My Big Fat Local
Booksigning Tour
Better Known as the
Continuing Chronicles of One Author's Journey into the Harrowing
World of Hand Selling Her Book
Part One - Misery Needs
Company
by Cathy McDavid
Self promotion, while not a dirty
word, is the bane of many a published author, including those
who rank among bestsellers. Writing a press release can be more
difficult, more terrifying even, than writing the dreaded
synopsis. And giving an interview has been known to reduce a
normally poised and confident person to a knee-knocking,
tongue-tied imbecile. Why? Because an author's entire career
might be on the line, not just the next publishing contract.
And yet, selling oneself must be done if an author has any hope
of making it.
Numbers count for a lot in the
highly competitive world of publishing. Numbers of books sold,
that is. Good reviews, contest wins, and award nominations look
great on a web page bio. They may also get an author noticed by
the right people. But they won't ensure a bigger advance or make
someone's name a household word. Not like lots of readers will.
If an author can afford it (and
few of us can) or if the publisher is behind an author and their
book, a publicist is hired who will take over the tedious and
sometimes intimidating task of contacting the media, mailing out
press kits, and scheduling speaking engagements. Publishers,
I've recently learned, also will purchase advertising for some
of their authors in the form of magazine ads, radio spots, and
even TV commercials as well as the all important prominent
placement in bookstores, another publisher perk allotted to the
chosen few who've proven their worth.
For the majority of us, however,
the task of self promotion is left solely in our own trembling
hands.
With the release of my first mass market paperback,
The
Gate to Eden, I decided to grab the self promotion bull by
the horns. Trinkets and bookmarks with my name and website
address, though nice and cute, weren't going to rocket me to mid
list fame, much less bestseller status. I needed more. I needed
to — gasp! — cultivate relationships with booksellers in my area
and hand sell my book to readers.
Call me chicken, but the obvious
solution scared the socks off me. Nonetheless, I was bound and
determined to set up as many local booksignings as possible and
saturate...er...introduce the Phoenix market to my book. And I
was determined not to do it alone. Why? Because misery needs
company, of course.
The first step I took was to
approach Jennifer Ashley, a Romance Writers of America chapter
mate of mine, and invite her to tag along with me on my
booksignings. I asked Jennifer not because I was nervous about
approaching bookstore managers (which I was) or because I didn't
know diddly squat about self promotion (which I don't). I asked
Jennifer because I'm a NOBODY with my first mass market
paperback.
Jennifer, on the other hand,
writes for something like fourteen different publishers under
eight different pseudonyms and has twenty-seven books a year
out, her most recent one, "Penelope and Prince Charming". She's
a SOMEBODY. And, since we're both published by Dorchester, I
figured she might take pity on me. Pathetic and self serving, I
know, but I was desperate.
You see, it's like this. In my
all too vivid imagination, I would walk into a bookstore,
introduce myself to the manager, smile fetchingly, and inquire
in a rich and cultured voice if the bookstore ever hosted author
booksignings. At this point, the manager would eye me up and
down, clutch their belly, and burst into uproarious laughter.
When they were done wiping tears of mirth from their eyes, they
would then tell me to come back when I had another couple books
under my belt. Perhaps, I reasoned, bookstore managers would be
more receptive to two local authors signing, one of whom had
actually made a few lists besides the one tacked to the front of
her refrigerator.
Jennifer, bless her
Barnes-and-Noble-bestseller heart, didn't look at me as if I'd
just crawled out of a nearby swamp. She was, in fact, very
gracious and immediately agreed to my proposal. To my knowledge,
she has never realized I wasn't being nice as much as attempting
to ride her coattails. She told me she'd been talking with
another chapter mate of ours, Erin Grady. Erin also had a book
coming out in April, "Whispers" from Berkley. Jennifer suggested
the three of us team up and do the booksignings together.
\
I was overjoyed. Admittedly, I
didn't know Erin well, but she struck me as being really
together, something else I'm not. And enthusiastic. Plus, she's
this totally great writer who racked up an impressive, and I
mean impressive, amount of awards on her previous book. How
could I go wrong with two such phenomenal partners?
