On September 23rd of this year, I performed my first book-signing event for Drunk Wizard & The Cowardly Knight.

It was absolutely great and I was flanked by more senior writers than I. Check them both out - I'll link to their pages at the bottom of the post.

I met so many awesome people, and quite a few of them purchased my books. Lamar and Dante stand out in my memory - a dad and his kid, I think. Very cool. I also networked a bit - starting to get those local-writer-friends I've been missing / really needing.

At this point, I have to call them my "Writing Aquaintances" - I haven't known them long enough. But I'm hopeful that I can at some point have more to offer them, and we can keep being friendly until then.

Here's the TL;DR:

- bring plenty of books - I almost ran out

- bring snacks and/or buddies

- agree with people, don't make waves

- have eye-level visuals - people don't look up or down very often.

- fill up your table.

- Keep a pen handy and don't give away your bleed-sheet ( I did that in the first ten minutes )

- have your Point of Sale set up and ready. Use bookmarks and shortcuts if you can.

- Keep your sales separate for the event - you may need to pay a % to your host, or different sales tax based on the area.

So, here's the part where I start being more candid, and I might sound a little self-deprecating, but I promise I'm just giving myself some constructive feedback. Minimal ego-bruising.

Experiences that stand out

- Have a Buddy and/or Bring Snacks - I had a book-signing buddy to "hold down the fort" while getting food and the like. Unfortunately, they weren't available, so I went solo. Good news is, that this strategy definitely works! Morgan brought her partner and they tag-teamed that whole thing. On my left, I saw Rhonda going solo, and she definitely had a stash beneath her table. Because I didn't have a buddy, and because of certain mental things, I was fully engaged for 7 hours straight without food. This is an autism thing for some folks, others an ADHD thing - hyper-focus. I got the bad side of it that day.

- Planning Visuals - I ordered a rather large banner at 6-feet long. Carpe Diem Comics was awesome at providing me a table, but I ended up with the small-one, and the banner was too long. Compounding the problem, I only got the 4-grommet version, so it didn't have enough attachment points to wrap around. I ended up using some masking tape to get everything onto the table, which unfortunately tore up a little bit of the paint on the banner. I should still be able to use it, but if I sit by someone famous, I'll have to be careful with it.

- Visuals at Eye Level - My visuals weren't at eye-level. My table looked great, but passers-by didn't have the angle to see my banner ( Art by Brahn Smith a.k.a. Batwynn ). My table-front was just not able to draw people in, because they didn't see it.

- Fill up your table - I found that the authors to the left and right of me both had more than one book, but they also filled up their table with fliers, business cards, and things people could take with them if they weren't willing to commit to a full purchase.

- Advertising - Apparently Facebook doesn't really work for selling books. This is of course knowledge I'm hearing from other authors, so it has some weight, but to be fair I don't have any concrete evidence.

Some Preparations to do before the event

- Practicing Author Signature - it shouldn't be the same as your legal signature. I filled up around ten pages of my sketch-pad, so you can and should practice it. Go slow. Speed will come with practice and experience - but the ink can't be taken back from the page.

- Figure out your costs and compensation with the Venue - This is important to lock down beforehand. Don't be a jerk, but if the terms aren't favorable to you, don't do it. It should be favorable to both the Venue and yourself, in an ideal scenario.

Morgan Chalut - Author of the Unwoven Tapestry Series

https://morganchalut.com/

Rhonda Eudaly - In many anthologies, including the book I bought, "Dirty Magic: New Orleans"

http://www.rhondaeudaly.com/mediapress-page/