I was talking with a friend the other day about the networking event we are going to have in the fall for the launch of the new book Masters of Sales. I am a contributing author to this book. Page 250, just in case you wanted to know!
This friend is also a published author. In my opinion her book is great because it makes me laugh out loud. She is self-published, but she paid the extra money to have a cover designed and also had some stiff editing done to make it read better. I have purchased several copies of the book to give to friends.
So there you have the background.
In this conversation she mentioned that she still had several hundred books in
her garage.I shared that at our event, we were thinking of asking other local authors to be in attendance. We want to support their efforts, too.
She said that she didn't think that it would be good for other local authors. It is her experience that BOOK FAIRS don't work. She explained that people only bring a certain amount of money and she didn't think people would budget for other books besides ours.
Now, she has probably done a lot more work of promoting that book of hers than I will ever personally think of doing for Masters of Sales. After all, we have the whole BNI network behind us. But why would she kick a gift horse in the mouth?
If you were an author and had some books you needed to sell, would you want to be a part of this networking event which is not a book fair?
2 comments:
I would ask myself, "Does my book target the same readership as 'Masters of Sales?' Will your event draw the same audience I am targeting? Does my book complement the featured book?"
Think how Amazon upsells on its web site. "If you like 'Masters of Sales,' you may also like..."
Finally, help make buying easier for the prospective customer. Does your author/friend take credit cards and checks? Or maybe help them out and offer merchant cards services to all of the authors you invite to the networking event.
I guess I have a different perspective. I published my book with the goal of building credibility and visibility. An event such as the one you're describing sounds like a fantastic opportunity. The goal of participating doesn't necessarily need to be selling books, but having the opportunity to meet people and gain some visibility. I'm less concerned about how many books are in my garage than how I can leverage the book to open up doors.
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