We put our heads together and
pretty soon the ideas were flowing, starting with pre-publicity
buzz. Was there something we as authors could do to get readers
into the stores and, once there, buy our books? What if no one
showed, and we were left sitting at the table like three wax
figurines? Dates and times needed to be coordinated. Who was
free and who was busy? Logistics. Holidays. Vacations. And the
always important, location, location, location. Face it, some
bookstores are simply better than others for hosting
booksignings.
Lastly, we divided the Phoenix metropolitan
area into three sections with each of us taking responsibility
for the bookstores closest to our homes. Amazingly, the pieces
of my plan were actually falling in place. All that remained was
for me to screw up my courage and start visiting bookstores.
Easier said than done.
Why is selling ourselves so hard
for the majority of us? I've spoken in front of hundreds of
conference attendees, given workshops for dozens of published
and pre-published authors, and been the guest speaker at several
writers group meetings. In my day job, I get to boss thirty
people around the office. Yet, the idea of walking into a
bookstore, introducing myself, and pitching my ideas to the
manager had me shivering like a kitten left out in the rain.
Hmm...maybe one more pass around
the parking lot will help. It sure couldn't hurt.
This article first appeared in the September 2006 issue of
Romantic Times Book Reviews magazine. Copyright 2006 by Cathy
McDavid. Reproduction of this article without the author's
consent is prohibited.
My Big Fat Local
Booksigning Tour
Better Known as the
Continuing Chronicles of One Author's Journey into the Harrowing
World of Hand Selling Her Book
Part Two - Armed and Ready
by Cathy McDavid
Business cards? Check.
Cover flats? Check.
Tri-fold flyers and bookmarks?
Check.
One last glance at my reflection
in the double glass door at the bookstore entrance, followed by
a tug on the hem of my shirt, and I was ready to go inside and
meet the manager.
Since deciding to launch our own
local booksigning tour a few weeks earlier, fellow authors
Jennifer Ashley, Erin Grady, and I had been visiting our
neighborhood bookstores in an attempt to set up some signings.
Well, Jennifer and Erin visited
bookstores. For my part, I spent a lot of time driving past the
malls and making up excuses (bad hair day, dogs in the car with
me, bumper to bumper traffic, stuff like that). But no more.
Today was the day, and I was ready. Popping a breath mint into
my mouth, I swept through the door, the epitome of confidence
and grace.
Okay. You got me. So I wasn't the
epitome of confidence and grace. But I was doing a decent
impression.
Walking up to the customer
service center in the front of the store, I smiled and
introduced myself to the clerk behind the counter, the one with
the "May I Help You?" badge.
"Hi, my name is Cathy McDavid,
and I'm a local romance author."
She stared blankly at me,
evidently struck speechless at suddenly finding herself face to
face with a real live published author.
Yeah, right.
Relax, I told myself. Bookstore
clerks probably meet lots of published authors and aren't easily
impressed. Susan Elizabeth Phillips had recently spoken at this
same bookstore. And according to the poster in the window,
Jennifer Cruise and Bob Mayer were scheduled for a visit in the
near future. No reason to panic just because the clerk seemed
more interested in wiping eraser shavings off the counter than
talking to me.
Handing her one of my business
cards, I made another attempt. "I have a book coming out in
April, and I was wondering, do you ever host author booksignings?"
She stared at my business card
for a really long time before looking up at me. For a brief
second, I thought she was going to demand a photo I.D. Instead,
she handed me back my business card.
"You'll have to talk to the
manager."
I did my best to ignore the
slight but direct stab to the heart. The barely perceptible
tremble in my voice gave me away. "Is he or she available?"
"He's not in today." The clerk
resumed ridding the counter of eraser shavings.
It had taken me two weeks and
thirty-three parking lot drive-bys to muster my courage and walk
inside the bookstore. I refused to go down without a fight.
"Is there a number I can call him
at tomorrow?"
"Sure." The clerk's indifferent
shrug told me she neither understood nor appreciated my
persistence. She proceeded to hunt for a scrap piece of paper
and couldn't find one.
"Here, use this." I offered her
the previously rejected business card on which to write the
manager's number. After pressing my cover flat and flyer into
her palm, I left her to her cleaning and meandered over to the
romance section. For several minutes I stared longingly at the
shelf where my book would soon appear.
