While the act of writing certainly brings fulfillment of its own, most writers yearn for their pages to be read – and enjoyed – by others. One way to find new readers is to take part in events that allow you to showcase your work and connect with your audience.
More opportunities exist than you might think, but it takes a bit of work to find them – or create them on your own. The real magic sauce boils down to two traits that seem poles apart: 1) Preparation and 2) Audacity.
Preparation is necessary to figure out what you want to do and what you’re able to do. Do you want to attend library book fairs or books-and-brews? Spend some time online looking for libraries and breweries that will be holding these events in the future or that have held them in the past. How far are you willing to travel locally? Are there opportunities in the places where you vacation? Do you have friends or relatives in another community that could be your home base?
Presentations are another way to get in front of potential readers. Can you come up with an interesting talk about your book or one related to your book’s topic? Once created, practice your presentation so that you are comfortable enough to be entertaining and engage your audience.
Go back online and look for places that could use your presentation, such as libraries, senior centers, churches, service organizations, or schools. Write up a description of your talk, including your fee, if you have one.
Workshops or classes might be another way to find readers, depending on your book. Can you create a class or a series that relates? You could offer it yourself, either in person or online, but weigh the effort of marketing your class in order to sell your book against the effort of just selling your book. Maybe there are groups or organizations already out there that would love to host your workshop and handle most of the publicity.
Being a guest of a blogger or podcaster might make more sense for your book. What blogs and podcasts are appropriate to reach your audience? Do you have a topic to share that would be of interest to particular groups?
With your preparation done, it’s time to pull out your audacity. All the prep in the world means nothing until that big Ask.
By this point, you should have lists of places and contacts to call and/or email for the Ask. Questions to ask include:
- Are you holding an Author Fair this year?
- Can I get on the list?
- Do you schedule presentations by authors?
- Would your audience be interested in hearing about my topic?
- Do you know any other groups or places that I could contact?
It’s the Ask that I have the most trouble with – I’m great with the preparation part! It’s not so bad if I’m emailing a request, but picking up the phone to talk to someone is absolutely not my favorite thing to do. Fortunately, my husband/publisher has no trouble with it. And that is why, while we’re vacationing in the Florida Keys, we will be presenting “Lost Lingo” to every single library branch in Monroe County.
As I’ve said before, it can be easier to promote someone else instead of yourself, so if the Ask is hard for you, too, consider swapping that task with a fellow writer. Share the prep work, too, and then you only have half of the research to do.
Writers write because we have to – it’s in our DNA. But feedback from readers is the real high. A reader on my newsletter list today emailed me a 
. There was nothing else, but it means the world to know that they are reading what I write.
Photo by MART PRODUCTION