One of the most frequent complaints I get from authors is “I did a booksigning at a bookstore and it was a total waste of time. I can’t sell books that way.”

 

Unless you are Barbara Walters, John Grisham, Nora Roberts or a few other big names in the country, your visions of people lined up around the block should probably come under the category of “fantasy.” So what do you do? Look for alternative outlets to sell books.

 

I am constantly amazed that people who have really creative minds in what they write have no clue on how to “think outside the box” when it comes to marketing.

 

Many years ago I sold Tupperware. I gave it up, not because I wasn’t successful at it, but because a squirrel got into the house and chewed up all of my samples. Yes, they were empty, but the little critters loved the taste of the plastic. I thoroughly enjoyed the party concept the company used, but I couldn’t afford another new kit of their products, which would just get chewed up again. (It’s not as easy to get rid of a squirrel in the house as you might think.)

 

Recently, the idea hit me that it could be just as much fun to host parties like that for our books. I live right next door to a fellow author/friend extraordinaire, Billie Williams. I discussed the concept with her, and she was agreeable to give it a try.

The first step was to go to our friendly VistaPrint and make up some brochures, telling a bit about ourselves and our books, then to issue an invitation to people to schedule a “Book-Aware Party.” Our names were prominently listed as “Your Author-ized Book-Aware Dealers.”

 

In planning the parties, you can either have the books you want to sell on hand, or you can do it like a true Tupperware party and have samples of the books for the guests to view and then order the books for delivery at a later date. Good common sense practice also comes into play in the financial end of it, as you can collect the money when they order it, so it costs you no out-of-pocket money. You can send the price you have to pay your publisher to buy the books, and you have the profits in your hand immediately.

 

Read a very enticing excerpt or two from your book/s at the party. Plan a few games that relate to the book. You might even go dressed as a character from your book. Give a door prize that relates to your book. I usually recommend that you never give a book away as a prize, but it might be a good idea to give the host a copy of the book ahead of time so they can read it and share in the enthusiasm of the book itself during the party. Word of mouth is still the best form of advertising in the world.

As per Tupperware parties, at the end of the party you book future Book-Aware parties from the guests. Everybody knows different people who aren’t at each party.

 

One other bonus you can promote is that when the guests finish reading the book, if they don’t want to keep it (just in case squirrels develop a taste for paper as well as plastic), they can donate it to local hospitals, senior citizen centers, homeless shelters, etc. That way they will get a tax-deductible receipt for the donation, so it really won’t cost them that much to buy the book in the long run.

Until next time, happy sales to you,

Janet Elaine Smith

Your Author-ized Book-Aware Dealer