Author Events and what they do or don’t do

Author Events on Facebook…Are they worth it? Is it good marketing? What type of Author Events work the best?

I don’t actually know the real answer, though I can tell you what I have seen and how things seem to me.

First – The easy part is making an event, putting up a description and banner and sending out invites – well as long as you remember to make it public. So it can be a bit confusing for the first time.  Oh and make sure if you use a pen name, the event doesn’t use it…That can be quite confusing for your friends and those doing author takeovers.

Okay now you’ve set up your event, you’ve invited your friends and author family, so you put out an invite for author take over slots.  This is where it depends on if you are doing an open book event, author book event or genre book event.  You need to have the right people doing takeovers.  Other than that, I haven’t seen any rules on what to do and what not to do.  Out of the several hundred invited you will get about 30 – 40 saying they will attend and you may get some interested. On the day, this might not be so.  Many forget or other things in life take over.  What we need is a system to remind people, it isn’t easy.  A major difficulty is time zones, people attend from all over the world at these online events, occasionally things go wrong.  Nobodies fault. It has happened to me several times which is why I now only say Interested, then pop in if I can. However…yes there is always one of these with me. There are several different kinds of Author Events.

Book Release Event

If you are participating in a Book Release Event, then after introducing your self and saying hello one of the first thing a guest author or person needs to do – in my opinion – is to  congratulate the author on their book release and share a few of the authors links – if there are any – after all it is book release event.  It is also nice if you hang around and participate in the games and other take over guests, before and after for a while or if busy, pop in and out to see how things are going.

As Indie Authors you are there to write and let the world know about your work, your books and to help each other be seen.  If you don’t participate how can you grow your reach and marketing arena? This after all is one of the free ways to do so – if Facebook doesn’t ban you mid way through. 

Genre Events

It is here you need to make sure you have author take overs of the same, similar genres for the whole event, after all a children’s book won’t fit in with adult books.  You really need to work your readers and fans, inviting those who are interested in what genre you are selling.  Obviously with children’s books you invite parents or grandparents, anyone who reads to children or wishes to help the children read good books.  

Adult books can be steamy or even erotic – get to know your audience, ask them to comment and share things from your event, even if they can’t attend, they can still comment later and share to others who may be interested.  

Themed Events

These are a blast to run and to participate in.  You tend to get them for Christmas, Easter and special occasions. Some authors do themed for book releases with take overs. It is amazing see the ideas everyone comes up with now.  I think it may be time for me to do one for my series!   I know one lovely British author who has been or is running themed book releases for her books which date back to the 1970’s. It is amazing the memories she can pull from you. Who you were, where you were going or doing.  I must admit I really enjoy her books too (Audrina Lane)  

My longest theme book was for the Awethologies Light and Dark which were released October 2015.  I was online for 23 hours.  It was brilliant and tiring.  I also learnt a lot from the experience.  Like how to schedule posts on my blog.  There are four Awethologies now all releases in 2015 and as eBooks they are FREE.  I’m looking forward to re hashing a new event for this year to get the books to an even wider audience.

Party Events

Free for all, generally run over several days or a week.  This is a bit like posting in groups, however because they tend to be open to all genres you can widen your audience and reach by attending, posting and getting to know fellow authors and readers.

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The main part of our problem as I see it, is getting outside the circle of authors.  yes we are all readers, however, our posts are likely to go around in the same circles to the same people and no entice any new readers in.

Do EVENTS work for you? Is there anything else we can do to push those boundaries and get outside the box or square.  There are millions of readers out there, yet we barely touch the surface unless we are really lucky.  

On a final word.  Please remember to congratulate the author who is celebrating a book release, please say thank them for letting you participate.  It doesn’t hurt and may help build up their self-esteem just when they need it.  It may also make them share more of your posts in the future or even return the favour in another event.

Meanwhile take care out there –