On my way out of the store, I
stopped at the café and bought a Mocha Frappachino. In my world,
a Starbucks coffee can improve even the worst days.
By the end of the week, I had
seven unproductive trips to bookstores under my belt, fourteen
unanswered phone calls from bookstore managers, and a serious
caffeine buzz. My frustration was definitely growing. I doubted
Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jennifer Cruise, and Bob Mayer, or
more likely their publicists, had as much trouble setting up
their recent booksigning tours as I was having. Though it's true
I'm not Susan or Jen or Bob — not yet anyway — why the cold
shoulder at every store I visited?
All was not lost. Jennifer
Ashley, Erin Grady and I did have a booksigning in a few weeks
at Desert Dreams, our local Romance Writers of America chapter
conference. And Erin had been successful in setting up a signing
for us the week after the conference at a Barnes in Noble near
her home, a store she frequently visited. Taking a lesson from
her experience, I drove further than assigned boundary and
visited a Borders where my critique partners and I sometimes
meet for our critique meetings.
To my delight, the clerk didn't
give me the typical blank stare and indifferent shrug I'd come
to expect. She actually shook my hand and smiled like she was
pleased to learn I was a published author and not just a coffee
freak. Then, she did something none of the other bookstore
clerks before her had. She gave me a business card. Not the
manager's card but one belonging to Sandra Carpenter in
Corporate Sales. Sandra, the clerk explained to me, handled
author booksignings for all the Phoenix area Borders Stores.
Little did I know I had just been introduced to the Wizard of
Oz.
Sandra Carpenter returned my
phone call within three hours and, may I add, enthusiastically
agreed to arrange booksignings for us at four Borders Bookstores
and included pre-publicity for us in their Borders monthly
newsletter. Word of advice to anyone planning to set up a
booksigning: when speaking with someone in Corporate Sales at
Borders, it helps if you've visited their stores and are
familiar with the location, layout of the store, and the type of
customers who frequent the store, something which seemed to
endear me to Sandra. Turns out all my recent visits to Borders
were not in vain! Who knew?
Immediately after talking with
Sandra, I emailed Jennifer and Erin, who were equally thrilled
with my fantastic progress. They'd been hard at work, too.
Between us, we now had seven booksignings scheduled over the
next six weeks.
And none too soon. Emails were starting to
pour in from friends of mine around the country letting me know
my book,
The
Gate to Eden, had just hit the shelves.
This
article first appeared in the October 2006 issue of Romantic
Times Book Reviews magazine. Copyright 2006 by Cathy McDavid.
Reproduction of this article without the author's consent is
prohibited.
My Big Fat Local
Booksigning Tour
Better Known as the
Continuing Chronicles of One Author's Journey into the Harrowing
World of Hand Selling Her Book
Part Three - The Big Day -
Does This Make Me Look Fat?
by Cathy McDavid
The day arrived at last. Jennifer
Ashley, Erin Grady, and I were ready to kick off our booksigning
tour. Our first event was at Desert Dreams, the conference put
on by Desert Rose, the local Romance Writers of America chapter
to which we all three belong.
An hour before the signing was
scheduled to start, I stood in front of my open closet,
pondering which outfit to wear. Would jeans and a nice blouse
connect with potential readers more than a power suit and heels?
Something hip to make me look younger or elegant to make me look
sophisticated? Beige too bland? Black too Goth? A high neck
gingham dress with matching bonnet like the heroine of my book?
Eventually, I settled on a favorite pantsuit that didn't
make me look fat.
This was hardly my first
booksigning, but it was the first one where I'd have my new book
and first mass market paperback,
The
Gate to Eden. More than anything, I wanted to start out the
tour with a bang.
As I stuffed my tote bag with
bookmarks, business cards, tea bags featuring a silver label
with my book title and high concept line (a little arts and
craft project which required innumerable hours to get just
right), and heart-shaped letter openers with my website and
author brand, I worried about how many books I'd sell.
As I've mentioned before, numbers
of books sold count for everything in this business. If I
tanked, the consequences could be devastating to much more than
my morale.
