How to Talk Your Way Out of Trouble at a Major Book Signing Event

What do you do at a major book signing event when you are confronted with a nervous client, an inflamed public relations consultancy – and 500 copies of some other author’s book instead of your own?

You may have read my recent post on how I received an invitation out of the blue to address a targeted audience of 500 newly-retired couples and engage thereafter in a book signing ceremony.

It sounds too good to be true and it almost turned out that way.

I arrived at the venue to be informed that my books had failed to show.

Oh, 500 hundred copies of a book had arrived okay, but not my book “Your Retirement Masterplan” (How To Books ISBN 1857039874).

Someone at the distribution warehouse had highlighted the wrong ISBN, clicked the mouse button, and provided their dispatch department with erroneous delivery details.

So what do you do when you are confronted with a nervous client, an inflamed public relations consultancy – and 500 copies of some other author’s book?

I recalled the gist of a chapter in my own tutorial http://1st-creative-writing-course.com which held me in good stead as I proceeded to…

- Assuage the client and their PR representatives and assure them that events would pan out satisfactorily;

- Request permission to re-jig the program and tag a 30-minute Q & A session onto the end of my talk;

- Telephone the warehouse and demand they courier PDQ 500 hundred copies of the correct book (fortuitously, the warehouse was only 25 miles away from the venue).

As it happens, the Q&A session went down a bundle with the audience and lasted for almost 60 minutes which was just as well because that’s when the copies of my book arrived.

Hardly a JIT delivery but welcome nonetheless.

What goes around come around and all in all I was pleased with the day’s work - and I got what I set out to achieve.

1. I had earned 10 percent in royalties from the bulk book purchase

2. I got to sign 500 copies individually for the attendees

3. I got the opportunity to pass around my business cards

4. I got to address the retirees in a 20-minute talk on the third age adventure with the added bonus of a 1 hour Q&A session.

5. I got the opportunity to promote my next book “How to Earn Money in Retirement” (due for publication in April 2006 by How To Books ISBN 1845281128)

6. I got 500 potential new customers for all my future books

7. I got an all-expenses paid trip to the venue

8. I got a substantial appearance fee

9. I got exposure from local television covering the event

Best of all to come out of the potential crisis was the fact that I won the trust of both the client and the consultancy and ended up with an invitation to repeat the exercise (minus the wrong books factor) on four separate occasions during 2006.

What helped me talk my way out of trouble at this major book signing event is the fact that I spent the bulk of my working life at the sharp end of marketing and I had seen it all before – and worse.

http://1st-creative-writing-course.com