Blog Archives – Miss Write

Quite opposite to what your mother always warned, I URGE YOU to chat to strangers. The most interesting stories come forth from older, younger, foreign, local, shy and chatty folk when you ask the simplest of questions. 

Where were you born? What brought you to this area? Where did you take your last holiday? Any question really – it can lead you down all manner of conversational pathways, and you can discover so many unbelievable coincidences. 

This month I got to know Valerie Compton a little better, a wonderful lady who I met through our library’s ‘meet the author’ events. After we’d shared a couple of events together, Valerie invited me over to her place for a drink. We enjoyed her beautiful, both delicate and knarly, both established and developing garden a summer’s evening this week and discovered three things about ourselves. I was thoroughly amazed, compounded by the fact there were three of them. 

First, we both came to Northants for a job, not having any ties there beforehand. Ok, so that’s just something in common, not a coincidence. Take a look at coincidence number two. Her husband grew up in Swindon, as did I, and being between my grandparents and dad’s generation, knew so many things about Swindon I did and did not. He went to the rival school of my former grammar school, and I bet you we have mutual friends since the Gibneys have been in Swindon for at least four generations. 

Here comes the kicker. The third coincidence was that Valerie herself lived in East Grinstead (where I lived until I was four years old), knew my street, and probably knew my neighbours (if I could remember their last names). Added to that, Valerie and I were born in the same hospital – only 40 years apart! I was once of the first babies who had a UK ultra sound photo in the mid-80’s and now the hospital no longer stands, but Valerie and I had both passed through. 

So, get chatting. And as a writer, it could spur some thoughts which grow into a novel. Meet new people. Strike up a conversation. You never know what you will discover.

Lou x

Some of these tips are no-brainers (or seem it), but my tips might be of use to any writer planning an event in the near future. Let me know if you have any to add to this list in the comments section below.

If you read nothing else of this post, read this!

Number one tip for running a bookstore signing:

TAKE LEAFLETS (or similar) TO GIVE OUT AS FREEBIES

People love a free gift, and even if they just shove it in their pocket or handbag, it will remind them about you and your book when they get home or later in the week. These delayed sales might outnumber the face-to-face sales from the actual hours spent at the event itself! People will also quite often take a flier, walk away, read it and return, so get ready with that award-winning smile!

2. Go with a game plan. How long will you be in store for? Do you have a target for sales? Finding out what other non-celeb writers normally achieve in that particular store is a good start – then try to smash that record!

3. Introduce yourself to the Manager when you arrive, and be friendly towards other staff. They might help send people over to your stall while they’re working if they like you!

4. Make sure you know how you will receive the money from sales. Barcodes are essential. This means the store can sell them at the tills and keep a tally of sales for you. It’s easy to lose count otherwise, and you don’t want to be handling money when you’re busy promoting.

5. You should have thought of this when writing the book in the first place, but just remind yourself who your target market is (e.g. women in their 30’s, retired men). If you only have 300 leaflets, stick to handing them out to that type of customer so you don’t waste your publicity.

6. Don’t be afraid to use a trolley to carry all your bits in – and park as close to the venue as is possible!