The first signing was a snap, and
I sold a ton of books. No surprise there as I have many friends
among the chapter who have always been supportive of my career.
Still, it was a good thing the signing went so well as, I soon
learned, success was not always the case.
"Do you know where the bathroom
is?"
"Is Mary Higgins Clark's newest
book out yet?"
"How do I find the freeway from
here?"
"I've written a book, too," the
man said with a toothy smile. "Any tips on how to get
published?"
People, I've noticed during my
many weekends sitting at a table near the entrance to the
bookstore, fall into five categories.
1) Those who scurry by, eyes
downcast, scared to pieces I'm going to try and sell them
something — which, I guess, I am.
2) Those who think I work at the
bookstore.
3) Those who just like to chat
and are delighted to have a captive audience.
4) Those who want the freebie
pens, letter openers, and tea bags, but not my book because they
don't read ____________ (insert word of choice: popular fiction,
romance, or 'that smut').
5) Actual book buying customers,
who, unfortunately, make up the smallest percentage.
I've been told four to five books
is the average amount authors sell during a signing. I've also
been told seven to eight. There were days we sold at least that
many, some where Jennifer did considerably better than the
average (one of the cool benefits of being a best selling author
is name recognition). One dismal signing on Mother's Day where
we couldn't sell even one book to an obvious die-hard romance
reader clutching a Romantic Times Book Club Magazine to her
bosom. Note to self: never schedule a booksigning on a Sunday
holiday.
One of our more successful
signings, believe it or not, was on a Friday night. Many of the
chain bookstores now have cafes and comfortable reading nooks,
making them a place for people of all ages to hang out. The
store was packed and the customers friendly. Saturdays were
probably second best for sales, and Sundays the worst. I will
say all the bookstore managers treated us like royalty, even
when our sales left something to be desired. They saw to our
every need, making sure we were constantly supplied with our
beverage of choice. If you've been reading this series, you know
what caffeine enriched, chocolate laced brew I was drinking.
We really only had on disaster to
speak of and not a terrible one at that, thanks to the plucky
store manager. Because of a communication mixup, we showed up at
the wrong store. Fortunately, there were a few copies of our
books on the shelves and a spare table in the back, so we made
the best of it with an impromptu signing. Despite the mixup
being our fault (my fault, really), the manager graciously
invited us back for another signing.
We might not have done quite so
well if not for Jennifer's husband. He not only supported
Jennifer by accompanying her to every signing, he helped Erin
and I, too, by canvassing the store, stalking likely romance
readers...I mean, handing out our bookmarks and directing
customers to our table. Probably half our sales were a result of
his efforts.
With the tour winding down, I'm
able to put up my aching feet, relax my frozen facial muscles,
store my left over goodies, and ponder whether or not hand
selling my book will really make a difference when all is said
and done. Time will tell, but I'm thinking, yes.
Not to get all corny or anything,
but for me, booksignings are like a pebble cast in a pond. No
one really knows how far the ripple will travel or whom they
will touch. The harried mother who grabbed a fistful of pens and
bookmarks so her two screaming offspring would have something to
color in the car during the drive home may eventually buy my
book, love it, love me, and buy everything I ever publish.
Because I'm not yet a bestselling
author, I don't get to have my books displayed on an end cap or
in the 'New in Paperback' rack by the cash register. I'm
thrilled just to walk into a bookstore and find a copy or two of
my book in the romance section, hopefully not mis-shelved. One
added benefits of doing the signings was that the stores ordered
lots of my book and put them on display near the front door for
a week or two before the signing and a week or two after the
signing. That alone made the effort worth it.
If nothing else, I thoroughly
enjoyed spending time with Jennifer and Erin and getting to know
them. For six weekends in a row, we laughed, we joked, we moaned
and groaned. We chatted, brainstormed, and occasionally
gossiped. Mostly, we had a blast.
And, fingers crossed, just maybe
I made I made a little difference in what the final number of my
books sold will be.
This article first appeared in the
November 2006 issue of Romantic Times Book Reviews magazine.
Copyright 2006 by Cathy McDavid. Reproduction of this article
without the author's consent is prohibited.
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