a consultant to Fortune 100 companies and lectures around the globe. His high-profile standing gives him a bunch of clout with his publisher and apparently also with Cost Plus (who seems to be sponsoring his tour- did anyone else notice that?) The gist of all this is that the guy is fairly well-known, and in some circles, has a following.
Now put all of that aside for a minute and revisit the initial question: would you buy his book? This is important because the way his tour is structured, everyone in his camp is banking that you (and all who pass by) would. How is viewing your customers as cattle logical? Rule number one in marketing is know your target audience, but what the author seems to be doing is relying on his celebrity status to attract customers. I’ll be honest, I like Jon Stewart, but I wouldn’t buy a book about his favorite bagel schmears because of it. It’s arrogant and short-sighted to think that anyone would if that’s not their thing. This lack of discrimination is one of the reasons that book tours aren’t the best use of an author’s time and bestselling author Tim Ferris agrees:
“What were the 1-3 biggest wastes of time and money?”
This led me to create a “not-to-do” list. Number one was no book touring or book store signings whatsoever. Not a one. All of the best-selling authors warned against this author rite of passage.”
Of course there are people who swear by book signings, if for no other reason than to support bookstores. If that’s the case, then why not approach the situation intelligently? If your fans really want to see you, great. Tell them you’ll visit them anywhere in the world, give a presentation, sign books, go out for coffee afterwards, whatever they want, if they’ll arrange the venue and guarantee that x number of people will attend. If you pre-register fifty people and have them pre-pay for your book, you have an easy gig with a guaranteed profit- everybody wins. If this sounds outrageous you probably aren’t looking at the big picture. Book tours are expensive in both time and money. Yes, authors need to get their names out there, but scrambling around the country on your dime, booking and publicizing your own venues that people may or may not attend, isn’t the smartest of business moves. Book tours are for your existing fan base, not for creating one. If people really want you to visit, give them incentive to make it happen. Face it, they’ll probably do a better job of taking care of the details on their home turf than you would. They know which of their friends and family like what you do enough to want to see you in person. And they’ll feel like they’re part of an exclusive event that only those in the know are able to participate. If you insist on doing book signings, working smarter rather than harder is the way to go.
Okay, now let’s backtrack for a second and take a closer look at this tour. Because Gary seems like a smart guy and is social media savvy, I’m inclined to think that this outing is more publicity stunt than sales opportunity, and it wouldn’t be his first time. There’s nothing wrong with this per se, in fact it’s probably working out great for him because he’s leveraging the quirkiness of the situation to get interviews via Twitter and blogs in his downtime. His situation is a little different from the average author’s though in that he has outside financing (his publisher, Cost Plus and possibly others) to capitalize on it. He can put a message on the internet saying he’s available for interviews, etc. and is likely get a response because he has the appropriate contacts in place before the event. Whether or not he sells books at his signings is incidental because it’s the buzz that’s the true prize.
Book signings in general bring in a poor return on investment, even if the investment is only time. Picture it, a person sitting alone in a corner with a pile of books, everyone giving her a wide berth to avoid an unwanted conversation… not a pretty picture. At the very least an author should insist on a reading to give himself a chance to engage and entice people into buying the product, but even that isn’t good enough. It’s widely recommended that an author fill the bookstore with friends and family who would be willing to buy the book. This of course makes no sense except to the bookstore because friends and family will buy anyway, so a reading is unnecessary. So, aside from engaging with fans, what is the point of such events? Yes, it could help you develop a relationship with bookstore personnel, who may then be inclined to hand sell your books. But is your physical presence in a store five hundred miles away the best way to do that? Are bookstores hand selling your events and pre-registering guests to ensure success for one and all or are they taking the hope and see approach with in-store flyers and mentions on their websites? Good intentions aside, let pragmatism be your guide. Whatever you choose to do, always plan for your success in the least painful way and never be afraid to delegate.
Sorry about the publishing snafu. I didn’t notice the post wasn’t up until several days later. Thanks for the heads up.