Tables are a Girl's Best Friend...NOT! ~ by Author Andi Lawrencovna

     

I want to talk a little bit about design. Design of what?
     Well, since you asked…design of your display and the way you represent yourself as an author online and at events.
     Unfortunately for me, who, though I can make a good show of being an extrovert when I need to (thank you Father for your YEARS of making me talk to people at events I dreaded going to…), I am a hard-core, leave-me-the-heck-alone, introvert. I like silence. It suits me 99% of the time.
     But let’s talk about that other 1% here. That 1% of the time in which you have to make a sale, and you’re not just selling your books at an event table or in an online post, but you’re selling yourself to a reader.
     A lot of readers, especially now with all the social media platforms available, like to be able to and want to get to know their authors. Having that moment of connection between them helps: 1. Make the sale of the book, and 2. Keep them coming back for future releases. (I am not that mercenary by nature, I swear, but like any other business, you have to look at writing AS a business, too.)
     

     So, two goals: 

           1. Sell your book

           2. Sell yourself.

     Goal 1: As on “Facebook,” so in person. Know your brand. Marj Ivancic’s POST about elevator speeches is key. You need to be able to define your product in a way that entices the consumer to come in and take a closer look at it.
     For me, personally, at the consumer level, I look for “neat and orderly.” If I walk into a store, and the display I’m looking at is a

rat’s nest of “stuff,” I’m gone. I want to be able to focus on a particular product and draw conclusions about it from one glance. I don’t want to be distracted by the mess around it.
     In terms of a book display at an author signing, I want to be able to walk down a row of authors’ tables and see the books they are selling. If it is one book or one hundred, I’m looking at the covers, and the way they are displayed. I don’t want to see five hundred copies of one book, because if there are 500 copies of the same book on a table, my mind automatically thinks: “Well no one else is buying them, why should I?”
     If you have a lot of books, having them organized at the same height tends to block the covers so that I can’t see them, which will also send me along to the next table well in advance of taking a look at yours!
     Even though everyone has heard the phrase: DON’T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER…online or at an event, EVERYONE judges the book by its cover, at least to a percentage. The cover is what draws the attention and drags the reader in. If I can’t see your covers, I’m going to walk on by. I know a romance author because the covers of his/her books are romantic. I know fantasy because there is some sort of magic involved. SyFy has aliens and spaceships. We have to market to and towards our genre specific.
     

So, SHOW ME YOUR COVER. Your books should always be the center of your display. Now, let me clarify there, I do not mean that your books need to be in the actual “physical” center. If you’re creating a book promo-ad for Facebook, you generally put your cover to the side so you have room to write a bit about the book on the other. Same as with an in person event (debatable, but we’ll get back to this). For now, organize your books as a pseudo-bottle-neck.
     Huh?
     Hear me out. You want your books (if you have enough that they’re on both sides of the table), to lean in towards you at the center of the table.
     Keeping the books turned in towards the center of the display subconsciously cues the reader/consumer to move in, it’s “not leading them on” to the next table down the line. I have to give complete credit to Author Savannah Verte for that tidbit, and I hope I wrote it correctly. Basically, you’re leading the eye and the reader towards the center of the table which is you, or which is a book you want featured or a special part of your display.
     Now, remember that “debatable” throw away line up above? So, if you have only one book out that you’re selling, make it the center of your display. Keep the clutter around it to a minimum because you want the focus to go automatically to that book.
     

BUT, and this is the part that freaks me out so apologies in advance, you need to leave a clean line of sight to yourself (for in person events only) so that readers walking by will see YOU, and know that YOU are the author and know that YOU are approachable and want to talk about YOUR books. It makes it easier for signing the books they buy, and for author/reader photos.
 

     Goal 2: You are part of your display, part of the marketing platform that you’re running. You’re meant to be seen. People like having a face to relate to on social media and platforms. They like knowing who they’re looking for at events by those photos.
     For in person events though, remembering that open line of sight to you from above, you need to act your part.
     Who do you want your readers to think you are when they see you? Are you going to dress up like your characters or in period clothes to match your story settings? Are you going to call yourself a crazy-cat-lady and gimmick your way into readers memories? Are you going to be the quiet one that lets readers come to you?
     For the record: ALL VALID OPTIONS! They’re just “your choice” options, and you need to know what you are comfortable doing and how you want people to approach you when you set out doing these events.
     I’m as snarky and sarcastic in person as I am online. I don’t try

to hide my personality in my profile or on my face. I might be a bit more vocal online than I normally am in person, but I do my best to be an open person. I don’t try to “reel” people in. I let them come to me. I know a few people who will do everything they can to make sure they’re seen up front and center at and for everything, and good for them. But thinking about that gives me a bit of anxiety, so I’m sticking with who I am now.
     The point is, remember that you are marketing yourself and your style as much as you are your books at any in person event or online posting, so you always have to be conscious of it.
     Now, when that reader sees your display and has to move their

eyes from the outer edges towards the center where you’re waiting like a spider in the web, ready to reel them in…oh, wait, uhm, anyways…the reader is always going to judge the book by two things up front before you or they even open their mouths: the cover, and what you look like/how you represent yourself. 

     Know what you’re doing and why, and make those decisions a conscious choice, because step two is that elevator speech, but you’ve either hooked a reader by that point or not, so…good luck!

Photos courtesy of pexelsfreephotos.com or personal images