Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Book Signings

So, you want to do a book signing at Azizi Books?

I was listening to the Michael Baisden on the radio today and he had a guest, Dan Poynter from Para Publishing, that gave some advice to authors about book signings and I just had to repeat it. He said, "all the bookstore is supplying is a roof." I then heard heavenly chimes in my head. Somebody finally said it! At Azizi Books we have done a fair amount of book signings, about 2 -3 a month since we opened, and I am amazed at how many authors expect us to do promoting on their behalf while they do little or nothing. Usually the first thing they ask is how we are going to promote. Now, we do want signings to be successful, and we do have a newsletter and a website where we post our upcoming events and signings, but that is not really promotion. We tell authors that promoting is up to them, and our most successful book signings are the ones where the author has done a lot of promotion on their own. So, thank you Dan Poynter for giving that advice on the radio. He also gave great advice about book covers and ideas about successfully selling poetry books.