Big Book signings…the good, the bad, the reason I may soon be done with them.

That’s some title, huh? LOL.

I’ve been attending author book signings for the past ten years. I started off with one the first year after my first 2 books were published. That blossomed to 2 events the next year and 4 the following.

Typically, I now do between 7 and 9 book signings per year, most of them at big book/multi-author events, but several at small library ones as well.

I have to tell you, I prefer the smaller library ones.

Multi-author romance book signings have gotten huge since the Covid shutdown ended. Since we weren’t able to attend any big events for almost 2 years, when we were, it seems everyone and their mother developed an “event.” What started with maybe 20 authors has now jumped to 75 or even more than 100 at an event. That’s way, way too many authors, usually in confined spaces, with people who typically come out for just 2 or 3 of their favs.

I’m not usually one of the favs.

No ego there, just fact.

I attended a debut romance themed book signing event in 2023 that had almost 200 authors crammed into several rooms in a Massachusetts hotel. It was hot, overbooked, over crowded – like fire code violations overcrowded – cost me $1000.00 in hotel fees, table fees, travel, and other expenses, and I didn’t sell 1 single book. Needless to say, I didn’t attend that one the following year, nor ever will again.

Last year I attended a total of 9 events. I spent over $4000.00 and (overall) sold a total of 32 books. Since my books cost ( last year) $15.00 each, the grand total of income garnered at these events was $ 480.00. A little more than 10% ROI. That’s not a business plan anyone can get behind.

This year I’ve got 5 big events scheduled and 1 library sale so far.

This year will be the last year for 2 of those big events. Why? Because they have gotten way too big.

I am a little author in a big pond of people trying to sell her books. I don’t write to market, don’t write dark fantasy, mafia romance, MC, smutty romance books, or dystopian – which is what most of the authors at these events seem to be hawking. Because of that, I spend a great deal of time and money attending the events – again, table fees, hotel fees, gas/food/ the books themselves, and wind up selling 1 or 2 books if I am lucky. Like I said, that’s not a business plan that’s ever gonna be successful.

I do much better at smaller, little library events, with less authors, more time and space for readers to walk around and chat with the authors. If a reader doesn’t know who I am they are not going to stop and quiz me when they have to get around to 100 tables. 10 tables, and they will. I am doing 1 such library event so far this year. I hope another one comes around. We’ll see.

The one added event to the above list is the BIGELOW LIBRARY ROMANCE EVENT on Saturday, August 9. This is a library sponsored event – the best kind – and usually brings out a huge amount of readers who want to support this library and the authors selling their books there.

Next year I have 2 big events on the docket and I think I’ll have one more. That’s it for multi-author events. If those don’t go well, i.e. I don’t at least break even, financially, I may be done with multi-author signings all together.

We will see what the future brings….

For now, I will still keep trying to sell my books from my website to people who know about me through TikTok, Instagram, FB and through reader suggestions to their friends.

If you want to get rich, don’t be a writer! LOL

~Peg