Episode 255: Going to Conferences and Book Signings
Today on Fable and the Verbivore, we’re sharing an unscripted episode about preparing to present your work at writing/book conferences and book signings.
Over the last year, we’ve done a wide range of topics — from writing about disabilities to writing with empathy —that took a lot of energy and preparation. We’ve also been doing this podcast for almost 5 years and as we celebrate our 250th episode this last month we felt it would be fun to do a series of episodes getting back to our roots of how this first began — through unplanned conversations about life, books, and the writing craft. So, for right now we’re continuing to see where our conversations take us, without planning in advance what we’ll talk about.
In this conversation, we talk about a lot of different ideas for how to approach a writing conference or book signing. Things like:
Bringing items that visually display the flavor of your work – like a distinctive sign or banner that has your name and images to represent the galaxy of your stories or branded bookmarks that both have a use and can serve as a business card (with your name and website details)
Creating a script of what things you want to say
Finding ways to break the awkwardness barrier, connect with the attendees, and create a fun and interactive vibe – like asking a unique question that everyone would have an opinion on (Demons, dragons, or krakens?) or creating a game with small prizes (conference bingo)
Deciding what to lead with by thinking about which books would be best for the specific audience and most visually interesting to display
Creating special edition covers or an edition with sprayed edges
Considering having special items to use visually for the length of the conference and raffle at the end
Thinking about what could go wrong and having a contingency plan ready – bringing a few books along in your suitcase, carrying items with you on a plane, and ordering things in advance in case there are unexpected delays
Towards the end of this discussion, we talk about author Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club) who brings plastic severed mannequin arms to give out at conferences and book signings. We mention how great this idea is for him as it does a great job of capturing and communicating the unique flavor of his work, is odd and surprising, appeals to the attendee’s curiosity, and has them asking questions.
We hope you enjoy this episode and the more improvisational format of this series and that some of this connects with your own journey!
Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!
Into the woods,
Fable & The Verbivore
Notes:
Fable talks about preparing to go to her first conference and book signing and the Verbivore offers some ideas gleaned from her experience at workshops and signings at Phoenix Comicon and other professional conferences.
Music from:https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)