Book Signings Adventures by a Newbie Author

First of all, it's kind of crazy referring to myself as an "author". Secondly, the thought never crossed my mind to be "that person" at the book store signing books, let alone signing my own books! That is... until my very own mom booked my first book signing today.

My mom has this great way about her. She can just walk into Borders and Barnes and Noble with ease, ask for the store manager, confess she knows nothing about what she's asking for (which btw is a book signing for her daughters new book; Read Between the Lines) and end up getting exactly what she's asking for.

Of course, a lot of really cool things happened to her in the process of her book signing adventure, all very much worth mentioning.

My fabulous mom walks into Borders with the galley and bookmarks for Read Between the Lines in hand, ready to tackle the world. She asks for the manager, and whips out the Galley she's so proud of. She promises me there were "OOO's and AHHS's" coming from the employees around her, with even a few "struggles" as to who got to thumb through the Galley first.

As you can imagine, this is music to my ears! But, I had to be sure my mom was telling the accurate story, so I asked her to repeat the story 7 times. :)

But, there's more to this book signing adventure.

My mom manages to get the attention of the right person to not only get the book signing on the calendar, but he was so great and so enthusiastic, that he provided her with some really great hints as to how to make the book signing a success, and how to get Read Between the Lines national attention within his corporate systems.

After my mom bragged about her experience, and "how easy it is to get a book signing scheduled" I decided to give it a try myself.

I have to admit, I had major butterfly's!

I walked into a Barnes & Noble store, spoke directly to the store manager who was more than willing to help me with my book signing, and was one of the most wonderful and full of energy retail store managers I have ever met! Lucky me! Or, are all book store managers this wonderful?

Since I'm a newbie at the book signing requests, I'll have to get back to you on that.

So, my point is this. As scary as a book signing sounds, there appears to be amazing book store representatives who are more than willing to help us authors (and mom's too) with our causes.

Timing is everything. Be sure to go into the store at a slower sales time (usually in the morning during the week) and call ahead to make sure the store manager will be there. When you go in, be friendly and professional, and most of all be very respectful of the managers time. Book store managers want to sell books, and if you're going to help them sell more books, a book signing can be a match made in heaven for everyone.

For all of you newbies out there like me who are interested in promoting their book by scheduling book signings, I say either get your mom to go first :) - or just go for it yourself - after all, what do we really have to loose?