How Writers Can Get More People to Attend Their Readings
By: Walter Rhein
Tags: The Reckless Writer, Authors, Social Media, Writing, Public Speaking

How Writers Can Get More People to Attend Their Readings

With a few simple tricks you can stop being reduced to the futile act of screaming at the void Walter Rhein Sep 6·6 min read

Photo by Jonas Jacobsson on Unsplash

I remember when I was a young, hopeful writer with a newly signed contract from a small press. I showed up at a reading with a fifty pound crate of books under my arm. I’d calculated that if I managed to sell all the books, I’d be going home with over $500.

You can imagine my disappointment when I opened the door to the auditorium only to see one person.

The first words out of my mouth were, “Hi mom.”

I tried to focus on the only positive that remained. “Well, at least I’ll sell one book,” I thought, only to find that my mom had already purchased a used copy that she had found online.

Most writers probably wouldn’t share a story like this. However, the sad fact is that most writers have had the exact same experience, right down to the part about family members purchasing used copies of their work.

Since those days, I’ve learned a few tricks to help pad the crowd a little bit. You still aren’t likely to sell $500 worth of books, but if you follow my advice you’ll at least be speaking to a room full of people instead of empty chairs.

Adopt the mentality of self-promotion

It’s kind of basic, but one of the best bets for filling seats is to let the public know what’s going on. One of the things I both love and hate about writers is that they tend to be very humble. I was at a reading the other day and the writer apologized for having books to sell!

Don’t apologize for that! You’re there to sell books. That’s the whole point!

I adore that writers often have the mentality that readers shouldn’t be pressured into purchasing their work. Yes, it’s distasteful to not be able to go through life without listening to a jingle for Coca-Cola every thirty-six seconds, but those constant jingles are why Coca-Cola is iconic.

It’s annoying to hear those constant advertisements, but writers have to learn from them. There’s literally not a person on the planet who doesn’t know what Coca-Cola is. Nevertheless, Coca-Cola ensures that not a minute of airplay goes by without their name being mentioned at least eighty billion times.

It doesn’t matter if you have a huge publisher or you’re a complete unknown. You have to promote. Once you get into it, you’ll discover that promotion is another nice medium for creativity.

Give your presentation a catchy title

The same good practices that you apply to the articles you write for online platforms should also be applied to your author appearances. You need an eye-catching title that piques the curiosity of random passers-by.

It’s important.

Don’t title your talk, “Unknown Author Presents Boring Book You’ve Never Heard of and Care Nothing About.”

Instead, give people a reason to get excited! My most popular talk is “Hiking the Inca Trail with Two Olympians.” There’s a lot in that title that piques people’s curiosity. No matter where you live, there’s always somebody who is interested in the Inca trail. There are always people interested in Olympians. Heck, there are people who are interested in hiking.

That’s the opposite of three strikes!

That being said, there’s still opportunity to jazz up that title even more. For example, I might try, “How I Escaped Death From Exposure on the Inca Trail and Saved the Lives of Two Olympic Athletes.”

The fact that the second title isn’t really true is irrelevant. The important thing is to get people into the seats. I don’t even mention my book in the title. Instead, when I finish my spectacular talk, I casually mention that the Inca Trail journey makes up the last third of my book, Reckless Traveler, and that I just happen to have some copies on me, but probably not enough for everyone.

I sell out when I do that, and it’s amazing how I always manage to find one more copy of the book in my car if somebody really, really wants one.

Alert the press

Here’s another thing writers don’t do, they don’t look for the name of local reporters and send them the information on their presentations. Instead, they sit at home bitter over the fact that they aren’t getting the media coverage they feel they deserve.

Speaking from the perspective of a local reporter, the news is often more about convenience than it is about merit. My obligation is to write 20 stories a month. If some nice writer sends me a photo and a catchy quote that takes a good bite out of my required word count, it greatly reduces my work.

That article is getting published every single time.

What I don’t have time to do is hound writers with fifty emails because they can’t be bothered to respond.

Also, don’t write to just one publication. The more print and online news sources that run your copy, the better. However, it is a good practice to provide a unique quote to each of them. When the right press promotes your presentation, you can easily get 50 or 100 people at your talk.

Hound your friends

A lot of writer resource articles tell you to leverage the power of social media to get attention for your events. However, social media is really only good for spreading misinformation and getting into arguments over politics.

Sure, you can create an event and wait for people to click “maybe” on the “will you attend” tab, but those people aren’t going to show up.

Email is not going to work either. What you need to do is send text messages, and don’t start them with, “Will you come to my author talk?” No, you have to butter them up a little. I suggest using the following template:

“Hi (insert friend’s name here)! How are you? Will you come to my author talk? (Insert time and place here). I’ll buy beer after!”

If your friends are authors you can add, “I’ll make sure to attend your next talk, after all, writers should support each other.” Or, if you really want a slam dunk, write, “Hey! I just purchased and reviewed your latest work (insert review link). Man, that’s a stunning work of genius, you should be proud. By the way, I’m doing an author talk and it would be great if you attended. If you show up, I’ll give you a shout out in my opening remarks!”

Your friends are your “seed” audience. It helps to ensure that the venue that booked you will remain open to having you return.

Even bestselling authors speak to empty seats

Before you jump to the conclusion that you’re a failure as a writer because you always find yourself contemplating row after row of empty seats, just remember how difficult it is to get apathetic Americans to attend anything literary.

There have been many times when I’ve been the only person in the audience for major writers. Most of the time, this is a result of a situation like in a game of volleyball when everybody stands around looking as the ball bounces down on the ground.

The venue thinks the writer should promote.

The writer thinks the venue should promote.

Nobody hears about the event and nobody comes.

In an ideal world, both the writer and the venue promote!

Promoting an author talk isn’t a matter of sending one mass email to all your followers. You’ve got to make sure you have a great title, create a terrific promotional image, contact the local press, and hound all your friends. Then repeat the whole process dozens of times.

If it sounds like it’s hard work, it is. Nobody ever said being a writer was easy. However, if you do your due diligence, you’ll discover you can finally sell that crate of novels you’ve been lugging around all these years.

Believe me, it’s a lot more fun to talk to a crowd than it is to stand around trying to explain to your mother that you don’t get any proceeds when she buys a used copy of your book. In fact, that conversation is super awkward, so get out there and promote!