Fred Fanning's Blog - Posts Tagged "speaking"
Do Speaking Engagements Help Authors?
I have heard that authors need to do speaking engagements to increase their public platform and help sell their books. In this post, I would like to share my experience with presentations as an author. It is important for authors to share experiences so we can all learn from each other.
Since publishing my first book, I have done 18 national and regional public presentations. I have not had any problems getting opportunities to make my presentations, and I usually get anywhere from 25 to 50 people from around the US for each presentation. I also have received positive feedback from each presentation. These presentations were to professionals that should have been interested in my non-fiction books. I also tailored the presentations on the books. Most presentations cost me around $1,000 each for travel and expenses. Lastly, I often gave away Kindle books to increase interest in my books. What I found is that there is no direct correlation between these speaking engagements, my public platform, and selling of my books.
The only problem is that none of these presentations has helped me sell books. As a result of this experience, I gave my last presentation in June. The cost of making these presentations far outways the zero return on that investment. This doesn’t mean that I think everyone should stop making presentations. I know for me that they don’t work.
Since publishing my first book, I have done 18 national and regional public presentations. I have not had any problems getting opportunities to make my presentations, and I usually get anywhere from 25 to 50 people from around the US for each presentation. I also have received positive feedback from each presentation. These presentations were to professionals that should have been interested in my non-fiction books. I also tailored the presentations on the books. Most presentations cost me around $1,000 each for travel and expenses. Lastly, I often gave away Kindle books to increase interest in my books. What I found is that there is no direct correlation between these speaking engagements, my public platform, and selling of my books.
The only problem is that none of these presentations has helped me sell books. As a result of this experience, I gave my last presentation in June. The cost of making these presentations far outways the zero return on that investment. This doesn’t mean that I think everyone should stop making presentations. I know for me that they don’t work.
