It’s that time of the year again. The Tucson Festival of
Books in the spring is a special event where readers, onlookers and kids can
meet with outstanding authors and have a good time. This was the ninth annual
festival with another record attendance for the two day event. This year was
warmer than previous years and shady places to stand were at a premium.
Again, I got to see many of my Spotlight authors. This year started
off talking with two of my favorites, Rebecca
Dahlke @rpdahlke and D.R. Ransdell @dr_ransdell.
At the end of the day I met up with J.A. Jance
@JAJance who has just released ‘Man Overboard’. Her new release will be
showcased on the HBS Author’s Spotlight
soon. Judith is a Tucson-based bestselling author and a graduate of the
University of Arizona.
This is my fifth Tucson Festival of Books and I had a
mission. Again I took off my Mystery writer’s hat. I am here as a Blogger this
weekend to find out how my fellow authors are handling direct marketing.
Like previous festivals, my goal is to talk to as many
authors as I can, take a lot of pictures and to see how the authors are trying
to market their books and themselves.
Author’s Goals
Like I have stated before, when an author attends an event
like a book festival, they should have a set of goals before they start, like
selling their books at the event AND/OR getting the reader/prospects to look
further after they leave. If you sparked their interest, they will check your
books out online. They may even tell someone else about meeting you.
A book festival requires a different approach than a regular
book signing at a bookstore. This year there was less swag than normal but lots
of fun. A lesson learned. Don’t have chocolate candy as a giveaway. Not in the
desert anyway.
Observations – Sales Tools
This is what I observed while I made my way through the festival.
Let’s start with the sales tools. I picked up a lot of literature and took a
lot of pictures. The following is a good list of marketing items to consider
for authors attending book events. I like to give credit to the top items in
each category of sales item. This year there were so many good items in some of
the groups I could not pick the top ones.
The cards ranged from 4-color quality cards with cover
pictures to plain Vistaprint cards to none at all. This year the business cards
had better contact information, including email addresses. Authors are starting
to loosen up on the email info. This year there were many great author business
cards. There were two that stood out with color and information.
Natalie Wright @NatalieWright_ - H.A.L.F.
D.R. Ransdell @dr_ransdell - Dizzy in Duranbo
Bookmarks
All the bookmarks I reviewed had some way to contact the
author. Most of the bookmarks were professionally done with covers, review
snips and contact information. My choices were:
Teresa Burrell @teresaburrell
- The Advocates Homicides
Carly
Thomson @CarlyThomson3 - Truth Seekers
Flyers
I saw several flyers on colored stock. This was something
that I thought I would see more of. There is so much area (letter size) to get
your message across. Besides, the cost factor is a plus. There were fewer
flyers this year than in previous years. No picks on this item.
Books Covers
There were lots of books with great covers. The authors were
more than willing to sign a purchased copy.
Post cards
Now we are getting into some great stuff. There were fewer
post cards this year also. Most of the post cards had copies of the author’s
book covers and collections. I did pick two in this category.
Kathryn Lane - Waking Up In Medellin
Jim Stevens @JimStevensWritr – The Richard Sherlock Whodunit Comic Mystery Series
Book Displays and Posters
The same great quality was displayed here, with lots of
cover blowups. It was hard to pick one here too but this display stood out.
Bill Markley @BillMarkley - Deadwood Dead Men
The booths were organized better this year with the numbering finally making sense. My booth pick had so many outstanding authors (about 15 at one sitting) I couldn’t list them all.
The Dreams Convention booth
Congrats to Kris Tualla @kristualla for putting together
such a great group of authors.
Amigos and Ladies of the West booth
And
to Doug Hocking @HockingDoug for a
unique booth with authors dressed in Western attire to match their genre.
Best Presentation
The best presentation by an author this year was easy to
pick. As always most of the authors had their pitch all ready for me. The top
pick this year was from one of my Spotlight Authors. Remember everyone is a prospect even a blogger
roaming the festival.
Kris
Tualla @kristualla - Enemies & Traitors
Novelty
Items
Not many tote bags this year but
other items took their place. Like I have said before, give the festival goers
something of value and your swag will not wind up in the trash can. I spent
some time talking to the picks in this category,
T.L. Smith @tlsmithbooks – Business Card with trinket (Shooting Stars and Bad
Guys, All in a Day’s Work)
Cathy McDavid @CathyMcDavid - Envelope opener
Action
Like I have said before, I like confronting authors at the
festival. There are a variety of presentations. Some had long pitches, some had
none.
A book festival is an on-the-spot sales opportunity. It is a
chance to sell yourself to prospects and readers. To me, the most effective
pitch was the short, quick one. A long pitch surely loses some sales
opportunities. If the pitch is long, it better be interesting.
A few of the authors qualified me. Less than last year. That
is a key first step. They offered questions like this. Do you read Mysteries?
Do you like Suspense? What type of books do you read?
They should be thinking about the person in front of them and
react. Is he a buyer or prospect? Is he a tire-kicker? Is he someone that will
promote me and by book, like a blogger?
Some authors jumped right into their sales pitch often
wasting their time and mine. They start telling their book’s story before they
find out the visitor is not buying or doesn’t read their genre. You just want
to hang up but you can’t.
There were a lot of tire kickers according to the authors.
These were people who were there for a good time but were not buyers. Lots of
kids, which was great. They were there to ‘snag some swag’ as they say.
There were a lot of people and the authors needed to work
the prospects. Talk to them. Socialize with everyone. Hand them a copy of a
book or literature. Here take a look? You never know.
This Year’s Takeaway Ideas
Finally, I am starting to see authors offering free or
discounted ebooks to readers. This is great time to run a promo during the
festival. Give the attendees a shot at it. If they like your work, they will
buy your other books. If done properly, giveaways during the event could
increase your Amazon rating.
Idea 2
Give your prospect/readers something of value. Something
with your book title, your name and web address or twitter tag or email address.
Idea 3
Like last year, name tags/plates are still a problem. The
authors did a great job displaying their books. A quick check of their
displays, their name was easy to see.
Face time with a prospect is very important. Have a name
plate made up and place it on the table in front of you. I wore my name tag: James
Moushon - Mystery Writer – Blogger.
Give the attendees more than a name. Readers looking for
Mysteries will stop. Others would move on. Qualify. Qualify. Qualify.
Finally, a Great Day in the Sun Comes to an End
Authors need to have a plan to get the most bang for their
buck. You need to focus on what sells your books. Presentations. Marketing
materials. Good covers. Qualifying prospects. Great copy. Forming Relationships.
Other related posts:
Follow me:
Follow Me on Twitter:
@jimhbs
Or EMAIL at: james.moushon@gmail.com
View my website: James
Moushon – Mystery Writer
Or visit my blog: The eBook Author Corner
Take a look at my Author’s blog: HBS Author’s Spotlight
And the HBS Mystery
Readers’s Circle
Check out the Jonathon Stone Mystery Novels and Collections:
The Cajun Ghost
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